Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-11-09


do,,s for good or tremendous for evil, tre-
mendous for happiness or tremendous
for woe. Put on the left side of the
largest sheet Of paper that ever came
from paper mill single unit, the fig
IRE /, and Few many ciphers would you
have TO add to the right Of that figure
to express the soul s value, each cipher
adding tenfold? Working into that
scheme of the SOULS redemption, how
many angels of God, descending and
ascending? How many storms swooping
on Lake Galilee? How many earth
ouakes opening dungeons and striking
cataolysms through mountains, from
top to base? What MONDAY sun was put
Oh retreat? What omnipotence lifted,
and what Godhead was put to torture?
All that for the soull
No wonder that Paul, though possess
ing great equipoise Of temperament,
when he thought what his friends and
kindred were risking concerning their
souls, flung aside all his ordinary modes
Of speech, argument and apt simile and
bold metaphor and learned allusion as
unfit to express how he felt, and Selling
upon the appalling hyperbolism Of my
text cries out, II could wish myself &C
cursed THAT is, struck Of the thunder
bolts Of the omnipotent God, sunk to
unfathomed depths, chained into servi-
tude to Abaddon and thrust into fur
naces whose fires shall never burn out,
if only those whom I love might now
and forever be saved. Mind you, Paul
does not say, 81 do wish. " He says,
81 could wish. !" Even in the agony he
felt for others he did not lose his bal
ance 81 could wish myself accursed. -
I could, but do not. Only one being
that ever lived was literally willing to
give up heaven for perdition, and that
was the divine peasant whom I men
toned few moments ago. He was not
only willing to exchange dominiOns of
bliss for dominions of wretchedness, but
he did SO, for that he forsook heaven
witness the stopping star and all those
who saw his miracles Of na@ cy, and
that he actually entered the gates Of the
world of perpetual confiagration the BIZ
BILE distinctly declares. He did not say,
with Paul, IT couId,'' bat he said, 81
will, do, and for the souls of men
he descended into hell"
PauIs Cutlery.
In this last half of the last decade of
the nineteenth century the temperature
in the churches is very low, and most
of the piety would spoil if it were not
kept on ice, and taking things as they
are ordinary Christians will never reach
the point where the outcry Of Paul in
the text Will not seem like extravaganza.
The proprieties in most Of the churches
are SO fixed that all a Christian is ex-
pected to do on Sunday IS to get up
little later III the morning than usual,
put on that which is next to his best at
tire-not the very best, for that has TO
be reserved for the levee-enter the
church with stately step, bow his head
or at any rate smut his eyes in prayer
time or close them enough to look sleepy.
turn toward the pulpit with holy dull
ness while the preacher speaks, put
cent piece or if the times be hard l
cent piece, on the collection platter,
kind of showing it down under the other
coin SO that it might be, for all that the
usher knows, So goldpiece, and then,
after the benediction, 60 quietly home
to the biggest repas6 of all the week.
That is all the majority Of Christians
are doing for the rectification Of this
planet, and they will do that until, at
the close Of life, the pastor opens a
black book at the head Of their casket
and reads, BLESSED are the dead who
die in the Lord they rest from their la
bors, and their works do follow them. :"
The sense Of the Iudicrous is so thor
HI Hnuo10-o1 ho+ T
hear these Scripture words read at the
obsequies of one of the religious do
nothings IL the churches it is too much
for my gravity. s'Their works do follow
Them What works? And in what di-
rection do they follow them-up or
down? And do they follow on foot or on
the wing? And how long will they follow
before they catch up? More appropriate
funeral text for all such religious dead
beats would be the words in Matthew
XIV. S, 'Our lamps are gone out. +" One
would think that such Christians would
show at least under whose banner they
are enlisted. In one of the Napoleonic
wars woman, Jeanette by name, took
her position with the troops and shout
dered broomstick. The colonel said,
'Jeannette, why do you take such
useless weapon into the ranks?;'
"Well, - she said, 81 can show at least
which side I am on. -
Now. the object of this sermon is to
stir at least one-fourth of you to an am
bition for that which my text presents
in blazing ocabulary-namely, pas
sion for souls. To prove that it is pos
slble to have much Of that spirit, bring
the conservation Of 1880 foreign mis-
sionaries. It is usually estimated that
there are at lest 8, 900 missionaries. I
make liberal allowance and admit
there may be 10 bad missionaries out of
the 5000, but I do not believe there is
one. All English and American mer-
chants leave Bombay, Calcutta, Annoy
and Peking as soon as they make their