Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-12-12

reports to the world that that morning
on his way to business he called to see
you and found you, after being kept in
your room for two months, cheerful
and hopeful, and that you had not one
word of complaint, and asked all about
every body, and rejoiced in the success
of your business friends, although your
own business had almost come to a
standstill through your absence from
store or Office or shop, and that you
sent your love to all your old friends,
and told them that if you did not meet
them again in this world you hoped to
meet them in dominions seraphic, with
3 quiet word of advice from you to the
man who carried the message about
the importance of his not neglecting his
own soul, but through Christ seeking
something better than this world could
give him-why, all the business men in
the counting room say: GOOD! Now,
that is religioni" And the clerks get
hold of the story and talk it over, SO
that the weigher and cooper and hack
man standing on the doorstep say:
".rhat is splendid! Now, that is what
[ call religionr'
1t is good thing to preach on Sun
day morning, the people assembled in
most respectful BILE attire and seated ON
soft cushions the preacher standing in
neatly upholstered pulpit surrounded by
personal friends and after an inspiring
hymn has been sung, and that sermon
if preached in faith will do good, but
the most effective sermon is preached by
one seated in dressing gown in an arm
chair into which the invalid has with
much care been lifted, the surrounding
shelves filled with medicine bottles,
some to produce sleep, some for the re-
lief of sudden paroxysm, some for slim
ulant some for tonic, some for anodyne
and some for tebrifuge, the pale preach
er quoting promises of the gospel, telling
of the glories of a sympathetic Christ,
assuring the one or two or three persons
who hear it Of the mighty REINFORCE
ments of religion. You say that to such
a sermon there are only one or two or
three hearers. Ayel But the visitor call
ing at that room, then closing the door
softly and going away, tells the story,
and the whole neighborhood hears it,
and it will take all eternity to realize
the grand and uplifting influence of
that sermon about God and the soul,
though preached to an audience of only
one man or one woman. The Lord has
Or,. ned all such invaIids for style CT
usefulness which athletics and men of
200 healthy avoirdupois cannot affect.
1t was not an enemy that fastened you
in that room or sent you on clutches,
no
many weeks being from bed to sofa and
from sofa to looking glass, where you
are shocked at the paller Of your own
cheek and the pinchedness Of your fea-
lures, then back again from mirror to
sofa, ard sofa to bed, with long sigh
saying, CHOW good it feels to get back
again to my old place Oh the pillow.
Remem Der who it is that appointed the
day when for the first time in many
years you could not go TO business, and
who has kept record Of all tie weary
days and all the sleepless nights of your
exile from the world. Oh, weary man
Oh, feeble woman 1t was the Lord who
shut you in. Do you remember that
some of the noblest and best of men
have been prisoners? Ezekiel a prisoner,
Jeremiah a prisoner, Paul prisoner,
ST. John prisoner, John Bunyan a
prisoner. Though human hate seemed
to have all to do with them, really the
Lord shut them in.
Noah's Voyage.
No doubt while on that voyage Noah
and his three sons and all the four ladies
of the antediluvian world often thought
of the bright hillsides and the green
fields where they had walked and of the
homes where they had lived. They had
had many years of experiences. Noah
was 600 years old at the time of this
CONFUSION of nature. He had seen 600
springtimeS, 600 summers, 600 au-
tumns, 600 winters. We are not told
how old his wife was at this wreck of
earth and sky The Bible tells the age
of great many men, but only once
gives a woman's age. At one time it
gives Adams age as $50 years and
Iared's age as 162 years and Enoch's
age as 365 years, and all up and down
the Bible it gives the age of men, but
does not give the age of women. Why?
Because, l suppose, woman's age is
none of our business. But all the men
and women that tossed in that oriental
craft had lived long enough to remem-
Der great many of the mercies and
kindnesses of God, and they could not
blot OUT and / think they had no dis
position to blot out the memory of those
brightnesses, though now they were
shut in. Neither should the shut in of
our time forget the blessings of the
past. Have you been blind for ten years?
Thank God for the time when you saw
as clearly as any of US can see and let /
the pageant of all the radiant landscapes
ard illumined skies which you ever
looked upon kindle your rapturous graft
tude. do not see Raphael's Madonna
di San Sisto' in the picture gallery of