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

but Aristippus, who was least to
blame, went to AIschines and said,
"Shall we not agree to be friends be-
fore VIZ make ourselves the laughing
stock of the whole cOuntry?" And
Eschines said, ''Thou art a far better
man than 1, for l began the quarrel,
but thou hast been the first in healing
the breach" And they were always
friends afterward. So let the one Of
you that is least to blame take the
first step toward reconciliation. The
one most in the wrong will never
take it,
Practice Forgiveness.
Oh, it makes one feel splendid to
be able by Gods help to practice I'M
limited forgiveness. 1t improves ones
body and soul. My brother, it will
make you measure three or four more
inches around the chest and improve
your respiration so that you can take
a deeper and longer breath. 1t i'm
proves the countenance by scattering
the gloom and makes you somewhat
like God himself. He is omnipotent,
and we cannot copy that. He is indie
pendent of all the universe, and we
cannot copy that. He is creative, and
we cannot copy that. He is omnipres
ent, and we cannot copy that But he
forgives with broad sweep all faults,
and all neglects, and all insults, and all
wrongdoings, and in that we may copy
him with mighty success. Go harness
that sublime action of your soul to the
sunset-the hour when the gate of
heaven opens to let the day pass into
eternities and some of the glories es-
cape this way through the brief open
ing. We talk about the Italian sun
SETS and sunset amid the Apennines,
and sunset amid the cordilleras, but
I will tell you how you may see
grander sunset than any mere lover of
nature ever beheld-that is, by flinging
into it all your hatreds and animosi-
ties, and let the horses of fire tram
pie them, and the chariots of fire roll
over them, and the spearmen Of fire
stab them, and the beach Of fire con-
sumo them, and the pillows of fire over
whelm them.
Again, we should not let the sun go
down on our wrath, because 1T is of
little Importance what the world says
of you or does to you when you have
the aff1uent God of the sunset as your
provider and defender. People talk as
though it were a fixed spectacle of ma
ture and always the same. But no one
ever saw two sunsets alike, and if the
world has existed 5000 years there
have been about 2, 100000 sunsets, each
of them as distinct from all the other
pictures in the gallery of the sky as
Titian's Last Supper" Rubens' Ode
scent From the Cross" Raphaers
TRANSPORTATION" and Michael An
gelo's Last Judgment" are distinct
from each other. If that God of such
infinite resources that he can put on
the wall of the sky each evening more
than the Louvre and Luxembourg gal
leries all in one Is my God and your
God, our provider and protector, what
is the use of our worrying about any
human antagonism? If we are misin-
terpreted, the God of the many colored
sunset can put the right color on our
action. If all the garniture of the
western heavens at eventide is but
the upholstery of one of the windows
Of our future home, what small bust
ness for us to be chasing enemies!
Let not this Sabbath sun go down up
on your wrath.
Mohammed said, "The sword is the
key of heaven and hell" But, my
hearers, in the last day we will find
just the opposite of that to be true,
and that the sword never unlOckS
heaven, and that he who heals wounds
is greater than he who makes them,
and that on the same ring are two keys
Gods forgiveness of us and our for
giveness of enemies-and these two
keys unlock paradise.
And now I wish for all of you a
beautiful sunset to your earthly exist
ence. With some of you it has been
long day of trouble, and with others of
you it will be far from calm. When
the sun rose at 6 o'clock, it was the
morning of youth, and a fair day was
phophesied, but by the time the noon
day or middle life had come and the
clock Of your earthly existence had
struck u cloud racks gathered and
tempest beloved in the track Of
tempest. But as the evening of old age
approaches l pray God the skies may
brighten and the clouds be piled up in
to pillars as Of celestial temples to
which you go or move as with mounted
cohorts come to take you home. And
as you sink out of sight below the hori-
zon may there be a radiance of Chris
tan example lingering long after you
are gone, and on the heavens be WRIT
ten in letters Of sapphire, and on the
waters in letters Of opal, and on the
hills in letters of emerald, ''Thy sun
shall no more go down, neither shall
thy moon withdraw itself, for the Lord
shall be thine everlasting light, and the
days of thy mourning shall be ended"
So shall the sunset Of earth become
the sunrise of heaven.