The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1896-06-19

feet from the winter IrOsL You CAN
build church You can put mission
airy of Christ on that foreign shore. You
can help ransom world. A rich man
with his heart right-can you tell me
how much good James Lenox or
George Peabody or Peter Cooper or
William E. Dodge did while living, or
is doing now that he is dead? There is
not city, town or neighborhood that
has not glorious specimensof consecrated
wealth.
But suppose you grind the face of the
poor. Suppose when mans wages are
due you make him wait for them be-
cause he cannot help himself. Suppose
that, because his family is sick and he
has had extra expenses, he should po-
htely ask you to raise his wages for this
year and you roughly tell him if he
wants better place to go and get it.
Suppose BY your lmaganner you act as
though he were nothing and you were
everything, Suppose you are selfish and
overbearing and arrogant Your first
name ought to be Attila and your last
name Attila, because you are the star
Wormwood, and you have imbittered
one-third if not three thirds OF the
waters that roll past your employees and
operatives and dependents and associ-
ates, and the long line of carriages
which the undertaken orders for your
funeral, in order to make the occasion
respectable, will be filled with twice as
many dry, fearless eyes as there are per-
sons occupying them.
There is an erroneous idea abroad
that there are only a few genluses,
There are millions of them-that is, men
and women who have especial adapta-
ton and quickness for some one thing.
1t may be great; it may be small. The
circle may be like the circumference OF
the earth or no larger than a th!mble.
There are thousands of geniuses, and in
some one thing you are star. What
kind of a star are you? You will be in
this world but few minutes. AS COM
pared with eternity the stay of the
longest life on earth is not more than a
minute What are we doing with that
minute? Are we imbittering the domes-
tic or social or politic;tsfountains, or are
we like Moses, who, when the Israelites
in the wilderness complained that the
waters of Lake Marah were bitter and
they could not drink them, cut off the
branch of certain tree and threw that
branch into the water, and it became
sweet and slaked the thirst of the suffer
ing host? Are we with a branch of the
Tree of Life sweetening all the brackish
fountains that we can touch?
Three Wishes.
Dear Lord. send us all out on that
mission. All around us imbittered lives
-imbittered by persecution, imbittered
by hypercriticism, imbittered BY p9y-
erty, imblttered by pain, imbittered by
injustice, imbittered by sin. Why not
90 forth and sweeten them by smile, by
inspiring words, by benefactions, by
hearty counsel, by prayer, by gospel.
lied behavior Let us remember that if
we are wormwood to others we are
W0rmwood to ourselves, and our life
will be bitter and our eternity bittereF
The gospel of Jesus Christ Il the only
sweetening power that IL sufficient. II.
sweetens the disposition. 1t sweeten9
the manners. 1t sweetens life. 1t sweet
ems mysterious providences, it sweetens
Affections, It sweetens death, 1t sweet
chs everything. I have heard people
asked In social company, IF you could
have three wishes gratified, what would
yo,iT three wishes be?" If l could have
three wishes met hais morning, tel
YOU what they would be: /. More of
the grace of God. 2. More of theSgrace
of God. 8. More of the graceG God
In the doolyard of my brother John,
missionary in Annoy, China there was
a tree called the emperor Tree, the two
characteristics of which are that 1T al
WAYS grows higher than its surround
ings, and its leaves take the form OF a
crown. If this emperor tree be planted
by a rosebush, it grows little higher
than the bush and spreads out above 1t
crown. If it be planted by the side OF
another tree, it grows little higher
than that tree and spreads above it a
crown. Would God that this religion
of Christ, more wonderful emperor
tree. might overshadow all your lives
Are you lowly in ambition or circum-
stance, putting over you its crown? Are
YOU high in talent and position, putting
over you its crown? Oh, for more OF the
saccharine in our lives and less OF the
wormwoodl
What is true of individuals is true OF
, nations. God sets them up to revolve
as stars, but they may fall wormwood'
Tyre, the atmosphere of the desert
: fragrant with spices, coming In cara
vans to her fairs, all seas cleft into
foam by the keels of her laden mer
chantmen, her markets rich with horses
and camels from Togarmah, her bazaar'
, filled with upholstery from Dedan, witt
, emerald and coral and agate from Syria
with wines from Helbon, with embroid
r cred work from Ashur and Chllmad
? Where now the CLEAN OF her towers
where the roar of her chariots, wher'
, the masts of her ships? Let the fisher
, men who dry their nets where once sh'
stood. let the sea that rushes upon tn
2 barrenness where once she challenged
the admiration of all nations, let tn