Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-04-25
orsted. Where are the burial places Of


in the suicides grave. But few of these
men reached 35 years of age. They
drank, they smoked, they gambled. In
them the beast destroyed the man.
Some of them lived long enough to get
their fortunes and went through them.
The vast majority Of them did not live
to get their inheritance. From the gin
shop or hnuse of infamy they were
brought home to their fathers house,
end in delirium began to pick off loath
some reptiles from the embroidered pill
low and to fight back imaginary devils.
And then they were laid out in highly
upholstered parlor, the casket covered
with flowers by indulgent parents
flowers suggestive of a resurrection with
no hope.
AS you sat this morning at your
breakfast table and looked into the faces
of your children, perh D. you said
within yourself: "Poor things! How
wish could start them in life with
competence How I have been disap-
pointed in all my expectations of what
I would do for them!'' Upon that scene
of pathos I break with p9an of con-
graduation, that by your financial losses
your own prospects for heaven and the
prospect for the heaven Of your children
are nightly improved. You may have
lost toy, but you have won palace.
''How hardly shall they that have
riches enter into the kingdom of God ~
eft is easier for camel to go through
needless eye than for a rich man to
enter the kingdom of heaven" What
does that mean? It means that the
grandest blessing God ever bestowed
upon you was to take your money away
from you. Let me here say, in passing,
do not put much stress on the treasures
of this world You cannot take them
along with you. At any rate, you cam
not take them more than two or three
miles; you will have to leave them at the
cemetery. Attila had three collins. So
fond was he of this life that he decreed
that first he should be buried in a coffin
of gold and that then that should be in
closed in a coffin Of silver and that
should be inclosed in coffin of iron,
and then a large amount of treasure
should be thrown in over his body.
And SO he was buried, and the men who
buried him were slain, so that no one
might know where he was buried and
no one might there interfere with his
treasures. Oh, men Of the world, who
want to take your money with you, bet
ter have three collins!
Helpful Thoughts
Again, remark, you ought to make
the very best Of your bereavements.
The whole tendency is to brood over
these separations, and to give much
time to the handling of mementos of
the departed, and to make long vista
lions to the cemetery, and to say: "Oh,
l can never look up again. My hope is
gone; my courage is gone; my religion
is gone; my faith in God is gone. Oh,
the wear and tear and exhaustion of
this loneliness. - The most frequent be-
reavement is the loss of children. If
your departed child had lived as long as
you have lived, do you not suppose that
he would have had about the same
amount of trouble and trial that you
have had? If you could make a choice
for your child between 40 years of an
noyance, loss, yexation, evaporation
and bereavements and 40 years in heav-
en-, would you take the responsibility
of choosing the former? Would you
snatch away the cup Of eternal bliss
and put into that child's hands the cup
of many bereavements? Instead of the
complete safety into which that child
has been lifted would you like to hold
it down to the risks of this mortal state?
Would you like to keep it out on sea
in which there have been more ship
wrecks than safe voyages? Is it not
comfort to you to know that that child,
instead of being besoiled and flung into
the mire of sin, is swung clear into the
skies? Are not those children to be con-
graduated that the point of celestial
bliss which you expect to reach by a
pilgrimage of so or 60 Or 70 years they
reached at flash? If the last 10, 900
children who had entered heaven had
gone through the average of human life
on earth, are you sure all those 10, 900
children would have finally reached the
blissful terminus? Besides that, my
friends, you are to look at this matter
as self denial on your part for their
benefit. If your children want to go off
in a May day party. if your children
want to GO on fowery and musical ex-
cursion, you consent. You might prefer
to have them with you, but their jubi-
liant absence satisfies you. Well, your
departed children have only gone out in
a May day party, amid fowery and mu-
steal entertainments, amid joys and hi
larities forever. That ought to quell
some of your grief, the thought of their
glee.
So it ought to be that you could make
the best of all bereavements. The fact
that you have so many friends in heaven
will make your own departure very
cheerful. When you are going on voy-
age, everything depends upon where
your friends are-if they are on the
wharf that you leave or on the wharf
toward which you are going to sail. In