Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-05-14

/
For many years we had felt that an
amphitheater was the only proper shape
/ for an audience room. The prominent
! architects of the country said: sS.It can
not be DONE You need churchly build
ing" And so we had plan after plan of
churchly buildings presented, but in due
time God sent a man who graSped our
/ idea and executed it. So far from being
! a failure, it satisfied our want, and all
our three churches were built on the
amphitheatrical plan, and scores of
! churches all over the country have
| adopted the same plan.
! And, my brethren and sisters, wefaii
! in our work just in proportion as we try
to be like ether churches. We believe
| that God intended every church, like ev
cry man, to be individual, gathering up
all it's peculiarities and idiOsyncrasies
and hurting them all toward some good
/ and grand object. In other words, no
two churches ought ever to be just alike
| Here is a church, for instance, whose OBJ
| ject it is to prepare philosophers and art
lists and critics for heaven. God speed
| them in the difficult work! Here is
church, on the other hand, that proposes
to bring only the poor into the kingdom
of Jesus Christ, looking not after the
rich. God speed such church in its
undertaking! But there is larger idea
that church may take-bringing In the
rich and the poor, the wise and the ignO-
rant, the high and the low, SO that kneel-
ing beside each other shall be the man
faring sumptuously every day and the
man who could not get his breakfast
God speed such church!
Oh, my friends, we need to break away
from slavery to ecclesiastical custom.
We dare not sing if anybody hears US.
We dare not preach unless we have
rounded off our sentences to suit the
criticism Of the world. We dare not
dress for church until have examined
the fashion plates and would rather stay
at home than appear with coat or a hat
not sanctioned by custom. When will
the day of deliverance come to the church
of God, when, instead of a dead religion
laid out in state on catafalque of pomp
and insincerity, we shall have a living,
bounding, sympathetic, glowing Chris
tianity?
Happy Church.
remark, further, that we have tried
here to build and to conduct cheerful
LIZ
not held back the terrors of the law and
the sterner doctrines Of the gospel, we
have tried in this house to present to this
people the idea that the gladdest. bright
est, happiest thing in all the universe is
the Christian religion. There is SO much
troublein the world. Business men have
so many anxieties. Toiling men have so
many fatigues. Orphans have so many
desolations. For Gods sake, if there be
any bright place on EARTH show it to
them! Let the church of Jesus Christ be
the most cheerful spot on earth.
Let me say that I do not want any body
to come whining around me about the
Christian religion. have no faith in a
religion made up Of equal parts of worm
wood, vinegar and red pepper. If the re-
ligion that is presented to us be depres-
sion, we will get along better withoutit it.
If it be a joy, let it shine out from your
face and from your conversation. IF a
man comes to my house to talk of re-
ligion with lugubrious countenance and
manner full of sniff1e and dolorousness, I
feel like saying to my wife, "You had
better lock up the silver before he steals
something" I have found it an invari-
able rule that men who profess faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, priding them
selves at the same time on their sancti-
mOniOuSneSS. always turn out badly
never knew an eXceptiOn-while those
who are the most consistent, the most
useful and the most consecrated have
perfume in their conversation and heav-
en- in their face.
The happiest Christians that I have
ever known have been persons from 60
to 80 years of age. By that time people
get over the sha1ns and the pretenses of
society and have no longer any patience
with anything like imposture in religion.
@ Christian, how dare you be gloomy?
Is not God your father? Is not Jesus
Christ your Saviour? Has not your path
all through life been strewn with mer-
scies? Are you insensible to the fact that
there are glories awaiting you in the bet
ter and-doxologies Of celestial wor-
ship, eternal chorals, fearless eyes, songs
that resound under arches of strength
and hosannas that clap their hands at
the foot Of the throne?
Is it nothing to you that all the hills of
heaven are radiant with the faces of
those who have gone up from you and
who are waiting for your coming, ready
to keep with you eternal holiday? Is
there nothing in songs that never cease,
in hearts that never ache, in splendors
| that never die, to make you glad? Then
take no more mercy at the hand of thy
God! Give back the marriage ring of
love that Jesus put on your finger in the
day of your espousal! Plant no more of
the flowers of heaven where there ought
to be nothing but nettles and night
shade!
The Gospel of Courage.
We try to make this church cheerful
church. A man on Saturday afternoon
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