Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-05-20
midnight hears their guffaw; the,

SWdSSor, 'IQ0y josie decent men OF the
sidewalk; they take the name of God
in TainS they parndy the hymn they
learned at their mother'S knee and to
all pictures of coming disaster they cry
out, WHO cares?" and to the counsel
of some Christian friend, ''Who are
/ yOu? Passing along the street some
night, you hear a shrek in q grogshOp,
the rattle of the watchman'S club, the
rush of the police. What is the matter
now? oh, this reckless young man has
been killed in a grogshOp fight. Carry
him home TO his fathers house. Par
ents will come down and wash his
wounds and close his eyes in death.
They forgive him all he ever did, al
though he cannot in his silence ask it.
The prodigal has got home at last.
Mother will go to her little garden and
get the sweetest flowers and twist them
into a chaplet for the silent heart of the
maynard boy and push back from the
bloated brow the long locks that were
once her pride. and the air will be rent
with the agony. The great dramatist
says, How sharper than a serpents
tooth it is to have a thankless childp'
Healthfu1 Recreation.
I go further and say those are I'M
Christian amusementS which become
the chief business Of a mans life. Life
is an earnest thing. Whether we were
born in a palace or howell whether we
are aff1uent or pinched, we have to
work If you do not sweat with toll,
you will sweat with disease. You have
a soul that is to be TRANSPORTED amid
the pOmp of a judgment day, and after
the sea has sung it's last chant and the
mountain shall have come down in an
avalanche of rock you will live and
think and act, high on throne where
seraphs sing or deep in a dungeon
where demons howl. In a world where
there is SO much to do for ourselves
and so much to do for others God pity
that man who has nothing to do.
Your sports are merely means to an
end. They are alterations and helps.
The arm of toll is the only arm strong
enough to bring up the bucket out of
the deep we'll Of pleasure. Amusement
is the only bower where business and
philanthropy rest while on their way
to stirring achievements. Amusements
are merely the vines that grow about
the anvil of toll and the blOssoming of
the hammers. Alas for the man who
spends his life in labOriOusly doing
nothing, his days in hunting up lOung-
ing places and loungers, his nights in
seeking out some gaslighted foolery!
The man who always has on his sport
ing jacket, ready to hunt for game in
the mountain or fish in the brook, with
no time to pray or work or read, is
not so we'll off as the greyhound that
runs by his side or the fly bait with
which he whips the stream. A man
who does not work does not know how
to play. If God had intended us to do
nothing but laugh, he would not have
given US shoulders with which to lift
and hands with which to work and
brains with which to think. The
of life are merely the
orchestra playing while the great trag-
edy of life plungeS through its five
acts infancy, childhood, manhood, old
age and death. Then exit the last
earthly opportunity. Enter the over
whelming realities of an eternal world.
l go further and say that all those
are wrong which lead into
bad company. If you go to any place
where you have to associate with the
with the Unclean, with the
abandoned, however well they may be
dressed, in the name of God quit it.
They will despoil your nature. They
will undermine your moral character,
They will drop you when you are de
stroyed They will give not one cent to
support your children when you are
dead.
| had a friend in the West-a rare
friend. He was one Of the first to wei
come me to my new home. To fine per-
sonal appearance he added q generos-
ity, frankness and ardor of nature that
made me love him like a brother. But
1 saw evil people gathering around him.
They came up from the saloons, from
the gambling bells. They piled him
with a thousand arts. They seized
upon his social nature, and he could
not stand the charm. They drove him
Oh the rocks, like a ship, full winged,
shivering on the breakers. I used to
admonish him. I would say, 'Now, I
wish you would quit those bad habits
and become a Christian "Oh," he
would reply, 81 would like to, would
like to, but I have gone SO far don't
think there is any way back" In his
moments Of repentance he would go
home and take his little girl of years
and embrace her convulsively, and COW
er her with adornments, and strew
around her pictures and toys and ev-
erything that could make her happy,
and then, as though bounded by an evil
spirit he would go out to the inf1aming
cup and the house of shame like fool
to the correction of the stocks.
The DeIi1ah of Sin.
I was summoned to his deathbed; l |
hastened; entered the room; | found |