Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-01-28

Cio0GlNAAO. vi, y ~ VIZ COJt
'stbat is his na1ne-Mr. Gladstonep' Do
you tell me a man can see religion like
that and not like it? There is an old
fashioned mother in farmhouse. Per-
haps she is somewhere III the seventies,
perhaps rs or 7G. It is the early even
ing hour. Through spectacles No. s she
is reading a newspaper until toward
bedtime. when she takes up q we'll worn
book, called the Bible. I know from the
illumination in her face she is reading
one OF the thanksgiving psalms, or in
Revelation the story OF the IL pearly
gates After awhile she closes the book
and folds her hands and thinks over the
past and seems whispering the names of
her children, some Of them On earth and
some of them in heaven. Now a smile
is OH her face, and now q tear, and
sometimes the smile catches the tear.
The scenes of q long life come back to
her. One minute she sees all the chill
dren smiling around her, with their toys
and sports and strange questionings
Then she remembers several of them
down sick with infantile disorders.
Then she sees short grave, but over it
cut in marble, Suffer them to come to
me- Then there is the wedding hour,
and the neighbors in, and the promise
of IT will, - and the departure from the
old homestead, then a scene Of hard
times, and scant bread and struggle
Then she thinks of "a few years with
gush Of sunshine and fittings of dark
shadows and vicissitIdes.
This rs Piety.
Then she kneels down slowly, for
many years have stiffened the joints,
and the illnesses of lifetime have made
her less supple. Her prayer is mixture
of thanks for sustaining grace during all
those years, and thanks for children good
and Christian and kind, and prayer
for the wandering boy, whom she hopes
to see come home before her departure
And then her trembling lips speak Of
the land of reunion where she expects to
meet her loved ones already translated,
and after telling the Lord in very sim
pie language how much she loves him,
and trusts him, and hopes to see him
soon, hear her pronounce the quiet
"Amen, and she rises up-a little more
difficult effort than kneeling down. And
then she puts her head Oh the pillow for
the night, and the angels Of safety and
peace stand sentinel about that couch in
the farmhouse, and her face ever and
anon shows signs of dreams about the
heaven she read of before retiring. In
the morning the days work has begun
down stairs, and seated at the table tho
remark is made, "Mother must have
oversight herself. - And the grandchil-
dren also notice that grandmother is alb
sent from her usual place at the table
One of the grandchildren goes to the foot
of tho stairs and cries, Grandmother
But there is no answer. Fearing some
thing is the matter, they go up to see
and all seems right. The spectacles and
Bible on the stand, and the covers of the
bed are smooth, and the face is calm,
her white hair on the white pillow case
like snow on snow already fallen. But
her soul is gone up to look upon the
things that the night before she had
been reading Of in the Scriptures. What
a transporting look on her dear old
wrinkIed face! She has seen the king
in his beauty" She has been welcomed
by the Lamb who was slain. And her
two oldest sons, having hurried up stairs,
look and whisper, Henry to George,
THAT is religion!" George to Henry,
Yes, that is religion!"
He Dispensed blessings.
There is a New York merchant who
has been in business ! should say 20 or
so years During an old fashioned re
vival of religion III boyhOod he gave his
heart to God. He did not make the
CHASTITY and infinite and everlasting mis-
take of sowing wild oats, - with tEo
expectation Of sowing good wheat later
on. He realized the fact that the most
Of those who SOW wild oats" never
cap any other crop. He started right
and has kept right. He went down in
1857, when the banks failed, but he
failed honestly and never lost his faith
in God Ups and downs-he sometimes
laughs over them-but whether losing
d. gaining he was growing better all the
time. He has been i'll many business
ventures, but he never ventured the ex-
pertinent of gaining the world and los
ng his soul. His name was power
both in the church and in the business
world. He has drawn moro checks for
to asyIums and churches
md schools than any one, except God,
knows. He has kept many business
nan from failing by lending his name
IN the back of note till the crisis was
past All heaven knows about him, for
;he poor woman whose rent he paid in
Ter last days, and the man with con-
in the hospital to whom he
sent flowers and the cordials just before
and the people he encouraged |
n many ways, after they entered heaven
Kept talking about it, for the inmortals |
ire neither deaf nor dumb Well, it is |
lbout time for the old merchant himself |
% quit earthly residence.
AS it is toward evening, he shuts the
afe, puts the roll of newspapers in his
pocket, thinking that the family may
Ike to read them after he gets home |