Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-03-18

WASHINGTON, March 1I.-In q new
way and from a peculiar text DR.. Tai
mage discourseS of good influences
brought to bear for the worlds i'm
provement. The text is Ezekiel tx, 2,
'tAnd one man among them was cloth
ed with linen, with a writer's inkhOrn
by his side
The poem from which my text is tax
en- is epic, lyric, dramatic, weird and
overpOwering 1t is more than HO-
meric or Dantesque. No one ever had
such divine dreams as Ezekiel. In a
vision this prophet had seen wrathful
angels, destroying angels, each with
sword, but in my text he sees merci-
full angel with an inkhorn. The re-
ceptacle for the ink in Olden time was
made out of the horn of q COW or a
ram or a rOebuck, as now it is made
out of metal or glass, and therefore was
called the inkhorn, as now we say ink
stand. We have all spoken of the pow
er of the sword, of the power of
wealth, of the power of office, of the
power of social influence, but today /
speak of the power for good or evil in
the inkstand. 1t is upon your tables,
holding Il black or blue or red liquid
1t is Il fortress, an armOry, a gateway,
n ransom or Il demolition. ''YOu mis-
take says some one. 1T is the pen
that has the power" No, my friend
What is the influence of a dry pen?
Pass it up and down a sheet of paper,
and it leaves no mark. 1t expresses no
opinion. 1t gives no warning. 1t
spreads no intelligence. 1t is the liquid
which the pen dips out of the inkstand
that does the work. Here and there a
celebrated pen, with which a Declare
ton of Independence or a Magma Char
Ia or q treaty was signed has been kept
in literary museum or national ar
chives, but for the most part the pens,
whether, as of old, made out of reed
or later Of wing or bird or still later Of
metallic substance, have disappeared,
while the liquid which the pens took
from the inkstand remains in scrolls
which, if put together, would be large
enough to enwrap the round world.
For practical, for moral, for religious,
for eternal purposes, I speak of the
mission of ''the writer's inkhorn."
The Home Inkstand.
First, mention that which is purely
domestic. The inkstand is in every
household. 1t awaits the opportunity
to express affection or coincidence or
advice. Father uses it; mother uses it;
the sons and daughters use it. 1t tells
the home news; it announces the mar
rage, the birth, the departure. the &C
cident, the last sickness, the death.
That home inkstand, what mission it
has already executed, anG what other
missions will it yet fulfill! May it
stand off from all insincerity and all
querulOusness. Let it tell only that
which it would be well to read after
the hand that wrote it and the hand
that received it can write no more.
Dip out Of that inkstand only that
which is paternal, maternal, filial, Sis
terly, brOtherly. Sacred let it be, not to
what are sometimes called the house
hold GODS" but to the one and the only
God who ''setteth the solitary in fam
lilies" Dip out of it solace for parents
on the descending grade OF years and
encouragement for those who are climb
ing the sleeps.
The carvers and glass blowers are ever
busy making more ornate and Skillful
bowls for the ink, but not one of them
will be so sacred as the old fashioned
inkStand out of which was dipped the
LIQUID for the making of the family
record on the blank leaves in the Bible
between the Old and the New Tesla
ments, not so many leaves now blank
as before recent years made birthday or
mortuary insertions. From that home
,tOTsi aI
for those large and awkward letters
that one always makes when learning
to write, and from it are taken the
trembling letters that show the wrin-
kled hand is gradually forgetting it's
cunning.
/ Oh, We who have with recent years
set up homes of your own, out of the
new home inkstand write often to the
old folks, if they be still living. A let
fer means more to them than to US,
who are amid the activities of life and
to whom postal correspondence is more
than we can manage. They await the
coming of the letter. Undertake no
great thing in life without their advice.
Old people for counsel, young people
for action. Even though through deca-
idence they may be incompetent to give
valuable opinions on important affairs,
compliment them by asking their coun-
sell 1t will dc them good; it Will make
their last days eXhilarant. Make that
home inkstand a source Of rejuvenes-
cence to those who are near the ter
minus of the earthly journey. Domes-
tic correspondence IS not attended to
as once. The newspaper, joining with
the telegraph. bears the tidings of all
the neighborhood, but swiftest revolv-
ing wheel of modern printing press
and quickest flash along the electric
wires can never do the sympathetic