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

| W1uC0I. II is d IcludIA 81 I'll I6u uldOC
that it fails to make any impression
and the platitude that calls forth no
reply, How rapidly time goes.''
Every century is a big wheel Of
years, which makes hundred revolu
| tons and breaks down. Every year is
big wheel of months and makes II
| revolutions and then ceases. Biologists
! and theologians go into Celebrations Of
guesses as to how long the world will
| probably last; how long before the vol
canic forces Will explode it, or meteoric
stroke demolish it, or the cold of
long winter freeze out it's population,
or the fires of a last cOnfagration burn
it. That is all very well, but so far
as the present population Of the earth
is concerned the world will last but a
little longer. We begin life with a
cry and end it with a groan, and the
cry and the grOan are not far apart.
Life, Job says, is like the flight of a
weaver's shuttle Or, as David intimates
in my text, a story quickly told and
laughed at and gone and displaced by
another story as 'tale that is told.'
have to say that if life is so short
we have not much Of it to waste. In
all our agements 10 o'clock ought
to be 10 o'clock, and 8 o'clock 3 o'clock,
and 8 o'clock o'clock. 1 will not
waste your time, and you must not
waste my time. Just reproof was that
which Mrs Washington, the wife of
the first president, gave James Peale,
the great painter. His daughter says:
'My father had an engagement to
paint miniature of Mrs. Washington
in Philadelphia, the general being then
out of town. He was obliged to go to
her house, and the appointment for a
sitting was arranged at o'clock in
the morning. My father arrived at
the house, and, taking out his watch,
he found he was exactly on time. A
thought then struck him that possibly
it might be early to disturb lady, and
he decided to give ten minutes grace
before knocking at the door. He ac-
cordingly walked the pavement and
at the end of ten minutes pulled out
his watch and rang the bell. He was
ushered into the parlor, and Mrs.
Washington, accosting him, drew out
her watch and said she had given her
orders for the day, had heard her
daughter take her lesson on the harp
sichord and had read all the morning
papers and after all this had been
waiting for him ten minutes"
BE PunctuaI.
My friends, as our life is short,
punctuality is one of the important vir-
tues and lack of punctuality one of the
worst of crimes. How many who
know nothing of punctuality! They
arrive at the depot five minutes after
the train is gone. They get to the
wharf in time to see that the steamer
has swung 500 yards from the dock.
They are late at church and annoy all
who have promptly taken their places,
the late corners not being as good as a
Christian woman who, when asked
how she could always be so early at
church, replied, at is part of my re-
ligion not to disturb the religion of
others" The tardy ones mentioned
are apt to speak the word Of counsel
when it is too late. They are resolved
to repent at some time in the future,
but when they come up "the door is
shut" They resolve to save a soul
when it is a'~eady ruined.
But short as time is it is long enough
if we rightly employ it. The trouble is
we waste so much time we cannot
CdlCu up. SOllIC VI I've OSSh SHdS-
ing time we lost at 20 years of age, or
80 years of age, or 40 years of age, and
if we lived $50 years we could never
overtake it. Joseph, poor apprentice,
every morning passed certain store
as the church clock struck 6, at the
moment when the merchant took down
his shutters, each of them saying |
"Good morning, sir" and nothing else. |
What was Joseph's surprise to find
that the merchant had suddenly died |
and left him his store and business. |
That is not the only instance where a
man has made fortune by punctuali-
ty. The poets verse reads:
Time flies away fast,
The while remember.
How life here
Grows old with the year
That dies with the next December.
A third reading Of my text reminds
me that life is not only a story told,
but a story listened to. There is moth
ing more vexatious to any one than to
tell a story when people are not attend
ing. They may be whispering on some
other subject, Or they are preoccupied.
One cannot tell story effectually I'M
less there are good listeners. Well,
that which in my text is called the
''tale that is told" has plenty Of lis
teners. There is no such thing as soil
tude, no such thing as being alone.
God listens, and the air is full Of spir-
itual intelligences, all listening and the
world listens to the story of our life,
some hoping it will be successful, 9TH
ers hoping it will be failure.
We talk about public life and private
life, but there is no private life. The
story of our life, however Insignificant