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

| of my sermons, the invisible audience
always vaster than the visible, some of
them tossed on wilder seas than those
! that tossed the eight members of Noah's
family, and instead of 40 days of storm
and five months of being shut in. as
they were, it has been with these in
valids five years of "shut in, or ten
years of 'shut in,'' or 30 years of
'shut in.' Oh, comforting God! Help
me to comfort them! Give me two
hands full of salve for their wounds.
When we were 300 miles out at sea, q
hurricane struck us, and the lifeboats
were dashed from the davits and all the
lights in the cabin were put out by the
rolling of the ship and the water which
through the broken skylights had poured
in. Captain Andrews entered and said
to the men on duty: "Why don't you
light up and make things brighter, for
we are going to outride this storm?
Passengers. cheer upl Cheer up!" And
he struck match and began to light
the burners He could not silence either
the wind or the waves but by the
striking of that match, accompanied by
encouraging words, we were all helped.
Light In Darkness.
And as I now find many in hurricanes
of trouble, though cannot quiet the
storm, can strike match to light up
the darkness, and / strike a match.
"Whom tSle Lord loveth he chasteneth. !"
I strike another match. Weeping may
endure for night, but Joy cometh in
the morning" l strike another match.
eve have a great High Priest who can
be touched with the feeling of our in
firmities, and he was in all points tempt
ed like as we are" Are you old? One
breath of heaven will make you ever
lastingly young again. Have you aches
and pains? They insure Christ's presence
and sympathy through the darkest De-
cember nights, which are the longest
nights of the year. Are you bereft?
Here is a resurrected Christ, whose
voice is full of resurrectionary power.
Are you lonely? All the angels Of heav-
en- are ready TO swoop into your COM
partnership. Here is the Christ of Mary
and Martha when they had lost Lazarus,
and Of David when he had lost his son,
and of Abraham when he had lost Sarah,
and of your father and mother when in
time Of old age they parted at the gates
of the tomb When last / was in Savan-
ing service, l was asked to go and see
Christian woman. for many years an in
valid. L went. [ had not in all that
beautiful city of splendid men and gra-
ciOus women seen a face brighter than
hers. Reaching her bedside, L put out
my hand, but she could not shake
hands, for her hand was palsied. 1 said
to her, ''HOw long have you been down
on this bed?' She smiled and made no
answer, for her tongue had been palsied,
but those standing around said, Eff
teen years" L said to her, "Have you
been able to keep your courage up all
that timer She gave a very little mo-
ton of her head in affirmation, for her
whole body was paralytic. The sermon
1 had preached that morning had no
power on others compared with the
power that silent sermon had on me.
What was the secret of her conquest
over pain and privation and incapacity
to move? Shall 1 tell you the secret?
will tell you. The Lord shut her in.
Luthcr's Faith.
There is a good deal of fanaticism
abroad about the recovery of the sick,
but If we had as much faith as Martin
Luther we would have Luther's sue
cess. His friend Myconius was very i'll,
and Luther fell upon his knees and said:
go Lord, no Thou must not yet take our
brother Myconius to thyself. Thy cause
will not prosper without him. Amen"
Then he wrote "My Dear Myconius-
There is no cause for fear. The Lord
will not let me hear that you are dead.
You shall not and must not die
>, ,nfh 1affor
conius that an ulcer on his lungs broke, /
and he got we'll. Would to God that
like that we might be able to pray, that
we might have similar results! Oh,
men and women, visible and invisible,
the probability is you will never write
your autobiography. 1t is the most diff
ficult book to write, because you are /
tempted to omit passages in your life |
that were not complimentary to your
self, and to quote from diary, which
is always incomplete, because there are
some things which you do not think
best to write down. AS you will not
undertake an autobiography, the story
of yourself, L will take the responsible
ity of presenting your biography, which
is the story of ones life by some one
else. If you will give your love and
trust to him of Bethlehem and Calvary,
this will be your biography: "Born at
the right time, but the most important
event in his life was when he was born
again. Died at the right time, but long
before that he had died unto sin. He
had many crises, but in all of them was
divinely directed; weaknesses, but they
were divinely sympathized with. In his
life there were many SORROWS, wave
after wave, storm after storm, but he
outrode everything and landed in eternal
safety. Why? Why? Because the Lord
shut him in"