Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-01-08

| for slumber. Remember glorious Al
bert Barnes going along the streets OF
| Philadelphia at o'clock in che morning
for many years to his church study,
| writing all his commentaries before
| breakfast and keeping on until he was
stone blind. Will not the Lord reward
such sacrifices? And if, through your
fidelity, you have lost capacity to sleep,
| God, who never slumbers nor sleeps,
| will look after you.
1t is high time that we enlarge the
scroll of martyrs. We are accustomed
to put in that scroll only those who
have gone down under headsman's ak
or have been wrapped in fires at the
stake or torn apart with the machinery
of persecution. But the world is full
| Of martyrs who were never touched by
any such instruments of torture. Many
| of our public men in this capital and
| indeed in all the capitals, have their
life beaten out of them by Interrupt
| tons, annoyances and unreasonable de-
mands added to their straightforward
duties. Washington sends many Of
the public men back to their different
states worn out and incapacitated.
Why is it that in all our land there are
but two ex-presidents and two ex-vice
presidents? The others were slain
by the exhaustions Of public life or by
hand of assassin. Our public men can
not control their time, cannot regulate
their hours, cannot escape the implora-
ton of constituents ALI who go down
to invalidism through the service Of
God or their country are martyrs.
Songs In the Night.
Remark the fourth: Insomnia is no
sign of divine diSpleasure. Martin
Luther had distressing insomnia and
wrote, when 1 wake up in the night,
the devil Immediately comes and dis
putes with me and gives me strange
thoughts until at last 1 grow enraged
beyond endurance and give him i'll
words" That consecrated champion
of everything good, DR.. Stephen II.
Tying, ST., in his autobiography says
that the only encouragement he had to
think he would sleep at night was the
fact that he had not slept the night be-
fore.
Perhaps this wakefulness may come
to you as an opportunity to think over
the mercies of the past and lay out
plans for the future. David occupied
the hours of wakefulness in music. He
speaks of "songs in the night" We
could hardly recommend such solo
for most people, for it would disturb
the slumber of others, and you have
no right because you cannot sleep your
self to keep others awake. But the
cheerful endurance suggested by that
midnight music of the psalmist we
can commend
Wakefulness may be an opportunity
for prayer, opportunity for profitable
reflection, opportunity for kindling
bright expectations of the world,
where there Is no night and where
slumber will have no uses. God thinks
just as much of you when you get but
three or four hours of sleep as when at
night you get eight or nine hours.
Remark the fifth: Let all insomnists
know for their consolation that some
people sleep more rapidly than others,
as much in one hour as others do in
two, and hence do not require as long
a time in Inconsistencies. In book
on the subject of health years ago /
saw this fact stated by celebrated
medical scientist: Some people do ev
erything quick-they eat quick, they
walk quick, they think quick, and Of
course they sleep quick. An express
train can go as far in 30 minutes SIS a
way train in 60 minutes. People Of
rapid temperaments ought not to ex-
pect a whole night to do the work of |
recuperation which slow temperaments
require. Instead of making it a mat
ter of irritation and alarm be a Chris |
tan philosopher and set down this alb
breviation of sompOlence as a matter
of temperament.
He Shall Rise Up.
Remark the sixth: The aged insom-
nists should understand that if their |
eyes are held waking they do not re-
quire as much sleep as once they did. |
Solomon, who in knowledge was thou
sands Of years ahead of his time in |
his wondrous description of old age,
recognizes this fact. He not only
speaks Of the difficulty of mastication
on the part of the aged when he says,
"The grinders cease because they are
few and of the octogenarian's caution
in getting up ladder or standing on
scaffolding, saying, '"They shall be
afraid Of that which is high" and
speaks Of the whiteness Of the hair by
comparing it to a tree that has white
blossoms, saying, 1.-THE almond tree
shall flourish" and speaks of the spinal
cord, which is of the color of silver
and which relaxes in old age, giving
the tremor to the head, saying, ''The
silver cord be loosed." But he says Of
the aged, "He shall rise up at the voice
Of the bird;' that is about half past
in the summer time, an appropriate
hour for the bird to rise, for he goes
to his nest or bough at half past in