Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-04-05

; fore Jerusalem can be DssIr There must
1 be the clicking of the hoofs before there
can be the ring of the trowels.
triumphant Sadness.
Again, my subject gives me speci-
men of busy and triumphant sadness.
| If there was any man in the world who
had right to NOPE and give up every
! thing as lost, it was Nehemiah. Yon
say, HE was cupbearer in the palace
] of Shushan, and it was grand place. "
/ So it was The hall of that palace was 200
! feet square, and the roof lowered over
SO marble pillars, each pillar 60 feet
{ high, and the intense blue OF the sky
and the deep green of the forest foliage,
and the white of the driven snow, all
hung trembling in the upholstery. But,
my friends, you know very well that
fine architecture will not put down
Inconsistencies Yet Nehemiah did not
give up. Then, when you see him going
among these desolated streets and by
these dismantled towers and by the torn
up grave of his father, you would sup
pose that he would have been disheart-
ened and that he. would have dismount-
ed from his horse and gone to his room
and said: '3Woe is me! My fathers
grave is torn up. The temple is dishon-
ored. The walls are broken down. /
have no money with which to rebuild.
I wish had never been born. l wish l
were dead Not so says Nehemiah.
Although he had a grief SO intense that
it excited the commentary of his king,
yet that penniless, expatriated Nehe-
miah rouses himself up to rebuild the
city. He gets his permission of absence.
He gets his passports. He hastens away
to Jerusalem. By night on horseback he
| rides through the ruins. He overcomes
| the most ferocious opposition. He
arouses the piety and patriotism of the
people, and in less than two months
namely, SO days-Jerusalem was rebuilt.
That's what call busy and triumphant
sadness
Faint, Yet Pursuing.
My friends, the whole temptation is
with you when you have trouble to do
just the opposite to the behavior of Ne
hemiah, and that is to give up. You
say, st have lost my child and can
never smile again" You say, 81 have
lost my property, and never can re-
pair my fortunes. You say, IT have
fallen into sin, and I never can start
again for a new life'' If satan can
make you form that resolution and
make you keep it, he has ruined you.
Trouble is not sent to crush you, but to
arouse you, to animate you, to prOpel
you. The blacksmith does not thrust
the iron into the forge and then blow
away with the bellows and then bring
the hot iron out on the anvil and beat
with stroke after stroke to ruin the iron,
but to prepare it for a better use. Oh,
that the Lord God of Nehemiah would
rouse up all broken hearted people to
rebuild! Whipped, betrayed, shipwreck-
ed, imprisoned, Paul went right on.
The Italian martyr Algerius sits in his
dungeon writing letter, and he dates
it, ''From the delectable orchard of the
Leonine prison That is what I call
who buried her babe ON Friday and on
Sabbath appeared in the house of God
and said: "Give me a class; give me
Sabbath school class. I have no child
now left me, and would like to have
class of little children. Give me real
poor children. Give me class off the
back street. That, say, is beautiful
That is triumphant sadness.
At o'clock every Sabbath after
noon, for years, in beautiful parlor in
Philadelphia-a parlor pictured and
Observation-Disclosures were from 10 to 90
destitute children of the street. Those
destitute children received religious in
struction, concluding with cakes and
sandwiches. How do know that that
was going on for 16 years? I know it
in this way: That was the first home in
Philadelphia where I was called to
comfort a great sorrow. They had
splendid boy, and he had been drowned
at Long Branch. The father and mother
almost idolized the boy, and the sob and
shrek Of that father and mother as they
hung over the coffin resound in my ears
today. There seemed to be no use of
praying, for when I knelt down to pray
the outcry III the room drowned out all
the prayer But the Lord comforted
that sorrow They did not forget their
trouble. If you should go any afternoon
into Laurel Hill, you would find a
monument with the word Walter in
scribed upon it and wreath of fresh
flowers around the name. I think there
was not an hour in 20 years. winter or
summer, when there was not wreath
of fresh flowers around Walters name.
But the Christian mother who sent
those flowers there, having no child
left, Sabbath afternoons mothered 10
or 30 Of the lost ones of the street. That
is beautiful That is what call busy
and triumphant sadness. Here is man
who has lost his property. He does not
go to hard drinking. He does not de-
stroy his own life. He comes and says:
Harness me for Christian work My
moneys gone I have no treasures on