Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-08-15

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been SO bad. The man could have
bought the very best medical advice,
and he could have had the very best at
tendance, and long lines of carriages
would have stopped at the front door to
inquire as to his welfare. But poverty
OH the one side and sickness on the other
are Bozez and Seneh, and they interlock
their shadows and drop them upon the
poor mans way. God help him |!
"There is sharp rock on the one side
and sharp rock on the other side. -
Now, what is such man to do? In
the name Gf Almighty God, will tell
him what to do. Do as Jonathan did
climb; climb up into the sunlight of
Gods favor and consolation. I can go
through the churches and show you
men who lost fortune and health at the
same time and yet who sing all day
and dream Of heaven all night. If you
have any idea that sound digestion and
steady nerves and clear eyesight and
good hearing and plenty of friends are
necessary to make a man happy, you
have miscalculated. suppose that these
overhanging rocks only made Jonathan
scram bic the harder and the faster to
get up and out into the sunlight, and
this com bined shadow of invalidism and
financial embarrassment has often sent
man up the quicker into the sunlight
Of Gods favor and the MONDAY Of his
glorious promises
When God Is Sought.
It is a difficult thing for man to
feel his dependence upon God when he
has $40, 900 in the bank and $50, 900
in government securities and block
of stores and three ships. "Well, >" the
man says to himself, cit is silly for me
to pray, Give me this day my daily
bread when my pantry is full and the
canals from the west are crowded with
breadstuffs destined for my store
houses - Oh, my friends, if the COM
bined misfortunes and disasters of life
have made you climb up into the arms
of a sympathetic and compassionate
God, through all eternity you will bless
him that in this world, 9Th ere was a
sharp rock Oh the one side and sharp
rock on the other side. -
Again, that man is in the crisis of
the text who has home troubles and
outside persecution at the same time
The world treats man we'll just as
long as it pays to treat him well. AS
long as it can manufacture success out
of his bone and brain and muscle it ia
vors him. The world fattens the horse
it wants to drive. But let man see it
his duty to cross the track of the world,
then every bush is full of horns and
tusks thrust at him. They will belittle
him. They will caricature him. They
will call his generosity self aggrandize-
ment and his piety sanctimoniousness.
The very worst persecution will some
times come upon him from those who
profess to be Christians.
John Milton-great and good John
Milton-so far forgot himself as to pray
in so many words that his enemies
might be eternally thrown down into
the darkest and deepest gulf Of hell and
be the undermost and most detected and
the lowest down vassals of perdition.
And Martin Luther so far forgot him
self AS to say in regard to his theolog
Aal opponents, "Put them in whatever
sauce you please, roasted, or fried, or
baked, or stewed, Or boiled, or hashed,
they are nothing but asses All, my
friends, if John Milton or Martin Lu-
ther could come down to such scurrility
what may you not expect from less ele-
waited opponents? Now, sometimes the
world takes after them; the newspapers
take after them; public opinion takes
after them, and the unfortunate man is
lied about until all the dictionary of
Billingsgate is exhausted on him. You
often see man whom you know to be
good and pure and honest set upon by
the world and mauled by whole COM
munities, while vicious men take on
supercilious air in condemnation Of him,
as though Lord Jeffreys should write
an essay on gentleness Or Henry VIII
talk about purity or King Herod take
to blessing little children.
An Inspiration.
Now, certain amount Of persecution
rouses mans defiance, stirs his blood
for magnificent battle and makes him
so times more a man than he would
have been without the persecution. So
it was with the great reformer when he
said, II will not be put down; will
De heard.'' And so it was with Willard,
the preacher, in the time of Louis XI.
When Louis XI sent word to him that
unless he stopped preaching in that
style he would throw him into the
river, be replied, ''Tell the king that I
will reach heaven sooner by water than
he will reach it by fast horses.' A GER
tain amount of persecution is tonic
and inspiration, but too much of it and
too long continued becomes the rock
Bozez throwing a dark shadow over
mans life. What is he to do, then? Go
home, you say. Good advice that. That
is just the place for man to go when
the world abuses him. Go home. Blessed
be God for our quiet and sympathetic
homes! But there is many man who
has the reputation of having a home
when he has none. Through unthink-