Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-11-13

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into the senior, and from that we
graduate angels or devils. In many
colleges there is an effective course"
where the student selects what he will
study-mathematics or the languages
or chemistry or philosophy-and it is
an elective course we all take in the
schoolhouse or university of this
world.
We may study sin until we are satU-
rated with it or righteousness until we
are exempliicatiOns of it. Graduate
we all must, but we decide for our
selves the style Of graduation. 1t is
an elective course. We can study gen
crosby until our every word and every
act and every contribution of money
or time will make the world better, or
we may study meanneSS until our
soul shall shrink up to smallness I'M
imaginable. We may, under God, edu-
cate ourselves into self control that
nothing can anger or into an irascibii-
ty that will ever and anon keep our
face flushed with wrath and every
nerve a-Quiver. Great old schoolhouse
of a world in which we are all being
educated for glory or perdition!
Some have wondered why graduation
day in college is called commencement
day" when it is the last day of college
exercises, but graduation days are
properly called commencement day. To
all the graduated it is the commence
ment of active life, and our graduation
day from earth will be to us COM
mencement of our chief life, our larger
life, our more tremendous life, our
eternal life. But what day commence
ment day on earth is! The student new
er sees any day like it. AT any rate, l
never did. Old NiblO's theater in New
York comes back to me, the gowned
and tassel hated professors behind us,
and our kindred and friends before us
and above us, and the air redOlent with
garlands to be thrown to us. What
commencement day it was for all of US
about to graduate! But mightier day
will it be when we graduate from this
world. Will it be Kisses of condemna-
ton or handclapping of approval? Will
there be flung to US nettles or wreaths?
Will it be a resounding Gomez or a
reverberating "Depart?"
In the real college, before graduation
and commencement, comes eXamina-
ton day, and before our graduation
and commencement will come eXamina-
ton. 1t will be asked what we have
been doing, what we have learned I'm
der the tutelage of years of joy and
sorrow, and under the teaching of the
Holy Ghost are we educated for heav-
en-. Have we done our best with the
curriculum of study put before every
mortal and immortal? Oh, this world
iS NOT tho taPD1in1IS of n iOTIpnpUf
is not a theater on whose stage we are
enacting the tragic or comic. 1t is a
schoolhouse for splendid or disgraceful
graduation, and death is commence
ment. All that is settled in heaven.
Gods Cause.
Another thing decided in the high
places of the universe is that this
world, with or without us, will DE
made over into a scene of arbOres-
cence and purity. Do not think that
such a contamination depends upon
our personal fidelity. 1t will be done
anyhow. Gods cause does not go
a-begging. If all the soldiers of Jesus
Christ now living should become de-
serters and go over to the enemy, that
would not defeat the cause. A large
part Of the Bible is taken up with tell
ing us what the world will be. There
is a large army, human and angelic,
now in the field, but Gods reserve
forces are more numerous and more
mighty than those now at the 'front.'
and if he could in Gideon's time rout
the Midianites with a crash of crock
cry, and if he could in Shamgar's time
overcome q host with an OK goad, and
if i'm SamSnnS fipna ha anI11H
army with a bleached jawbone, and if
the walls of Jericho went down under
a blast of perforated rams horn, and
if in Christ's day blind eyes were
cured by ointment of spittle, then God
can do anything he says he will do. AS
yet he has taken only one sword out
of whole armOry of weapons. Do
not get nervous, as if the Lord were
going to be defeated. The redemption
of these hemispheres was settled in
heaven, and Isaiah and Ezekiel and
Habakkuk and Malachi and ST. John |
only reported what the Lord God AL |
mighty had decided upon. My only |
fear is that our regiment will not get |
into the fight to do something worthy
Of the Christ who redeemed us and we |
be left in lazy encampment at Tampa |
when we ought to have been at San !
tiago.
Oh, that coming day of the worlds |
perfection! The earth will be so chang
ed that the sermonology will be chang |
ed. There will be no more calls to re-
pentance, for all will have repented; |
no more gathering Of aims for the
poor, for the poor will have been en-
riched; no hospital Sunday, for dis
jointed bones will have been set and
the wounds all healed, and the incura-
bile diseases of other firnas will harn