Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-09-03

IMAM Tor OCDSf men TO 40 tight lie
grace that would elevate you to the
seventh heaven might not keep your
brother from knocking man down. |
had friend who came to me and said,
Il dare rot join the church" l said,
''Why9 Oh he said, II have such
violent temper. Yesterday morning [
was crossing very early at the Jersey
City ferry, and l saw milkman pour
q large quantity Of water into the milk
can. and | said to him: I think that
will do and he insulted me, and I
knocked him down. Do you think I
ought to join the church," Neverthe
less that very same man, who was SO
harsh in his behavior, loved Christ, and
could not speak of sacred things with
out tears of emotion and affection.
Thorns without, sweetness within-the
best specimen of Mexican cactus I ever
saw.
"Giants of Battle"
There are others planted in Christ's
garden who are always radiant, always
mpressive-more like the roses Of deep
hue that we occasionally find, called
''giants of battle;" the Martin Luthers,
St. Pauls, Chrysostoms, Wycliffes,
Latimers and Samuel Rutherfords.
What in other men is a spark in them
is a conf1agration. When they sweat,
they sweat great drops of blood. When
they pray, their prayer takes fire.
When they preach, it is a PentecOst.
When they fight, it is Thermopylae.
When they die, it is a martyrdom.
You find a great many roses in the
gardens, but only a few "giants of bat
tle." Men say, "Why don't you have
more of them in the church,? 1 say,
"Why don't you have in the world
more Humboldts and Wellingtons"
God gives to some ten talents, to others
one.
In this garden of the church which
Christ has planted also find the snow
drops. beautiful but cold looking, seem
ingly another phase of winter. I mean
those Christians who are precise in
their tastes. unimpassioned pure as
snowdrops and as cold. They never
shed any tears, they never get excited,
they never say anything rashly, they
never do anything precipitately. Their
pulses never f1utter, their nerves never
twitch, their Indignation never bOils
over They live longer than most peo-
pie, but their life is in q minor key.
They never run up to @ above the
staff In their music of life they have
no staccato passages. Christ planted
them in the church, and they must be
of some service or they would not be
there. Snowdrops- always snowdrops.
But l have not told you of the most
beautiful flower in all this garden spo-
ken of in the text If you see centu-
~ plant, your emotions are started.
You say, "Why. this flower has been a
hundred years gathering up one bloom,
and it will be hundred years more
before other petals will come out" But
l have to tell you of plant that was
gathering up from all eternity and that
1.9OO years ago put forth it's bloom new
err to wither. 1t is the passion plant of
the cross. Prophets foretold it; Beth
lehem shepherds looked upon it in the
bud; the rocks shook at it's bursting,
and the dead got up in their winding
sheets to see it's full bloom. 1t is a
crimson fower-blood at the roots,
blood on the branches, blood on the
leaves. It's perfume is to fill all the
nations. It's breath is heaven. Come,
o winds from the north and winds
from the south and winds from the
east and winds from the west, and bear
to all the earth the sweet smelling sa-
vor Of Christ, my Lord!
His worth if all the nations knew,
Sure the whole earth would love him too.
The Place Of Fruits.
Again, the church may be appropri-
ately compared to a garden, because
it is a place of fruits. That would be a
strange garden which had in it no ber-
ries, no plums or peaches or apricots
The coarser fruits are planted in the
orchard or they are set out on the sun
ny hillside; but the choicest fruits are
kept in the garden. So in the world
outside the church Christ has planted
great many beautiful things-pa-
tience. charity, generosity, integrity;
but he intends the choicest fruits to be
in the garden, and if they are not
there, then shame on the church.
Religion is not a mere Towering SEN
timentality. 1t is a practical, life CIV
ing healthful fruit-not posies, but ap-
pies. "Oh," says somebody, 81 don't
see what your garden of the church
has yielded" Where did your asylums
come from, and your hospitals, and
your institutions of mercy? Christ
planted every one Of them. He plant
ed them in his garden. When Christ
gave sight to Bartimeus, he laid the
cornerstone of every blind asylum that
has ever been built. When Christ
soothed the demoniac of Galilee, he
laid the cornerstone of every lunatic
asylum that has ever been established.
When Christ said to the sick man,
'Take up thy bed and walk" he laid
the cornerstone of every hospital the
world has ever seen. When Christ
in visited