Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-12-11

| bank or sunset into the favorIte hunt
| ing ground of disease and death, car
| rying our animoSitieS with US? Who
| would want to confront his God.
| against whom we have all done mean
| er things than anybody has even done
| against us, carrying old grudges? How
| can we expect his forgiveness for the
| greater when we are not willing to for
| give others for the less? Napoleon
was encouraged to undertake the Cross
Ing of the Alps because Charlemagne
had previously crossed them. And all
this rugged path of forgiveness bears
| the bleeding footsteps of him who con-
| Quered through suffering, and we
ought to be willing to follow On the
| night of our departure from this life in
| to the next our one plea will have to
| be for mercy, and it will have to be
offered in the presence of him who has
said, "If you forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Heavenly
Father forgive your trespasses." What
| a sorry plight if we stand there hat
ing this one, and hating that one, and
wishing that one a damage, and wish
ing some one else a calamity, and we
ourselves needing forgiveness for 1O,-
600 obliQuities of heart and life When
our last hour comes, we want it to find
us all right. Hardly anything affects
me so much in the uncovering Of Pom
peii as the account of the soldier who,
after the city had for many centuries
been covered with the ashes and
scoria Of Vesuvius, was found stand
ing in his place on guard, hand on
spear and helmet on head. Others fed
at the awful encouragement, but the
explorer, LOO years after, found the
body of that brave fellow in right posi-
ton. And it will be a grand thing if,
when our last moment comes, we are
found in right position toward God, on
guard and unaffrighted by the descend
ing ashes from the mountain of death.
I do not suppose that l am any more
of coward than most people, but de-
clare to you that 1 would not dare to
sleep tonight if there were any being
in all the earth with whom would
not gladly shake hands, lest during the
night hours my spirit dismissed to 9TH
er realms, l should, because of my I'M
forgiving spirit, be denied divine for
giveness.
But" says some woman, there is q
horrid creature that has so injured me
that rather than make up with her |
would die first" Well, sister, you
may take your choice, for one or the
other it will be-your complete pardon
of her or Gods eternal Punishment of
you. But" says some man, "that fell
low who cheated me out of those
goods, or damaged my business credit,
or started that lie about me in the
newspapers, or by his perfidy broke
up my domestic happiness, forgive him
I cannot. forgive him l will not" Well
brother, take your choice. You will
never be at peace with God till you are
at peace with man. Feeling as you
now do, you would not get so near the
harbor Of heaven as to see the light
ship. Better leave that man with the
God who said: vengeance is mine. |
will repay" You may say: 81 will
make him sweat for that yet l will
make him squirm. 1 mean to pursue
him to the death" But you are damag-
ing yourself more than you damage
him, and you are making heaven for
your own soul an impossibility. If he
will not be reconciled to you, be recon-
ciled to him. In five or six hours it will
be shutdown. The dahlias will bloom
against the western sky. Somewhere
between this and that take a shovel
and bury the old quarrel at least six
feet deep. Let not the sun go down
upon your wrath"
Renounce Hatreds.
But" you say, 81 have more than ]
can bear. Too much is put upon me,
and I am not to blame if l am some
what revengeful and unrelenting."
Then l think Of the little child at the
moving of some goods from a store.
The father was putting some rolls of
goods on the child's arm, package after
package, and some one said, "That
child is being overloaded, and so much
ought not to be put upon her." when
the child responded, Father knows
how much I can carry" And God, our
Father, will not allow too much i'm
position on his children. In the day of
eternity it will be found you had not
one annoyance too many, not one ex-
ASPIRATION too many, not one outrage
too many. Your Heavenly Father
knows how much you can carry.
Again, we ought not to allow the pas
sage of the sunset hour before the dis
missal of all our affronts, because we
may associate the sublimest action of
the soul with the sublimest spectacle
in nature. 1t is a most delightsome
thing to have our personal experiences
allied with certain subjects. There is a
tree or river bank where God first an
swered your prayer. You will never
pass that place or think of that place
without thinking Of the glorious COM
munion. There was some gate or some
room or some garden wall where you