Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-04-22


And 1 have to tell you that these stand
navy have IS flags by which they give
| combinations infinite and varieties
everlasting. And let me say to young
| men who are after n while going to
| preach Jesus Christ you will have the
| largest liberty and unlimited resource.
| You only have to present Christ in
your own way.
Jonathan Edwards preached Christ in
| the severeSt argument ever penned,
| and John Bunyan preached Christ in
the sublimeSt allegOry ever composed.
Edward PaySon, sick and exhausted,
leaned up against the side of the pulpit
and wept out his DISCOURSE while
George Whitefeld, with the manner
and the voice and the start of an actor,
overwhelmed his auditory. 1t would
have been a different thing if Jonathan
Edwards had tried to write and dream
about the pilgrims progress to the ce-
lestial city or John Bunyan had at
tempted an essay on the human will.
Brighter than the light, fresher than
the fountains, deeper than the seas, are
these gospel themes. Song has no mel
ody, flowers have no sweetness, sunset
sky has no color, compared with these
glorious themes. These harvests Of
grace spring up quicker than we can
sickle them. Kindling pulpits with their
fire and producing revolutions with
their power, lighting up dying beds
with their glory, they are the sweetest
thought for the poet, and they are the
most thrilling Illustration for the ora
for, md fl1o iY140
scene for the artist, and they are to the
ambassador of the sky all enthusiasm.
Complete pardon for direst guilt.
Sweetest comfort for ghastliest agony.
Brightest hope for grimmest death.
Grandest resurrection for darkest sep
ulcher. Oh, what a gospel to preach!
Christ over all in it. His birth, his
suffering, his miracles, his parallels,
his sweat, his tears, his blood, his
atOnement. his intercessiOn-What glo-
rious themes! Do we exercise faith?
Christ is its object. Do we have love?
1t fastens on Jesus. Have we a fond
ness for the church? 1t is because
Christ died for it, Have we q hope of
heaven? 1t is because Jesus went
ahead, the herald and the forerunner.
Saved Through Christ.
The royal robe of Demetrius was so
costly, so beautiful, that after he had
put it off no one ever dared put it on.
But this robe of Christ, richer than
that, the poorest and the wannest and
the worst may wear. ''Where sin
abOunded grace may much more
abound"
"Oh, my sins, my SINS said Martin
Luther to Staupitz; ''my sins, my sins!'
The fact is that the braWny German
student had found q Latin Bible that
had made him quake, and nothing else
ever did make him quake, and when he
found how, through Christ, he was
pardOned and saved he wrote to
friend, saying: Come over and join US,
great and awful sinners saved by the
grace of God. You seem to be only a
slender sinner, and you don't much eX-
tol the mercy Of God, but we who have
been such very awful sinners praise
his grace the more now that we have
been redeemed" Can it be that you
are so desperately egotistical that you
feel yourself in first rate spiritual trim
and that from the root of the hair to
the tip of the toe you are scarless and
immaculate? What you need is look
ing glass, and here it is in the Bible
Poor and wretched and miserable and
blind and naked from the crown of the |
head to the sole of the foot. full of
wounds and putrefying sores. No
health in US. And then take the fact
that Christ gathered up all the notes
against US and paid them and then of |
fered US the receipt.
And how much we need him in our |
sorrows, We are independent of cir
cumstances if we have his grace. Why, |
he made Paul sing in the dungeon, and |
under that grace st. John from desoIate
Patmos heard the blast of the apoca-
lyptic trumpets. After all other can
dies have been snuffed out this is the |
light that gets brighter and brighter
unto the perfect day, and after, under |
the hard hoofs of calamity, all the |
pools of worldly enjoyment have been |
trampled into deep mire, at the foot of |
the eternal rock. the Christian, from |
cups of granite, lily trimmed and vine |
covered. puts out the thirst of his soul. |
The Final Hour.
Again I remark that Christ is above |
all in dying alterations. l have not |
any sympathy with the mOrbidity |
abroad about our demise. The emperor
of Constantinople arranged that on the
day of his coronation the stonemason
should come and consult him about his
tombstone that after awhile he would
need. and there are men who are mon
omanical ON the subject of departure
from this life by death, and the more
they think of it the less prepared are
they to go. This is an unmanliness not
worthy of you, not worthy of me.
Saladin. the greatest conqueror of his
day, while dying ordered the tunic he