Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-08-01

down amid stellar splendors that him.
self eclipsed, down through clouds,
through atlnospheres, through appalling
space, down to where there was no low
er depth. From being waited on at the
banquet Of the skies to the broilirg of
fish for lis own breakfast on the banks
of the lake From emblazoned chariots
Of eternity to the saddle OF mule S
back From the homage cherubic, Sc
raphic, archangelic, to the paying of
81 % cents of tax to Caesar. From the
deathless country to tomb built to
hide human dissolution. The uEIifted
wave of Galilee was high, but he had
to come down before with his feet he
could touch it, and the whirlwind that
arose above the billow was higher yet,
but he had to come down before with
his lip he could kiss it into quiet. Beth
lehem q STOPPING down. Nazareth a
STOPPING down. Death between two
burglars q STOPPING down. Yes, it was
in consonance with humiliations that
went before and self abnegations tkat
came after when On thasA memorable
day in HerCd' S temple he stopped down
and wrote on the ground.
His Finger on the Ground.
Whether the words he was writing
were i'll Greek or Latin or Hebrew
cannot say, for he knew all those Ian
guages. But he is still STOPPING down,
and with lis finger writing on the
ground, in the winter in letters of crys-
tails, in the spring in letters of flowers,
in summer in golden letters of harvest,
in autumn in letters of fire OH fallen
leaves. How it would sweeten up and
enrich and emblazon this world could
we see Christ's caligraphy all over it!
This world was not flung out into space
thousands Of years ago and then left to
lock out for itself It is still under the
divine care Christ never for half sec
Ohd takes his hand off it, Or 1T would
soon be a shipwrecked world, defunct
world, an obsolete world, an abandoned
world, dead world FLet there be
light" was said at the beginning. And
Christ stands under the wintry skies
and says let there be snowfakes to en-
rich the earth, and under the cloudSof
spring and says come, We blossoms, and
make redolent the orchards, and in Sep
TENDER dips the branches in the vat of
beautiful colors and swings them into
the hazy air. No whim of mine is this
without him was not anything made
that was made Christ writing on the
ground.
If you could see his hand in all the
passing seasons, how it would illumine
the world. All verdure and foliage
would be allegoric, and again we would
hear him say as Of old, ''Consider the
lilies CT the field, how they grow" and
we would not hear in the whistle of a
quail Or the cawing Of a raven or the
roundeIay of brown thrasher without
saying, "Behold the fowls of the air,
they gather not in barns, yet your
heavenly Father feedeth them, and a
Dominic hen Of the barnyard could not
cIuck for her brood but we would hear
Christ saying as of old, Chow often
would I have gathered thy children to-
gether, even as hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and through
the redolent hedges we would hear
Christ saying, 81 am the rose of Sha-
ron We could not dip the seasoning
from the saltcellar without thinking
Of the divine suggestion, eye are the
salt of the earth, but if the salt hath
lost it's SAVIOR it is fit for nothing but
to be cast cut and trodden under foot
of men,
Awake From Stupidity.
Let Us wake from our stupidity and
take the whole world as parable.
Then, if with gun and pack of hounds
we start off before dawn. and see the
morning coming down off the hills to
meet US, we would cry out with the
evangelist, 'The dayspring from On
high hath visited US, ;" Or, caught in a
snowstorm, while struggling home, eye
brows and beard and apparel all covered
with the whirling flakes, we would cry
out with David, "Wash me- and I
shall be whittier than snow In a pic
ture gallery Of Europe there is on the
ceiling an exquisite fresco, but the peo-
pie having to look straight up it wearied
and dizzied them and bent their necks
almost beyond endurance. So a great
looking glass was put near the floor,
and now visitors only need to look easily
down into this mirror and they see the
frescO at their feet, and so, much Of the
high heaven Of Gods truth is reflected
in this world as in a mirror, and things
that are above are copied by things
around Us.
What right have we to throw away
one Of Gods Bibles-aye, the first Bible
he ever gave the race? We talk about the
Old Testament and the New Testament,
but the Oldest Testament contains the
lessons of the natural world. Some peo-
pie like the New Testament SO we'll they
discard the Old Testament. Shall we
like the New Testament and the Old
Testament so well as to depreciate the
oldest-namely that which was written
before Noses was put afoat on the boat
Of leaves which was called with as
phaltuEl or reject the Genesis that was
L. q