Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-01-28
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| dark ages. A wrong impression is made
that because two men falsify their bank
accounts those two wrongdOers are bla-
zoned before the world, while moth
ing is said in praise OF the hundreds Of
bank clerks who have stood at their
desks year il and year out until their
health is we'll nigh gone, taking not
pin S worth of that which belongs to
others for themselves, though with skill
full stroke Of pen they might have en-
riched themselves and built their coun-
try seats on the banks Of the Hudson or
the Rhine
Blame Rather Than Praise.
1t is a mean thing in human nature
that men ard women are not praised for
doing well, but only excoriated when
they do wrong. By divine arrangement
the most of the families Of the earth are
at peace, and the most Of those united
in marriage have for each other affinity
and affection. They may have occasional
differences and here and there a season
of pout, but the vast majority of those
in the conjugal relation chose the most
appropriate cOmpanionship and are
happy in that relation. You hear moth
ing Of the quietude and happiness of
such homes, though nothing but death
will them part. But one sound of mari
tai discord makes the ears of a CONT
pent, and perhaps of a hemisphere, alert
The one letter that ought never to
have been written printed in a newspa-
per makes more talk than the millions
Of letters that crowd the postoffices and
weigh down the mail carriers with ex-
pressions of honest love. Tolstoi, the
great Russian author, is wrong when he
prints a book for the depreciation of
marriage. If your observation has put
you in an attitude of deportation for the
marriage state, one of two things is true
in regard to you. You have either been
unfortunate in your mountaineering,
or you yourself are morally rotten. The
world, not as rapid as we would like,
but still with long strides, is on the way
to the scenes of beatitude and felicity
which the Bible depicts. The man who
cannot see this is wrong, either in his
heart or liver or spleen. Look at the
great Bible picture gallery, where Isaiah
has set up the pictures Of arbOrescence,
girdling the world with cedar and fir and
pine and lockwood and the lion led by
child, and ST. Johns pictures Of waters
and trees, and white horse cavalry, and
tears wiped away, and trumpets blown,
and harps struck, and nations redeemed.
While there are 10, 600 things | do not
like, | have not seen any encouragement
for the cause of God for 20 years. The
kingdom is coming. The earth is prepar-
ing to put on bridal array. We need to
be getting our anthems and grand
marches ready. In our hymnology we
shall have more use for Antioch" than
for "Windham, - for "Ariel'' than for
'Naomi. - Let 'Harl1, From the Tombs
a Doleful Cry!" be submerged with
''Joy to the World, the Lord Is Gomez
Really, if I thought the human race were
as determined to be bad and getting
worse, as the pessimists represent, [
would think it was hardly worth saving.
IF after hundreds of years of gospeliza-
ton 10 improvement has been made,
let Us give it up and go at something
else besides praying and preaching.
My opinion is that if we had enough
faith in quick results and could go forth
rightly equipped with the gospel call |
the battle for God and righteousness |
would end with this nineteenth century,
and the twentieth century, only five or
six years Off, would begin the millenni
um, and Christ would reign, either in
person OF some throne set up between
the Alleghanies and the Rockies or in
the institutions of mercy and grandeur
set up by his ransomed people. Discour-
aged work will meet with defeat. Ex
pectant and buOyant work will gain the |
victory Start out with the idea that all
men are liars and scoundrels, and that |
everybody is as bad as he can be, and
that society, and the church, and the |
world are on the way to demolition and |
the only use you will ever be to the |
world will be to increase the value of !
lots in a cemetery. We need more |
cheerful front in all our religious work. |
People have enough trSSl0le already and |
do not want to ship another cargo of |
trouble in the shape Of religiosity. If |
religion has been to you peace, a de- |
Tense, an inspiration and a joy, say SO.
Say it by word Of mouth, by pen in your
right hand, by face illumined with a
divine satisfaction. If this world is ever
to be taken for God, it will not be by
groans, but by halleluiahs. If we could
present the Christian religion as it real
" is, in its true attractiv eness, all the
people would accept it, and accept it
right away. The cities, the nations
would cry out: "Give US that! Give it
to US in all it's holy magnetism and gra-
cious power! Put that salve on our
wounds! Throw back the shutters for
that morning light! Knock off these
chains with that silver hammer! Give
us Christ-his pardon, his peace, his
comfort, his heavenl Give US Christ in
song, Christ in sermon, Christ in book,
Christ in living eXample!''
Religion Exemp1ified.
AS system of didactics religion has
never gained one inch of progress. AS