Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-08-06

There is no fun In breaking your moth
physical pangs of the dissolute There
is no fun in the profigate's deathbed.
There is no fun in an undone eterni-
ty. PaSacelsus, out of the ashes of
burnt rose, said he could recreate the
rose, but he failed in the alchemic IN
dertaking, and roseate life, once burn
ed down in sin, can never again be
made to blossom.
Measured by God.
Oh, this plumb line of the everlasting
right! God will throw it over all our
lives to show us our moral reflections.
God will throw it over all churches to
show whether they are doing useful
work or are instances of idlenesS and
pretense. He will throw that plumb
line over all nations to demonstrate
whether their laws are just or cruel
their rulers good or bad, their ambi-
lions holy or infamous. God is now
throwing that plumb line over this re-
public, and it is q solemn time with
this nation, and whether we keep his
Sabbaths or dishonor them, whether
righteousness or iniquity dominate,
whether we are Christian or infidel
whether we fulfill our mission or refuse,
whether we are for God or against him,
will decide whether we shall as a ma
ton go on in higher and higher career
or go down in the same grave where
Babylon and Nineveh and Thebes are
sepulchered.
But" say you, eff there be nothing
but q plumb line, what can any Of us
Il Co... N11 NSo1,
truthfully declares, IF the best mans
faults were written on his forehead,
it would make him pull his hat over
his eyes What shall we do when,
according to Isaiah, "God shall lay
judgment to the line and righteous
ness the plummet? All, here is
where the gospel comes in with a
Saviour's righteousness to make up
for our deficits. And while I see hang
ing on the wall plumb line, see also
hanging there a cross. And while the
one condemns us, the other saves us,
If only we will hold to it. And here
and now you may be set free with a
more glorious liberty than Hampden
or Sidney or KosciuSko ever fought for.
Not out yonder or down there or up
here, but just where you are you may
get it.
The invalid proprietress of a wealthy
estate in Scotland visited the continent
of Europe to get rid Of her maladies,
and she went to Baden Baden and
tried those waters and went to Carls-
bad and tried those waters and went
to Homburg and tried those waters
and instead of getting better she got
worse, and in despair she said to a
physician, what shall L do?" His re-
ply was: Medicine can do nothing for
you. You have only one chance, and
that Is the waters of Pit Keathly,
Scotland" as it possible?" she re-
piled. ''Why, those waters are on my
own estate" She returned and drank
of the fountain at her own gate and !
in two months completely recovered.
Oh, sick and diseased and SHINING and
dying, why go trudging all the world
over and seeking here and there relief
for your discouraged spirit when close
by and at your very feet and at the
very estate of your own consciousness,
the healing waters of eternal life may
be had and had this very hour, this
very minute? Blessed be God that over
against the plumb line that Amos saw
is the cross, through the emancipating
power of which you and l may live
and live forever!
copyright, 1900. by Louis Klopsch.l