Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1901-10-31

ilVl tlt vi NV iIFh ~ 'fp
appointments of life. Amlnianus MARCEL
linus said that Chaldea was in olden
times overrun with lions, but many Of
them lost thrir power because the great
swamps produced many gnats that would
get into the eyes of the lions, and the
ions to free themselves of the gnats
would claw their own eyes out and then
starvc. And in our time many a lion has
been overcome by a gnat. The little
singing annoysnces of life keep us from
approaching the sweet influences. And
how many of these last there are, Sweet
influences of home, however plain it may
he, That is the harbor into which we
sail. That is the goal for which we run.
That is the place where we rest. There
abide all confidence and affections. There
we lay out our plans. There We extend
our sympathies. There we talk over our
successes. There we unload our gricfs.
Its four walls shut out a prying and in
auisitive world. Thank God for the home
in which we were born, the home in
which we now live, the home in which
we expect to die.
The Wife's influence.
Not sufficiently do we recognize the
sweet influences Of the wife. We men are
Of a roughrr mold, and our voice is loud,
and our manners need to be tanned, and
gontleness is not as much of a character
istic rs it ought to be, and we often say
things we ought to take back. 1t is to
change this that the good wife comes in.
he interests of the twain are identical.
That which from outsiders would be con-
sidcred criticism and to be resented be-
comes kindly suggestion. sweet influences
TINT ~ L., nc bottnr M than wa othpr-
wise would have b IN or could have been.
The last chapter of Proverbs recog-
nizes the good wife's Influence when it
rays, Her husband is known in the gates
when he sitteth among the elders of the
land'-that is, his apparel indicates that
he has some one to look after his ward
robe, and his manners show that he is
under refining influences at home. But no
one. fully appreciates the sweet influences
of the wife until the dark day comes and
the slight symptoms become serious and
the serious phases of the disorder pass
into the fatal and the temperature is JOG
ard medical ingenuity is exhausted and
you are told for your consolation that
'whilc there is life there is hope" which
means that there is no hope at all, and
the precious life futters and is gone and
YOU must put out of sight the one who
from the day she took the VOW mid the
orange blossoms under the marriage bell
had been to YOU more than all the world
besides. Then you realize as never before
what had been the sweet influences.
Sweet Influences of friendship. If We
have behaved ourselves tolerably well. we
have friends. In our days OF mirth they
tome with their congratulations. In times
Of sorrow they come with expressions OF
%solacc. In times of perpleXity they come
with their advice. They are with us at
weddings and at burials. If there is any
thing good in us, they find it ont and our
frailties they overlook or excuse. II
something appears against nc. they say.
Wait till | hear the other side" If dis
ester shall bcfall us, we know from
whom would come the first coincidence
family friends, church friends, business
friends, lifelong friends. In our heart of
hearts we cherish them.
Sweet influences OF our holy religion,
surrounded as we are by all the ameui-
ties of Christian society, men and women
who have felt the refining and elevating
power of the gospel. Sweet influences OF
he sabbath. ffty-two OF them Ginning
their JOY Into every year, Sweet influ-
noes of the Scriptures. with their balm
Cor all wounds and their light for every
darkness, When the heirs of n vast eS-
rate in England wished to establish their
claim to property worth 500, W0,OOO,
they offered "A reward OF 5000 for the re-
tovery of an old Bible, The family record
Of which contained the evidence requisite.
But any Bible, new or old, can help US to
II vastcr inheritance than the one spoken
of, one that never fades away.
The World of Reunion.
The sweet influences OF the heavenly
world, which many wise men thought for
Il long while was Alcyone, the center OF
the constellation of the pleiadcs, world Of
our future residence, as we hope; world
of chorus and illumination, world OF re-
union, world where we shall be eyerlast-
ingly complete, world where our old fac
ulties will be intensified and quickened
and new faculties implanted, world of
high association with Christ, through
whose grace we got there at all, and
apostles and p~oets-Habakkuk and st.
John OF Patmos and Edward Young, his
might Thoughts" turned into eternal
day, and Horatius Bonar of modern
hymnology and Hannah More and Mrs,
Hcmans and Mrs. Sigourney, who struck
their harps till nations listened, and Da'
yld, the victor over tollatn with WHdi
seemed insufficient weapons, and Joshua
Of the prolonged day in Gibeon, and
Uavelock, the evangelist hero, and those
> thousands of men of the sword who
;. fought on the right side. What company
TO move in! What guests TO entertain
! What personages TO visit. What choir'
. to chant, What banqucts with hfted
chaliccs filled with 'the new wine OF the
kingdom" What victories to celcbrate.
The stories of that world and its holy
hilarities come in upon our soul some
> times in song, sometimes in sermon, some
: times in hours Of solitary reflection, anc
!, they are, to use the words of my text
! sweet influences. Blu there is one stal
l that affects rs more with its sweet inilu
, tnccs than The center star, the AlCyon'
=, of the Pleiades. and that is what one III
! lie author calls the Star of Jacob and an
other Bible author calls the Morning Star
or all the sweet influences that have eve
I touched our earth those that radiate from
. Christ are the sweetest. Born an Asiati'
I yillageT in d mechanics home, living
: more among hammers and saws an,
: planes than among books, yet at twelv'
: years of age confounding robed ecclcsias
? ties and starting out on a mission undo
which those born without optic nerv'
T took in the clear daylight, and those af
2 tlictcd with unresponsiVe tympanum wer
r made to hear, and those almost double'
/, up with deformities were Strengthened