Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-11-11

VIC put our boat IN the rapids Just
above Niagara and try TO row up
stream.
Force of Habit
4 physician tells his patient hat he
U ust quit the use of tobacco. as it Is
destroying his health. The man re-
plies. Il can stop that habit easy
enough" He quits the use of the weed.
He goes around not knowing what to
do with himself. He cannot up a
column OF figures; he ann sleep
nights. 1t seems as if the world had
turned upside down. He feels his bust
ness is going to ruin. Where he was
kind and obliging he is scolding and
fretful. The composure that character
lied him has given way TO a fretful
restIessness. and he has become a COM
plete fdget. What power is it that has
rolled a wave of woe over the earth
and shaken a portent in the heavens?
He has quit tobacco. After awhile he
says: Il am going to do as | please;
the doctor does not understand my
case l am going back to my old hab-
it's" And he eturns. Everything as
~ its usual composure. His bust
ness seems to brighten. The world
becomes an attractive place to live in.
His children. seeing the difference, hail
the return of their fathers genial dis
position. What wave of color has
dashed blue into the sky and green
ness into the mountain foliage and
the glow of sapphire into the sunset?
What enchantment has lifted a world
of beauty and joy on his souls He
has resumed tobacco.
The fact is we all know in our own
experience that habit is a taskmaster.
AS long as we obey it it does not chas-
tise US. But let US resist it and we
find that We are dashed with scorpion
whips and bound with ship cable and
thrown into the track of bone break
ing Juggernauts.
In Paris there is q sculptured repre-
sentatiOn of Bacchus, the god of revel-
ry. He is riding On a panther at full
leap. Oh. how suggestiTet Let every
one who is speeding on bad ways IN
derstand he is not riding a dOcile and
well broken steed, but that he is riding
a monster wild and bloodthirsty and
going at a death leap.
have also to say if a man want to
return from evil practices society re-
pulses him. The prodigal, wishing to
return, tries to take some professor of
religion by the hand The professor of
religion looks at him, looks at the fad
ed apparel and the marks of dissipation,
and instead of giving him a firm grip
OF the hand offers him the tip end of
the longer fingers of the left hand,
which is equal to striking a man in the
face. 9Th, how few Christian people un-
derstand how much gospel there is in a
good, honest handshaking! Sometimes
when you have felt the need of encour
agemeut and some Christian man has
taken you heartily by b HAND have
you not felt thrilling through every
fiber of your body, mind and soul an en-
enlargement that vas just what you
needed2
Lift Up the Fallen.
The prodigal, wishing to get Into good
society. enters a prayer meeting. Some
good man without much sense greets
him by saying: why are you here?
You are about the last person that l
expected to see in a prayer meeting.
Well, the dying thief was saved, and
there is hope for you" You do not
know anything about this, unless you
have learned that when a man tries to
return from evil courses of conduct he
runs against repulsions innumerable.
We say of some man, IL lives a
block or two from the church, or half a
mile from the church" In all our great
cities there are men who are 5000
miles from ~church-vast deserts OF in
difference between them and the house
of God. The fact is we must keep ou1
responsibility though thousands perish.
Christ sat with publicans and sinners,
but if there come to the house of God
a man with marks of dissipation upOn
him people are almost sure to put up
their hands in horror, as much as to
say, rs it not Shocking?"
How these dainty, fastidious Chris
ttans in all orr churches are going TO
get into heayen / do not know unless
they have an especial train Of ears
cushioned and upholstered, each one q
car to himself. They cannot go with
the great herd of publicans and Sin
ners. o We who curl your lip of SCORE
on the fallen, L tell you plainly that if
you had been surrounded by the same
influences instead Of sitting today amid
the cultured and the refined and the
Christian you might have been a
erOuching wretch in stable or ditch
covered with filth and abomination! It
is not because we r naturally any
better, but because the mercy of God
a protected US. Those that are
brought up in Christian circles and
watched by Christian ~parentage should
not be SO hard on the fallen.
l think also that men are often him
dered from returning by the fact that
churches are anxious about their mem
bership. toe anxious about their de-
nominations. and they rush out when