Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-12-27

w
tiful things he has ever heard of and
cries out in ecstasy of admiration fo1
the superior qualities of our religion,
'No mention shall be made Of coral. y
Jewels Of the Sea.
Take my hand, and we will walk
through this bower Of the sea, while
show you that even exquisite coral is
not worthy Of being compared with the
richer Jewels of Christian soul The
first thing that strikes me in looking at
the coral is it's long continued accumu-
lation. It is not turned up like Coto-
paxi, but is an outbutting and an out
branching Of ages. In Polynesia there
are reefs hundreds Of feet deep and
1000 miles long. Who built these reefs,
these islands? The zoophytes, the coral
lines. They were not such workers who
built the pyramids as were these ma
sons, these creatures of the sea. What
small creations amounting to what vast
aggregation! Who can estimate the ages
between the time when the madrepOreS
laid the foundations of the islands and
the time when the madrepores put on
the capstone of completed work? It
puzzles all the scientists to guess
through how many years the corallines
were building the Sandwich and Society
islands and the Marshall and Gilbert
groups. But more slowly and wonder
fully accumulative is grace in the heart.
You sometimes get discouraged because
the upbuilding by the soul does not go
on more rapidly. Why, you have all
eternity to build in. The little annoy
ances of life are zoophyte builders, and
there will be small layer on top of
small layer and fossilized grief on the
top Of fossilized grief. Grace does not
go up rapidly in your soul, but, blessed
be God, it goes up. Ten thousand mil
lion ages will not finish you. You will
never be finished. On forever. Up for
ever. Out of the sea of earthly Dispute
tude will gradually rise the reefs, the
islands, the continents. the hemispheres
of grandeur and glory. Men talk as
though III this life we only had time to
build, but what we build in this life, as
compared with what we shall build in
the next life, is as a striped she'll to
Australia.
You go into an architects study and
there you see the sketch Of a temple
the cornerstone of which has not yet
been laid. Oh, that I could have an ar
chitectural sketch Of what you will be
after eternity has wrought upon you!
What pillars of strength What affairs
Of supernal worship What pinnacles
thrusting their glittering spikes into the
sun that never sets You do not scold
the corallines because they cannot build
an island in day. Why should you
scold yourself because you cannot COM
plete temple Of holiness for the heart
in this short lifetime: You tell me we
do not amount to much now, but try us
after 1000, 0G0, 900 ages Of halleluiah.
Let US hear the angels chant for
!, 000 900 centuries. Give us an eternity
with God, and then see if we do not
amount to something. More slowly and
accumulative is the grace
in the soul than anything I can think
of. ''No mention shall be made of coral -
Prime Virtue.
Lord, help US to learn that which
most Of US are deficient in-patience. If
thou canst take through the sea anem-
ones millions Of years to build one bank
Of coral, ought we not to be willing to
do work through 10 years or so years
complaint, without restlessness,
chatting Of spirit? Patience with
the erring; patience that we cannot
have the millennium in few weeks;
patience with assault of antagonists
patience at what seems slow fulfllment
Of Bible promises; patience with phys
ical ailments; patience under delays of
Providence; grand, glorious, all endur-
ing, all conquering patience! Patience
like that which my lately assembled
friend, DIR. Abel Stevens, describes
when writing of one of Wesley S preach
ars, John Nelson, who, when man had
him put in prison by false charges and
being for long time tormented by his
enemy, said, 1.-The Lord lifted up
standard when the anger was coming
Oh like flood, else [ should have
wrung his neck to the ground and set
my foot upon it. -
Patience like that of Pericles, the
Athenian statesman who, when man
pursued him to his own door, hurting
1t him epithets and arriving there when
It had become dark, sent his servant
with torch to light his enemy back to
his home. Patience like that eulogized
oy the Spanish proverb when it says, 81
have lost the rings, but here are the
fingers STILL. p" Patience! The sweetest
sugar for the sourest cup the balance
wheel for all mental and moral ma
,hinery, the foot that treads into placid
ty stormiest lake, the bride for other
wise rash tongues, the sublime silence !
hat conquers the boisterous and blatant.
Patience like that Of the most i1lustri-
Jus example of all the ages, Jesus Christ
patient under betrayal, patient under
he treatment of Pilates oyer and ter
miner, patient under the expectoration
# his assailants, patient under tagella-