Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-06-13

|
of deliverance ought to brandish their
| trumpets. In most Of our churches we
! have three prayers-the opening pray
er, what is called the ''long prayer
and the closing prayer. There are many
people who spend their first prayer in
arranging their apparel after entrance
and spend the second prayer, the ''long
! prayer, . in wishing it were through
and spend the last prayer in preparing
! to start for home. The most insignif-
cant part Of every religious service is
| the sermon, The more important parts
are the Scripture lesson and the prayer
| The sermon. is only man talking to
man. The Scripture lesson is God talk
! ing to man. Prayer is man talking to
| God Oh, if we understood the grandeur
and the pathos Of this exercise of pray
er, instead Of being dull exercise, we
would imagine that the room was full
of divine and angelic appearances.
Church Must Progress.
But, my friends, the old style of
church will not do the work. We might
| as we'll now try to take all the passen-
gers from Washington to New York by
stagecoach, or all the passengers from
Albany to Buffalo by canalboat, or do
all the battling Of the world with bow
and arrow as with the old style of
church to meet the eXigencies Of this
day Unless the church in our day will
adapt itself to the time it will become
extinct. The people reading newspapers
and books all the week, III alert, pictur-
| esque and resounding style, will have
no patience with Sabbath humdru1n.
We have no objection to bands and sur
plice and all the paraphernalia Of cler-
ical life, but these things make no i'm
pressiOn-make no more impression on
the great masses of the people than the
ordinary business suit that you wear on
Pennsylvania avenue or Wall street. A
tailor cannot make minister. Some of
the poorest preachers wear the best
clothes, and many backwoodsman has
dismOunted from the saddlebags, and
in his linen buster preached a sermon
that shook earth and heaven with it's
Christian eloquence No new gospel,
only the old gospel in a way suited to
the time. No new church, but church
to be the asylum, the inspiration, the
practical sympathy and the eternal help
of the people.
But while half of the doors of the
church are to be set open toward this
world the other half Of the doors of the
church must be set open toward the
next. You and tarry here only brief
space. We want somebody to teach us
how to get out of this life at the right
time and in the right way. Some fall
out of life, some go stumbling out of
life, somego grooming out of life, some
go cursing out of life. We want to go
singing, rising, rejoicing, triumphing.
We want half the doors of the church
set in that direction. We want half the
prayers that way, half the sermons that
way. We want to know how to get
ashore from the tumult of this world
into the land of everlasting peace We
do not want to stand doubling and shiv-
ering when we go away from this
world. We want our anticipations
aroused to the highest pitch.
Jesus Leads.
We want to have the exhilaration of
dying child i'll England, the father
telling me the story. When he said to
her, SIS the path narrow" she answer
ed: ''The path is narrow. 1t is SO mar
row that I cannot walk arm i'll arm with
Christ so Jesus goes ahead and he
church gates set heavenward how many
of your friends and mine have gone?
The last time they were out of the house
they came to church. The earthly pill
grimage ended at the pillar of public |
worship and then they marched out to
aNbigger and brighter assemblage. Some |
of them were So old they could not walk
without cane or two clutches. Now |
IL a.,
they were so young they could not walk |
except as the maternal hand guided |
them Now they bound with the hilari-
ties celestial. The last time we saw |
them they were wasted with malarial |
or pulmonic disorder but now they |
have no fatigue and no difficulty of res
piration in the pure air of heaven. How
1 wonder when you and 1 will cross
over! Some of you have had about
enough of the humping and failing of
this life. A draft from the fountains of
heaven would do you good. Complete
release you could stand very well. If |
you got on the other side and had per-
mission to come back, you would not
come. Though you were invited to
come back and join your friends ON
earth, you would say: "No, let me tar
ry here until they come. shall not risk
going back If a man reaches heaven, he
had better stay here"
Oh, join hands with you in that
uplifted splendor!
When the shore is won at last,
Who will count the pillows past?
In Freyburg, Switzerland, there is
the trunk of tree 400 years old. That
tree was planted to commemorate an
event About ten miles from the city
the Swiss conquered the Burgundians