Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-08-24

| The hueS OF heaven are III the petals.
There is something about their fore
head that makes you think that the
/ hand of Christ has been on it, saying,
'sLet this one come to me, and let it
come to me soon. - While that one tar
| ried in the house you felt there was IN
angel in the room, and you thought that
every sickness would be the last. And
| when, finally, the winds of death did
scatter the leaves, you were no more
surprised than to see a star come out
above the cloud on q dark night, for you
had often said to your companion, my
dear, we shall never raise that child
But scout the idea that good children
always die. Samuel the piOus boy be-
came Samuel the great prophet. Chris
tian Timothy became a minister at
Ephesus. Young Daniel, consecrated to
God, became prime minister of all the
realm, and there are in hundreds of the
schools and families of this country TO-
day children who love God and keep
his commandments, and who are to be
foremost among the Christians and the
phiIanthropists and the reformers of the
next century. The grace of God never
kills any one A child will be more apt
be apt to grow up without it. Length of
days is promised to the righteous. The
religion of Christ does not cramp the
chest, Or curve the spine, or weaken the
nerves There are no malarias floating
up from the river of life. The religion
of Christ throws over the heart and life
of child a superi3al beauty. "Her
ways are ways of pleasantness, and all
her paths are peace.
Molding of Childhood.
I pass Oh to consider the suscepti bility
of childhood. Men pride themselves on
their unchangeability. They will make
an elaborate argument to prove that
they think now just as they did 20
years ago. It is charged to frailty or
fraud when a man changes his senti-
ments in politics or in religion, and it
is this determination of soul that so Of
ten drives back the gospel from mans
heart-it is so hard to make avarice
charitable and fraud honest and pride
humble and skepticism Christian. The
sword of Gods truth seems to glance off
from those mailed warriors, and the
helmet seems battle proof against Gods
battleax. But childhood-how suscep-
tible to example and to instruction!
You are not surprised at the record,
abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat
Jacob, - for when religion starts in
family it is apt to go all through. Jeze-
bel murderess, you are not surprised
to find her son Jehoram attempting as
sassination. Oh, what responsibility
upon the parent and the teacherl The
musician touches the keys and the re-
spouse Of those keys is away off amid
the pipes and the chords, and you won
der at the distance between the key and
the chord. And so it is in life. If you
touch a child, the results will come
back from manhood or old age, telling
just the tune played, whether the dirge
of q great sorrow Or the anthem of
great joy. The word that the Sabbath
school teacher will this afternoon whis-
per in the ear of the class Will be echoed
back from everlasting ages Of light or
darkness. The home and the school de-
eide the republic or the despotism, the
barbarism or the civilization, the up
building of an empire or the overthrow
ing Of it. Higher than parliament or
congress are the school and the family,
and the sound of child's foot may
mean more than the tramp of host.
What, then, are you doing for the pur-
pose of bringing your children into the
kingdom Of God? IF they are SO suscep-
tible, and if this is the very best time to
act upon their eternal interests, what
are you doing by way of right impul-
sion?
There were some harvesters in the
fields of Scotland one hot day, and Han
nah Lemond was helping them gather
the hay. She laid her babe under tree.
While she was busy in the field there
was a hutter of wings in the air, and a
golden eagle clutched the swaddling
band of the babe and flew away with it
to the mountain eyrie. All the harvest
ers and Hannah Lemond started for the
cliffs. It was two miles before they
came to the foot Of the cliffs Getting
there, who dared teSnount the cliff? No
human foot had ever trod it. There
were sailors there who had gone up the
mast in the day of terrible tempest.
They did not dare risk it. Hannah Lee
mond sat there for awhile and looked
up and saw the eagle in the eyrie, and
then she leaped to her feet, and she
started up where no human foot had
ever trod. crag above crag, catching
hold of this root or that root until she
reached the eyrie and caught her babe,
the eagle swooping in fierceness all
around about her. Fastening the child
to her back, she started for her friends
and for home. Oh, what dizzy de-
scent, sliding from this crag to that
crag, catching by that vine and by that
root, coming down farther and farther
to the most dangerous pass, where she
found a goat and some kids. She said:
"Now I'll follow the goat; the goat
will know just which is the safest way
down. And she was led by the animal
down to the plain. When she got there