Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-02-12

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who. like Hercules, show the giant in
the cradle have more to answer for
than those who are the subjects OF
lifelong infirr1ities. He who can lift
twice as much as you can and walk
twice as far and work twice as long
will have a double account to meet
in the judgment.
Type of Power.
How often it is that you do not find
physical energy indicative of spiritual
power. If q clear head is worth more
than one dizzy with perpetual vertigo,
if muscles with the play of health in
them are worth more than those drawn
up in chronic 'rheumaticS," if an eye
quick to catch passing objects is better
than one with vision dim and uncer-
tain, then God will require of us eff
cheney just in proportion to what he
has given us. Physical energy ought
to be a type of moral power. We ought
to have as good digestion Of truth as
We have capacity to assimilate food.
Our spiritual hearing ought to be as
good as our physical hearing. Our
spiritual taste ought to be as clear as
our tongue. Samsons in body, we
ought to be giants in moral power.
But while you find a great many men
who realize that they ought to use
their money Alright and use their intel
ligence Alright, how few men you find
aware of the fact that they ought to
use their physical organism Alright!
With every thump of the heart there
is something saying: "Work! Work.
And lest we should complain that we
have no tools to work with, God gives
us our hands and feet, with every
knuc1le and with every joint and with
every muscle saying to US, Lay hold
and do something"
But how often it is that men with
physical strength do not serve Christ!
They are like a ship full manned and
full rugged. capable of vast tonnage,
able to endure all stress of weather,
yet swinging idly at the docks when
these men ought to be crossing and re-
crossing the great ocean of human suf
ferng and sin with Gods supplies of
mercy. How often it is that physical
strength is used in doing positive dam
age or in luxurious ease. when, with
sleeves rolled up and brOnzed bosom,
fearless of the shafts of opposition, it
ought to be laying hold with all its
might and Juggling away to lift up this
sunken wreck of a world.
1t is q most shameful fact that much
Of the business of the church and of
the world must be done by those COM
paratively invalid. Richard Baxter,
by reason of his diseases, all his days
sitting in the door of the tomb, yet
writing more than 100 volumes and
sending out an influence for God that
will endure as long as 1.-The Saints Ev-
erlasting Rest" Edward Payson, never
knowing a we'll day, yet how he preach
ed and how he wrote, helping thou
sands of dying souls like himself to
swim in a sea of glory! And Robert
McCheyne, a walking skeleton, yet
you know what he did in Dundee and
how he shook Scotland with zeal for
God; Philip DOddridge, advised by his
friends, because of his illness, not to
enter the ministry, yet you know what
he did for the Rise and Progress of
Religion in the church and in the
world
Giants In All Things.
Wilberforce was told by his doctors
that he could not live fortnight, yet
at that very time entering upon philan-
thropic enterprises that demanded the
greatest endurance and persistence;
Robert Hall suffering eXcruciationS,
so that often in the pulpit while preach
ing he would stop and lie down on a
sofa, then getting up again to preach
about heaven until the glories of the
celestial city dropped on the multitude,
doing more work, perhaps. than almost
any we'll man in his day.
Oh how often it is that men with
great physical endurance are not as
great in moral and spiritual stature!
While there are achievements for those
who are bent all their days with
sickness achievements of patience,
achievements of Christian endurance
| call upon men of health, men of mus
Gle men of nerve, men of physical pow
er. to devote themselves to the Lord.
Giants in body. you ought to be giants
in soul.
Behold also. in the story of my text,
illustration of the fact of the damage
that strength can do if it be misguided.
1t seems to me that this man spent a
great deal of his time in doing evil,
this Samson of my text. To pay bet
which he had lost by the guessing Of
his riddle he robs and kills 80 people.
He was not only gigantic in strength,
but gigantic in mischief, and a type Of
those men in all ages of the world who,
powerful in body or mind Or any facul-
ty of social position or wealth, have
used their strength for Ubiquitous pur-
poses.
1t is not the small. weak men of the
day who do the damage. These small
men who go swearing and loafing about
your stores and shops and banking