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

/ be a e.lroclydon. Many who start life IL
great prosperity do not end it in pros
poriJy.
The great pressure Of temptation
comes sometimes in this direction: At
about 10 years of age a man S nervous
system changes, and some one tells him
he must take stimulants to keep himself
I'D, and he takes stimulants TO keep him
self up until the stimulants keep him
down, or a man has been going along for
! 30 or 40 years in unsuccessful business,
and here is an opening where by one dis
honorable action he can lift himself and
lift bis family from all financial embar
rassment. He attempts to leap the chasm,
ard he falls Into it.
Then it is IL after life that the great
| temptation OF success comes. II q man
rake a fortune before so years Of age,
! he generally loses it before 40. The sol
! id and the permanent fortunes for the
most part do not come to their climax
until in inidlife or in old age. The most
| OF the bank presidents have white hair.
| Many CT those who have been largely
! successful have been flung Of arrogance
/ or worldliness or dissipation in old age.
! They may not have lost their integrity,
| but they have become so worldly and
| SO selfish under the influence of large
success that it is evident to everybody
! that their success has been q temporal
! calamity and an eternal damage. Con-
! corning many people, it may be said 1t
seems as if it would have been better if
| they could have embarked from this life
! at 20 or 80 years Of age
/ No Won ty,,cyr tho ron COY, yY-hy +hn vast
majority Of people die before SO? It is
! because they have not the moral endur-
| ance for that which is beyond the so,
| and a merciful God will not allow them
! to be put to the fearful strain.
On the Defensive.
| Again, there is blessing in an alb
! breviated earthly existence in the fact
| chat one is the sooner taken off the de-
! fensive. As soon as one is old enough to
take care Of himself he is put on his
guard Bolts on the doors to keep out
the robbers Fireproof safes to keep off
! the flames Life insurance and fire in
surance against accident. Receipts lest
you have to pay e debt twice. Lifeboat
against shipwreek. Westinghouse air
brake against railroad collision, and
hundreds Of hands ready to overreach
you and take all you have. Defense
! against cold, defense against heat de-
tense against sickness, defense against
the world abuse, defense all the way
down TO the grave, and even the tomb
! stone sometimes is not a sufficient bar
ricade.
II soldier who has been on guard,
shivering and stung with the cold, pac-
ing up and down the parapet with
shouldered musl1et, is glad when some
one comes to relieve guard and he can
go inside the fortress, ought not that
man TO shout for JOY who can put down
his weapon Of earthly defense and go
into the kings castle? Who is the more
fortunate, the soldier who has to stand
guard ~ hours or the man who has to
stand guard six hours? We have common
sense about everything but religion
common sense about everything but
transferenco from this world
Again, there is a blessing in an alb
breviated earthly existence IL the fact
that one escapes SO many bereavements
The longer we live the more attach
ments and the more kindred. the more
chords to be wounded or rasped or sun
dered If man live on to 20 or so
years Of age, how many graves are cleft
at his feet. In that long reach Of time
father and mother go, brothers and sis
| ters go, children go, grandchildren go,
personal friends outside the family Cir
Gle whom they had loved with love
like that Of David and Jonathan. Be-
sides that some men have q natural
trepidation about dissolution, and ever
and anon during 40 or so Or sc years
| this horror of their dissolution shudders
through soul and body. Now. suppose
| the lad goes at Is ears Of age? He es-
capes SO funerals SO casl-ets, SO obse-
quies, 30 awful wrenchings of the heart
It is hard enough for us to bear their
departure, but is it not easier for Us to
bear their departure than for them to
stay and bear 80 departures? Shall we
not by the grace Of God rouse ourselves
into generosity Of bereavement which
will practically say, 1T is hard enough
| for me to go through this bereavement,
but how glad l am that he will never
! have to go through it?" So l reason
with myself, and SO you Will find it
helpful to reason with yourselves. Da-
vid lost his son. Though David was
king he lay Oh the earth mourning and
! inconsolable fog some time. At this dis
lance Of time, which do you really think
was the one to be congratulated, the
short lived child Or the long lived IA
Their? Had David died as early as that
child died he would, III the first place.
have escaped that particular bereave-
ment, then he would have escaped the
worse bereavement Of Absalom, his rec
reant son, and the pursuit Of the Philis
tines, and the fatigues of his military
campaign, and the jealousy of Saul and
| the perfdy of Ahithophel, and the curse
/ Of Shimei and the destruction of his