The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1895-05-24

telling how happy they are. But show
them a subscription paper Or ask them
to go and visit the sick, or tell them tc
reclaim a wanderer, or speak out fol
some unpopular Christian enterprise,
and they have bronchitis or stitch in the
side or sudden attack of grip Their
religion is all wing and no hand. They
can fly heavenward but they cannot
reach out earthward.
Lifting the Burden.
While Thomas Chalmers occupied the
chair of moral philosophy in st. An
drew's university he had at the same
time Sabbath school class of poor boys
down in the slums of Edinburgh. While
Lord Fitzgerald was travelling in Cana
da he saw poor Indian squaw carrying
crushing load, and he to4ls the burden
ON his own shoulders. Th,.t was Christ
like. That was "a hand under the
wing. The highest type of religion
says little about itself, but is busy for
God and in helping to the heavenly
shore the crew and passengers of this
shipwrecked planet. Such people are
busy now up the dark lanes of this city,
and all through the mountain glens,
and down in the quarries where the
sunlight has never visited, and amid
the rigging helping to take in another
reef before the Caribbean whirlwind.
A friend was telling me Of an exquisite
thing about Seattle, then of Washington
territory, now of Washington state.
The people Of Seattle had raised gen.
erous sum of money for the Jamestown
sufferers from the flood. A few days
after Seattle was destroyed by fire. I
saw it while the whole city was living
in tents. In public meeting some one
proposed that the money raised for
Johnstown be used for the relief of their
own city, and the cry was No! Mol
Mol Send the money to Johnstown, and
by exclamation the money was SO sent.
Nothing more beautiful or sublime than
that. Under the wing of fire that smote
Seattle the sympathetic hand, the help
ing hand, the mighty hand of Christian
relief for people thousands of miles
away.
Why, there are 100, 900 men and wo-
men whose one business is to help 9TH
ers. Helping hands, inspiring hands,
lifting hands, emancipating hands, saw
ing hands. Sure enough, those people
had wings of faith and wings of prayer
and wings of consolation. but "the like
ness CT the hands of man was under
the wings. There was much sense in
that which the robust boatman said
when three were in boat off the coast
in a sudden storm that threatened to
sink the boat, and one suggested that
they all lneel down in the boat to pray,
and the robust man took hold of the oar
and began to pull, saying, "Let you,
the strong, stout fellow, lay hold the
other oar, and let the weak one who
cannot pull give himself up to prayer.
Pray by all means, but at the same
time pull with all your might for the
worlds rescue. An arctic traveller hunt
ing beaver while the ice was breaking
up, and supposing that there was no
human being within 100 miles, heard |
the ice craczle, and 10! lost man, in
sane with hunger and cold, was wading |
in the ice water The esAGs-er took the |
man into his canoe and made for land,
and the people gathered on the shore.
All the islanders had been looking for
the lost man, and finding him, accord
ing to Encouragement all the bells rang |
and all the guns fired. Oh, you can
make a gladder time among the towers |
and hilltops of heaven if you can fetch |
home wanderer!
The Other Side of the Story.
In our time it is the habit to denounce |
the cities and to speak of them as the
perdition of all wickedness. Is it not
time for some one to tell the other side
Of the story and to say that the city is
the heaven of practical helpfulness?
Look at the EMPOWERED and fountained
parks, where the invalids may come
and be refreshed the Bowery mission,
through which annually over 100, 900
come to get bread for this life and bread
or the life to come, all the pillows of
hat institution under the blessing of
him who had not where to lay his head;
he free schools, where the most impov-
,rished are educated; the hospitals for
broken bones; the homes for the restora-
ion OF intellects astray; the Orphan
House, father and mother to all who
'ome under its benediction the mid
light missions, which pour midnoon
lpon the darkened; the Prison Reform
the houses of mercy; the
nfirmaries; the sheltering arms; the
nd societies; the industrial schools;
he Sailors Snug Harbor; the found
ing asylums; the free dispensaries,
where greatest scientific skill feels the
pulse of wan pauper; the ambulance,
he startling stroke of its bell clearing
he way to the place of casualty, and
good souls like the mother who came to
he Howard mission, with its crowd of
riendless boys picked up from the
streets, and saying, "If you have a
crippled boy, give him to me; my dear
Joy died with the spinal complaint"
md such one she found and took
Tim home and nursed him till he was
veil 1t would take a sermon three
weeks long to do justice to the mighty
Kings which our cities are doing for
he unfortunate and the lost. Do not say
hat Christianity in our cities is all
how and talk and genuflexion and sa-
red noise. You have been so long look
ng at the hand of cruelty, and the hand
f theft. and the hand of fraud. and the