Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-06-24

readers DR.. TaImage in this discourse
shows the Importance of prompt action
In anything we have to do for ourselves
or others; text, EccleSiaSteS ri, 4, "He
that obServeth the wind shall not SOW"
What do you find in this packed SEN
tence of Solomon's monOlOgue? l find
in it q farmer at his front door eXamin-
ing the weather. 1t is Seedtime. His
fields have Seen plOwed and narrowed.
The wheat is in the barn in sacks,
ready to be taken afield and scattered.
Now is the time to SOW. But the wind
is not favorable. 1t may blow up a
storm before night, and he may get
wet if he starts out for the sowing.
Or it may be a long storm that will
wash out the seed from the soil. Or
there may have been a long drought,
and the wind may continue to blow
dry weather. The parched fields may
not take in the grain, and the birds
may pick it up, and the labor as we'll
as the seed may be wasted. SO he
gives up the work for that day and
goes back into the house and waits to
see what it will be on the morrow. On
the morrow the wind is still III the
wrong direction, and for whole week,
and for a month. Did you ever see
such a long spell of bad weather? The
lethargic and overcautious and dila-
tory agriculturist allows the season to
pass without sowing, and no sowing, of
course no harvest. That is what Solo
mon means when he says in my text,
"He that Observeth the wind shall not
SOW
AS much in our time as in SOlOmOnic
times there is abroad q fatal hesitancy
"a disposition to let little things stop
us-a runous adjournment. We all
want to do some good in the world, but
how easily we are halted in our en-
deavors. Perhaps we are solicitors for
some great charity. There is a good
man who has large means, and he is
accustomed to give literally to asy
lums, to hospitals, to reform organiza-
tons, to schools, to churches. to COM
munities desOlated with flood or dew
astated with fires. But that good man,
like many a good man, is mercurial in
his temperament. He is depressed by
atmospheric changes. He is always
victimized by the east wind. For this
Or that reason you postpone the char
liable solicitation. Meanwhile the suf-
its awful work, and the opportunity for
relief is past. If the wind had been from
the west or northwest, you would have
entered the philanthropist's counting
room and sought the gift, but the wind
was blowing from the east or northeast
and you did not make the attempt, and
you thoroughly illustrated my text,
He that observeth the wind shall not
SOW
Lost Opportunity.
There comes a dark Sabbath morn
ing. The pastor looks out of the win
dow and sees the clouds gather and
then discharge their burdens of rain.
Instead Of a full church it will be
handful of people with wet feet and
the dripping umbrella at the doorway
or in the end OF the pew. The pastor
has prepared one of his best sermons.
1t has cost him great research. and he
has been much in prayer while prepar-
ing it. He puts the sermon aside for
a clear day and talks platitudes and
goes home quite depressed, but at the
same time feeling that he has done his
duty. He did not realize that in that
small audience there We're at least two
persons who ought to have had better
treatment. One of those hearers was
a man in crisis of struggle with evil
appetite. \ carefully prepared dis
course under the divine blessing would
have been to him complete victory.
The fires of sin would have been extin-
guiShed, and his keen and brilliant
mind would have been consecrated to
the gospel ministry, and he would have
been Il mighty evangel, and tens Of
thousands of souls would have under
the spell of his Christian eloquence
given up sin and started new life,
and throughout all the heavens there
would have been cOngratulatiOn and
hosanna. and after many ages of eter-
nifty had passed there would be celebra-
ton among the ransOmed of what was
accomplished one stormy Sunday in a
church on earth under a mighty gospel
sermon delivered to 10 or 20 people.
But the crisis l speak of was not prop
erly met. The man in struggle with
evil habit heard that stormy day no
word that moved him. He went out
In the rain unlimited and unhelped
back to his evil way and down to his
overthrow. Had it been sunshiny
Eabbath he would have heard some
thing worth hearing. But the wind
blew from stormy direction that Sab
bath day. That gospel husbandman
noticed it and acted upon its sugges-
ton and may discover some day his
great mistake. He had sackful of
the finest of the wheat. but he with
held it. and some day he will find,
when the whole story is told. that he
was vivid illustration of the truth Of
my text, He that observeth the wind
shall not sow