Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-03-27

time be kept together. Is there no es-
cape from this separation None, abso-
lutely none. A great many men tumble
through the gates of the future, as it
were, and we do not know where they
have gone. and they only add gloom
and mystery to the passage but Jesus
Christ so nightly stormed the gates of
that future world that they have never
since been closely shut. Christ knows
what it is to leave this world, of the
beauty of which he was more apprecia-
tive than we ever could be- He knows
the exquisiteness of the phosphorescence
of the sea; he trod it. He knows the
glories of the midnight heavens, for
they were the spangled canopy of his
wilderness pillow. He knows about the
lilies he twisted them into his sermon.
He knows about the fowls of the air;
they whirred they way through his dis
course He knows about the SORROWS of
leaving this beautiful world. Not
taper was kindled in the darkness. He
died physicianless. He died in cold
sweat and dizziness and hemorrhage
and agony, that have put him in SYM
pathy with all the dying. He goes
through Christendom and gathers up
the stings out of all the death pillows,
and he puts them under his own neck
and head. He gathers on his own tongue
the burning thirsts of many generations.
The sponge is soaked in the SORROWS of
all those who have died in their beds, as
we'll as soaked in the sorrows of all those
who persisted in icy or fiery martyrdom.
+ While heaven was plying, and earth
was hooking, and hell was deriding, he
took the vinegarl
To all those to whom life has been an
acerbity-a dose they could not swal-
low, draft that set their teeth on edge
and a-rasping-I preach the Omnipotent
sympathy of Jesus Christ. The sister of
Herschel the astronomer used to spend
much Of her time polishing the tele-
scopes through which he brought the
distant worlds nigh, and it is my ambi-
tion now this hour to clear the lens of
your spiritual vision, so that looking
through the dark night of your earthly
troubles, you may behold the glorious
constellation of a Saviour's mercy and
a Saviour's love. Oh, my friends, do
not try to carry all your ills alonel Do
not put your poor shoulder under the
Apennines when the Almighty Christ is
ready to lift up all your burdens When
you have trouble of any kind, you
rush this way and that way, and you
wonder what this man will say about
it and what that man will say about it,
and you try this prescription and that
prescription and the other prescription.
Oh, why do you not go straight to the
hea%t of Christ, knowing that for our
own SHINING and suffering race he took
the vinegar?
Cry For Water Answered.
There was a vessel that had been
tossed on the seas for great many
weeks and been disabled, and the sup
ply of water gave out, and the crew
were dying of thirst After many days
they saw sai} against the sky. They
signaled it. When the vessel came
nearer, the people on the suffering ship
cried to the captain of the other vessel:
"Send us some waterl We are dying
for lack of waterl" And the captain on
the vessel that was hailed responded
''Dip your buckets where you are. You
are in the mouth of the Amazon, and
there are scores of miles of fresh water
all around about you and hundreds of
feet deepl' And then they dropped
In61T UuCk0GS Over Gu0 S1Clc VI bL0 VESSEL
and brought up the clear, bright fresh
water and put out the fire Of their
thirst. So I hail you today, after a long
and perilous voyage, thirsting as you
are for pardon, and thirsting for COM
fort, and thirsting for eternal life, and
I ask you what is the use of your going
in that death struck state while all
around you is the deep, clear, wide
sparkling flood of Gods sympathetic
mercy? Oh, dip your buckets and drink
and live foreverl "Whosoever will, let
him come and take of the water of life
freely"
Yet there are people who refuse this
divine sympathy, and they try to fight
their own battles, and drink their own
vinegar, and carry their own burdens,
and their life, instead of being tri-
umphal march from victory to victory,
will be a hobbling on from defeat to
defeat until they make final surrender
to retributive disaster. Oh, I wish I
could today gather up in my arms all
the woes of men and women, all their
heartaches, all their disappointments,
| all their chagrins, and just take them
right to the feet Of sympathizing
Jesusl He took the vinegar. Mana
Sahib, after he had lost his last battle
in India, fell back into the jungles Of
IheIi-jungles SO full Of malaria that
no mortal can live there. He carried
with him also a ruby Of great luster
and of great value. He died in those
jungles. His body was never found,
and the ruby has never yet been recov-
cred. And fear that today there are
some who will fall back from this sub
ject into the sickening. killing jungles
of their sin. carrying gem of infinite
/ k<,h