Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-12-14

would die first We'll, sister. you may
take your choice, for one or the other it
will bc-your complete pardon of her or
Gods eternal Punishment of you. But"
says some man, "that fellow who cheated
me out OF those goods or damaged my
business credit or started that lie about
me in the newspapers of by his pertdy
broke up my domestic happiness, forgive
him | cannot, forgive him | will not"
Well, brother, take your choice. You
will never be Mt peace with God till you
are Mt peace with man. Feeling as you
now do, you would not get so near the
harbor of heaven as to see the lightship.
Better leave that man with the God who
said, Vengeance is minc | will repay"
You may say, 81 will make him sweat
for that yet; | will make him squrm; /
mean to pursue him to the DEATH" but
YOU are damaging yourself more than you
damage him, and you are making heaven
for your soul an impossibility. If he
will not be reconciled to you, be recon-
ciled to him. In five or six hours it will
he shutdown. The dahias will bloom
against the western sky. Somewhere be-
tween this and that take shovel and
bury the old quarrel at least six feet
deep. Let not the sun so down upon
your wrath"
The Father Knows.
But" you say, II have more than I
can bear; too much is put upon me, and
l am not TO blame if | am somewhat re-
vengefu and unrelenting." Then think
of the little child at the moving of some
goods from 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 | 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 exaspera-
ton 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 affr0nts, because we
my associate the subimest action of the
soul with the sublimest spectacle in ma
ture. 1t is a most delightsome thing to
have our personal experiences allied with
certain subjects. There is 4 tree or river
bank where God first answered your
prayer You will never pass that place
OF think of that place without thinking of
the glorious communion. There was
some gate or some room or some garden
wall whore you were a.lianccd with the
companion who has been your chief JOY
in life. You never speak of that place
but with a smile. Some OF you have
pleasant memories connected with the
evening star, or the moon in its first
quarter. or with the sunrise, because you
saw 1t just as you were arriving at har-
Dor after tcmpcstuous voyage. Forever
and forever. q hearer, associate the sun
set with II magnanimous, out and out.
unlimited remuneration Of all hatred and
forgiveness OF all foes
The Practice of Grace.
l admit it is the most difficult Of al!
graces TO practice. and at the start you
may make a complete failure, but keep
on in the attempt to practice it. Shakes
peare wrote ten plays before he reached
Hamlet and II plays before he reached
Merchant of Venice" and % plays be-
fore he reached Macbeth" and gradual
~ you will come from the easier graces
to the most difficult. Besides that, it is
not matter Of personal determination
so much as the laying hold OF the al
mighty arm OF God. who will help us to
do anything we ought to do. Remember
that in all personal controversies the one
least to blame will have to take the first
step at pacifcation if it is ever effected
The contest between Eschines and Arts
lupus resounds through history, but
Aristippus. who was least to blame, went
to Eschines and said, "Shall we not
agree to be friends before we make our
selves the laughing stock of the whole
country" And AIschines said, "Thou
art far better man than |, for | began
the quarrel, but thou hast been the first
in healing the breach" and they were al
ways friends aftcrward. 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,
Oh, it makes one feel splendid to be
able by Gods help to practice unlimited
forgiveness. II improves ones body and
soul. Ny brother, it will make you meas
urc three or four more inches around the
chest and improve your respiration so
that you can take a deeper and longer
breath. 1t improves the countenance by
scattering the gloom and makes you
somewhat like God himself. He is ON
nipotent, and we cannot copy that. He
is independent OF all the universe, and
We cannot copy that. He is creative, and
we cannot copy that. He is omnipresent,
and we cannot copy that. But he forgives
with a broad sweep all faults, and all
neglects, and all insults. and all wrong
doings. and in that we may copy him
with mighty success. Go harness that
sublime action of your soul to the sun
settle hour when the gate of heaven
opens to let the day pass into the eterni-
ties, and some of the glOrics escape this
way through the brief opening. We talk
about the Italian sunsets and sunset amid
the Apennines and sunset amid the cor
dilleras, but will tell you how you may
see a grandcr sunset than any mere lover
of nature ever beheld that is, by fling
ing into it all your hatreds and animosi-
ties and let the horses OF fire trample
them, and the chariots of fire roll over
them, and the spearmen of fire stab them,
and the beach of fire consume Them and
the pillows of fire overwhelm them.
Again, we should not let the sun go
down on our wrath, because it is OF little
importance what the world says of YOU
or does to you when you have the afiu-
cnt God Of the sunset as your proyider and
defender. People talk as though il were
fixed spectacle of nature and always
the same. But no one ever saw two sun
sets alike, and IL the world has existed
G,OOO years there have been about 2,19O,-
600 sunsets, each OF them as distinct
from all the other pictures in the gallery
Of the sky as Titians Last Supper"
RuhpnS' "naScput From tho Crocc :,