Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-11-01

lieying that the universe swings around
some great center. Any one who has
studied the earth and studied the heav-
ems knows that Gods favorite figure
in geometry is a circle. When God put
forth his hand to create the universe,
he did not strike that hand at right an
giles. but he waved it in circle and
kept on waving in circle until systems
and consultations and galaxies and all
worlds took that motion. Our planet
swinging around the sun, other planets
swinging around other suns. but some
where a great hub, around which the
great wheel of the universe turns. Now
the center is heaven. That is the CAPT
tai Of the universe That is the great
metropolis of immensely
Does not our common sense teach US
that in matters of study it is better for
us to move out from the center toward
the circumference rather than to be on
the circumference, where our would
now is? We are like those who study
the American continent while standing
on the Atlantic beach. The way to study
the continent is to cross it or go to the
heart of it, Our standpoint in this
world is defective. We are at the wrong
end of the telescope. The best way to
study a piece Of machinery is not to
stand on the doorstep and try to look in,
but to go in with the engineer and take
our place right amid the saws and the
cylinders. We wear our eyes out and
our brain out from the fact that we are
studying under such great disadvantage
Millions of dollars for observatories
to study things about the moon. about
the sun, about the rings of Saturn,
about transits and occultations and
eclipses, simply because our studio, our
observatory, is poorly situated. We are
down in the cellar trying to study the
palace Of the universe, while our de-
parted Christian friends have gone up
stairs amid the slzylights to study. Now,
when one can sooner get to the center
of things, is he not to be congratulated?
Who wants to be always in the fresh
man class? We study God in this world
by the Biblical photograph Of him, but
we all know we can in five minutes Of
interview with a friend get more accu-
rate idea Of him than we can by study
ing him so years through pictures or
WORDS. Inc IlUGIO Cu11Q bDdC ul0u LdSG
night knows more of God than all An
dover, and all Princeton, and all New
Brunswick, and all Edinburgh, and all
the theological institutes in Christen-
dom. Is it not better to go up to the very
headquarters Of knowledge?
AT the Center.
Does not our common sense teach US
that it is better to be at the center than
to be clear out on the rim of the wheel,
holding nervously fast to the tire, lest
we be suddenly hurled into light and
eternal felicity? Through all kinds of
optical instruments trying to peer in
through the cracks and the keyholes OF
heaven-afraid that both doors of the
celestial mansion will be swung wide
open before our entranced vision-rush-
ing about among the apothecary shops
of this world, wondering if this is good
for rheumatism and that is good for
neuralgia and something else is good
for a bad cough, lest we be suddenly
ushered into land Of everlasting health
where the inhabitant never says, s. [ am
sick.
What fools we all are to prefer the
circumference to the center. What a
dreadful thing it would be if we should
be suddenly ushered from this wintry
world into the Maytime orchards of
heaven and if our pauperism of sin and
sorrow should be suddenly broken up by
q presentation Of an emperor's castle
surrounded by parks, with springing
fountains and paths up and down which
angels Of God walk two and two. We
are like persons standing on the cold
steps of the national picture gallery in
London, under umbrella in the rain,
afraid to go in amid the Turner's and
the Titians and the Raphaels. l come to
them and say, "Why, don t you go in
side the gallery" ooh" they say,
''we don't know whether we can get
in" I say, Don't you see the door is
open?" EYES," they say, "but we have
been so long on these cold steps, we are
SO attached to them, we don't like to
leave y But, - say, sit is so much
brighter and more beautiful in the gal
lery you had better go in. . mo, they
say, 1--WE know exactly how it is out
here, but we dom t know exactly how it
is inside. -
So we stick to this world as though
we preferred cold drizzle to warm habi
tation, discord to cantata, sackcloth to
royal purple-as though we preferred a
piano with four or five Of the keys out
of tune to an instrument fully attuned,
as though earth and heaven had ex
changed apparel and earth had taken on
bridal array and heaven had gone into
deep mourning, all it's waters stagnant,
all it's harps broken, all chalices cracked
at the dry wells, all the lawns sloping
to the river plowed with graves, with
dead angels under the furrow. Oh, /
want to break up my own infatuation,
and I want to break up your infatuation
with this world. | tell you if we are
ready, and if our work is done, the
sooner we 90 the better, and if there are