Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-12-24

eN pIIcaDle. 1hey are DefeIt or pefSe-
cUtcd Or impoverished or invaded.
| They have only one child. and that
dies, while the next door neighbor has
seven children. and they are all spared.
| The unfOrtunateS buy at q time when
the market is rising and the day after
the market falls At time when they
need TO feel the best for the discharge
Of some duty they are seized with
| physical collapse. Trying to do Il good
and honest and useful thing, they are
misrepresented and belied as if they
had practiced 4 villainy. There are
people who all their lives have suffered
injuSticeS. Others of less talent, with
less conservation. go on and up, while
they 90 OH and down. There are in
many lives riddles that have never
been explained, heartbreaks that have
never been healed. Go to that man or
that woman with rhilosOphic explana-
ton, and your attempt at comfort will
be i failure and you will make mat
tiers worse instead CT making them bet
ter. But let the oceanic tide of the
text roll in that soul, and all its losses
and disasters will be submerged with
blessing. and the sufferer will say, 4
cannot understand the reason for my
troubles. but | will some day under
stand. And they do not come by acct
dent. God allows them to come, and
God is love-"
Divine Pity.
But for this divine feeling I think
our world would long ago have been
demolished. Just think of the organ
lied Wickedness Of the nations. See
the denominations continental! Behold
the false religions that hoist MOham-
med and Buddha and Confucius. Look
at the Koran and the Shastra and the
Zend-Avesta, that would crowd out of
the world the Holy Scriptures! Look at
war, digging its trenches for the dead
across the hemispheres! See the great
cities with their holocaust of destroy
ed manhood and womanh0od, What
blasphemies assail the heavens. What
butcheries sicken the centuries, What
professions of crime and atrocity and
woe encircle the globe! If justice had
spoken, it would have said. The world
deserves aITnihilatiOn, and let annihi-
lation come If intmutabiIity had
spoken, it would have said Il have al
ways been opposed to wickedness and
always will be opposed to it, The
world is to me an affrOnt infinite and
away with it," If omnscience had
spoken. it would have said, Il have
watched that planet with minute and
all comprehensive inspection. and l
cannot have the Offense longer cOntin-
ued." If truth had spoken, it would
have said. Il declare that they who Of
fend the law must 90 down under the
law" But divine love took a different
view of the worlds obduracy and pol
luton. It said: u pity all those woes
Of the earth. | cannot stand here and
see no aSSua cement Of those SufferingS.
l will go down and reform the world.
1 will medcate its wounds. l will
calm it's frenzy. l will wash off its
pollution. Will become incarnated.
1 will take on my shoulders and upon
my brow and into my heart the con-
sequences of that worlds miSbehavior,
l start now. and between my arrival
at Bethlehem and my ascent from Oil
vet | VIII weep their tears and suffer
their griefs and die their death Fare
well. my throne. my crown. my scep-
ter my angelic environment. my heav-
en-, till | have finished the work and
come back" God was never conquer
ed but once. and that was when he was
conquered by his own love. God is
love-
In this day. when the creeds Of
churches are being revised. let more
emphasis be put upon the thought Of
my text. Let it appear at the begin
ming Of every creed and at the close.
The ancientS used to tell of q great
military chgeftain who, about to go to
battle. was clad in armOr. helmet on
head and sword at side. and who put
oct his arms to give farewell embrace
to his child. and the child. affrighted at
his appearance. ran shrieking away
Then the father put off the armOr that
caused the alarm, and the child saw
who be was and ran into his arms and
Struggled against his heart. Creeds
must not have too much iron in their
make up, terrOriZing rather than at
tracing. They must not hide the Smil-
ing face and the warm heart Of our
Father. God. Let nothing imply that
there is Il sheriff at every door ready
to make arrest. but over US ali and
around us all q mercy that wants to
save and save now.
Why the Bible was Written.
If one paragraph Of the creed seems
to take you, like a child. out Of the
arms of 4 father, let the next para
graph put you in the arms of a mother.
GAS one whom his mother comfOrteth
so will I comfort you" Oh. what a
neither we have in God! And my text
is the lullaby sung to US when we are
i'll or when we are maltreated or when
we are weary or when we are trying to
do better or when We are bereft or
when we ourselves lie down to the last