Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-02-07

his lungs and they ceased, and his
heart and it stopped, and commanded,
saying, s.To the skies, thou immortal
spirit - And then one divine hand was
put against the back of Moses and the
other hand against the pulseless breast,
and God laid him softly down on Mount
Nebo, and then the lawgiver, lifted in
the Almighty's arms. was carried to
the opening of cave and placed in
crypt, and one stroke Of the divine hand
smoothed the features into an everlast-
ing calm, and rock was rolled to the
door, and the only obsequies, at which
God did all the offices of priest and IN
dert2ker and gravedigger and mourner,
were ended.
Oh, was not Miriam, the sister of
Moses, doing a good thing, an impor-
tant thing, a glorious, thing when she
watched the boat woven Of river plants
and made water tight with asphaltum,
carrying its one passenger? Did she not
put all the ages Of time and Of a coming
eternity under obligation when she de-
Tended her helpless brother from the
perils aquatic. reptilian and ravenous?
She it was that brought that wonder
full babe and his mother together, SO
that he was reared to be the deliverer
of his nation, when otherwise, if saved
at all from the rushes of the Nile, he
would have been only one more of the
God defying pharaohs, for Princess
Thermutis Of the bathing house would
have inherited the crown of Egypt, and
as she had no child of her own this
adopted child would have come to coro-
nation. Had there been no Miriam there
would have been no Moses. What gar
land for faithful sisterhood! For how
many lawgiver, and how many a hero,
and how many deliverer, and how
many saint are the world and the
church indebted to a watchful, loving,
faithful, godly sister? Come up out of
the farmhouses, come up out of the in
conspicuous homes, come up from the
banks of the Hudson, and Penobscot,
and the Savannah, and the Mobile, and
the Mississippi, and all the other Niles
of America, and let us see you, the Mir
Jams who watched and protected the
leaders in law, and medicine, and mer-
chandise, and art. and agriculture, and
mechanics, and religion! If 7 should ask
all physicians, and attorneys, and mer
chants, and ministers of religion, and
successful men of all professions and
trades who also indebted to an elderly
sister for good Influences and perhaps
for an education or prosperous start
to let it be known, hundreds would tes-
tify. God knows how many of our
Greek le1icons and how much of our
schooling were paid for by money that
would otherwise have gone for the re-
plenishing of a sister S wardrobe. While
the brother sailed off for a resounding
sphere the sister watched him from the
banks Of self denial.
The Elder Sisters Influence.
IGiriam was the eldest of the family
Moses and Aaron, her brothers, were
younger Oh, the power of the elder
sister to help decide the brothers. char
acter for usefulness and for heaven! She
can keep off from her brother more evils
than Miriam could have driven back
waterfowl Or crocodile from the ark of
bulrushes. The older sister decides the
direction in which the cradle boat shall
sail. By gentleness, by good sense, by.
Christian principle, she can turn it to-
ward the palace not of a wicked Pha
raoh, but of holy God, and brighter
princess than Thermutis should lift
him out of peril. even religion, whose
ways are ways of pleasantness and all
her paths are peace. The older sister,
how much the world owes her! Born
while yet the family was in limited Cir
cumstances. she, had to hold and take
care Of her younger brothers. And il
there is anything that eXcites my SYM
pathy it is a little girl Juggling round
great fat child and getting her ears
boxed because she cannot keep him
quiet. BY the time she gets to young
wCmanhOOd she is pale and worn out,
and her attractiveness has boe,. sacri-
feed en- the altar of sisterly fidelity,
and she is consigned to celibacy, and
society calls her by an unfair name, but
in heaven they call her Miriam. In most
families the two most undesirable
places in the record of births are the
first and the last-the first because she
is worn out with the cares of home
that cannot afford to hire help and the
last because she is spoiled as a pet.
Among the grandest equipsges that
sweep through the streets of heaven
will he those occupied by sisters who
sacrificed themselves for brothers. They
will have the finest Of tho Apocalyptic
white horses, and many who on earth
looked down upon them will have to
turn out to let them pass, the charioteer
crying: "CIear the way! A queen is
coming!''
Let sisters not begrudge the time and
care bestowed on brother. It is hard
to believe that any boy that you know
SO we'll as your brother can ever turn
out anything very useful Well, he may
not be Moses. There is only one of
that kind needed for 6, 900 years. But I
tell you what your brother will be-
either g blessing or a curse to society
End candidate for happiness or wretch