Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-01-02


hammering at the forge of calamity.
They stand on an entirely different
plane of character from that which they
once occupied. They are measuring
their life on earth by golden gated Sab
baths, by pentecostal prayer meeting,
by communion tables, by baptismal
fonts, by halleluiahs in the temple.
They have stood on Sinai and heard it
thunder. They have stood on Pisgah
and looked over into the promised land.
They have stood on Calvary and seen
the cross bleed. They can. like Paul the
apostle, write on their heaviest trou-
bles eight" and "but for a moment"
The darkest night their soul is irradiat-
ed, as was the night over Bethlehem,
by the faces of those who have come to
proclaim glory and good cheer. They
are only waiting for the gate to open
and the chains to fall off and the glory
to begin.
I remark again, there are maryland
I wish there were more-who are esti-
mating life by the good they can do.
John Bradford said he counted that
day nothing at all in which he had not
by pen or tongue done some good. If
man begin right, I cannot tell how
many tears ne may wipe away, how
many burdens he may lift, how many
orphans he may comfort, how many
outcasts he may reclaim. There have
been men who have given their whole
life in the right direction, concentrat-
ing all their wit and ingenuity and
mental acumen and physical force and
enthusiasm for Christ. They climbed
the mountain and delved into the mine
and crossed the sea and trudged the
desert and dropped at last into martyrs
graves, waiting for the resurrection of
the just. They measured their lives by
the chains they broke off, by the gar
ments they put upon nakedness, by the
miles they travelled to alleviate every
kind of suffering. They felt in the thrill
muscle, in every throb of their heart, in
every respiration of their lungs, the
magnificent truth "No man liveth unto
himself" They went through cold and
through heat, foot blistered, cheek smit-
ten, back scourged, tempest dashed, to
do their whole duty. That is the way
they measured life-by the amount Of
good they could do.
The Eternal Life.
Do you want to know how old Luther
was: How old Richard Baxter was? How
old Philip Doddridge was? Why, you
cannot calculate the length of their
lives by any human arithmetic! Add to
their lives 10, 900 times 10, 900 years.
and you have not expressed it-what
they have lived or will live. Oh, what
c%o nd hot f0 Sc 70
by! There are those in this house who
think they have only lived 80 years.
They will have lived thousand; they
have lived a thousand. There are those
who think they are 80 years of age.
They have not even entered upon their
infancy, for one must become babe in
Christ to begin at all.
Now, / do not know what your ad-
vantages or disadvantages are. l do not
know what your tact or talent is. do
not know what may be the fascination
of your manners or the responsiveness of
them, but / know this: There is for
you, my nearer, field to culture, a
harvest to reap, a tear to wipe away, a
soul to save. If you have worldly means,
consecrate them to Christ. If you have
eloquence, use it on the side that Paul
and Wilberforce used theirs. If you
have learning, put it all into the poor
box of the worlds suffering. But if you
have none of these-neither wealth, nor
eloqunce, nor learning-you at any
rate have a smile with which you can
encourage the disheartened, a frown
with which you may blast injustice, a
voice with which you may call the
wanderer back to God. "Oh," you say,
"that is a very sanctimonious view Of
life % 1t is not. It is the only bright
view of life and it is the only bright
view of death. Contrast the death scene
of a man who has measured life by the
worldly standard with the death scene
of man who has measured life by the
Christian standard. Quin, the actor, in
his last moments said, II hope this
tragic scene will soon be over, and
hope to keep my dignity to the last;
Malesherbes said in his last moments tc
the confessor: "Hold your tongue! Your
misera BILE style puts me out of conceit
with heaven. - Lord Chesterfield in his
last moments, when he ought to have
been praying for his soul, bothered him
self about the proprieties of the sick
room and said, "Give Day boles chair"
Godfrey Kneller spent his last hours on
earth in drawing a diagram of his own
monument.
Compare the silly and horrible de-
parture of such men with the seraphio
glow on the face of Edward Payson as
he said in his last moment: "The breezes
of heaven fan me. float in sea of
glory" Or with Paul the apostle, who
said in his last hour: 81 am now ready
to be offered up, and the time of my
departure is at hand. I have fought the