Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-09-28

and cherries homes, and unmedicated
sickness, and ghastliness and horror.
1t is gate CT struggle. A gate of
perjury. A gate Of want. A gate Of dis
appointment. a red gate. or what
Isaiah would have called q gate of car
buncles.
A Life of Struggle.
Now, as I have already suggested, as
there are obstacles in all our paths, we
will be happier if we consent to have
our life q struggle. / do not know any
one to whom it is not a struggle
Louis XIV thought he had everything
fixed just right and fixed to stay, and
so he had the great clock at Bordeaux
made. The hours Of that clock were
struck by figures in bronze representing
the kings of Europe and at certain
time Of day William III of England and
other kings We're made to come out and
bow to Louis XIV. But the clock got
out Of order one day and just the oppo-
site Of what was expected occurred; as
| the clock struck a certain hour Louis
XIV was thrown to the feet Of William
III And SO the clock CT destiny brings
many surprises, and those go down that
you expected to stand, and at the foot
of disaster most regal conditions tum-
BILE In all styles Of life there come dis
| appointment and struggle. God has for
some good reason arranged it SO. If 1t
is not poverty, it is sickness If it is not
sickness, it is persecution. If it is not
persecution, it is contest with some evil
appetite. IF It is not some evil appetite,
it is bereavement. If it is not one thing,
it is another. Do not get soured and
cross and think your case is peculiar.
You are just like the rest Of us. You
will have to take the bitter draft
whether it be handed to you ii golden
chalice or pewter mug. A man who has
a thousand dollars a year income sleeps
sOunder and has a better appetite than
the man who has five millions If our
life were not q struggle, we would never
consent to get out of this world, and
we would want TO stay here, and so
block up the way Of the advancing gen
erations By the time that q man gets
to be 70 years Of age, and sometimes by
the time he gets to be so years Of age,
he says, Il have had enough Of this.
and VIXEN the Lord wills t 1 am ready
10 emigrate TO a country where there
are no taxes, and the silver Of the truu-
pet put to ones lips has no quarrel with
the gold of the pavement under his
feet. " We have III this world more OPP
portunity to cultivate patience than to
cultivate any other grace. Let that
grace be strengthened III the royal gym
nasium Of obstacle and opposition, and
by the help Of God, having overcome
our own hindrances and worrimcnts,
let Us go forth to help others whose
struggle is greater than our own.
a Story.
A friend told me the other day Of
shoemaker in q Russian city whose
bench was in the basement Of build-
ing and SO far underground that he could
see only the feet Of those who went by !
on the sidewalk. Seated on his bench,
he often looked up, and there went the |
swift and skipping feet Of children, and |
then the slow and uniform step of the |
aged, and then feet with shoes old and |
worn out, and then crippled feet, and |
he resolved lie would do a kindness to |
each one who needed it. So when the |
foot with the cid and worn out shoe |
was passing, he would hail it and make |
for it Il com Portable covering, for he |
had the hammer, and the pegs, and the |
shoe lasts, and the lap stone, and the |
leather to do it, And when he saw tho |
invalid foot pass, he would hail it and |
go out and offer medicine and crutch |
and helpfulness. And when he saw the |
aged foot pass he hailed it and told the |
old man Of heaven, where he would be
young again. When he saw the foot of |
childhood pass on the sidewalk, he
would go out with good advice and
Of
child's laugh. Well, time went on, and
as the shoemaker's wants were very
few he worked but little for himself
and most Of the time for others, and i'll
the long evenings, when he could not
SO we'll see the feet passing on the side
walk he would make shoes Of all sizes
and stand them on shelf, ready for
feet that would pass in the daytime. OF
course, as the years went Oh, under this
process the shoemaker became more and
more Christian until one day he said to
himself: 81 wish among all those feet
passing up there on TIE sidewalk L
could see the feet of the dear Christ
passing. Oh, if I could only see his
feet go by [ would know them because
they are SCARED feet!" That night the
shoemaker dreamed, and in the dream
he saw the glorious Christ, and he said,
go Christ, 1 have been waiting for
thee to pass on the sidewalk, and l have
seen lame feet, and wounded feet, and
aged feet, and poor feet, but in vain
have ] locked for thy scared feet"
And Christ said to the shoemaker:
Man, did pass on the sidewalk, and
you did see my feet, and you did come
out and hail me, and bless me, and
help me. You thought it was the foot
Of a poor old man that went shuffling
by; that was my foot. You thought it