Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-06-03

in me? Hope thou in God, for 1 shall
yet praise him who is the health of my
countenance and my God
UnwhoIesOme HumOr.
Again, is your talent that Of wit or
alumor? Use it for God. Much of the
worlds wit is damaging. 1Iost of sa-
tire has a sting in it. Much of carica-
ture is malevOlent. Much of smart re-
tort is vitriolic. In order to say smart
things how many will sacrifice the feel
ings of others The sword they carry
is keen, and it is employed to thrust
and lacerate. But few men in all the
world and in all the churches realize
that if wit is bestowed it is given them
for useful, for improving, for healthful
purposes. If we all had more of it and
knew how to use it Alright, how much
it would improve our Christian CONVEX
satiOn and prayer meeting talk and SER
mon! Robert South and Rowland Hill
and Jeremy Taylor and Dean Swift
and Lorenzo Dow and George White
field used their wit and their humOr to
gather great audiences and then lead
them into the kingdom of God. Fri
volity is repulsive in religious discus
sion, but like the humor of Job when
he said to his insolent critics, mo
doubt but We are the people, and wis
dom shall die with you," and [ like the
humor Of the prophet Elijah, who told
the Baalites to pray louder, as their
god was out hunting or on an eXcur-
sion or in such loud conversation that
he could not hear them. l like the Sar-
casm of Christ when he told the self
righteous Pharisees that they were so
good they needed no help, 'The whole
need not physician, but they that are
sick" or when in mirthful hyperbole
he arraigns the hypocritical teachers of
his day who were so particular about
little things and careless about big
things, saying, Eye blind guides that
strain at a gnat and swallow a camel"
and the Bible is all ablaze with cpl
gram, words surprisingly put and
phraseOlogy that must have made the
audiences of Paul and Christ nudge
each other and exchange glances and
smile and then appropriate the tremen-
dOus truths of the gospel. There are
some evils you can laugh down easier
than you can preach down. The Ques-
ton is always being asked, Why do not
more people go to church, prayer meet
ing and other religious meetings?
will tell you. We of the pulpit and the
pew are SO dull they cannot stand it.
But when we ask why people do not go
to church we ask a misleading QueS-
ton. More people go now to church
than ever in the worlds history, and
the reason is in all our denominations
there is new race of ministers step
ping into the puIpits which are not the
apostles of humdrum. Sure enough,
we want in the Lords army the heavy
artillery, but we want also more men
who, like Burns, a farmer at Gettys-
burg, took a musket and went out on
his own account to do a little shooting
different from the other soldiers. The
church of God is dying of the proprie-
ties
Set Good Example.
Or is your talent an opportunity to
et a good example? One person doing
fight under adverse circumstances will
accomplish more than many treatises
about what is right. The census has
never been taken of lovely old folks
Most of us, if we have not such a one
in our own house now, have in our
memory such saint. We went to
those old people with all our troubles.
They were perpetual evanGelists, by
their soothing words. by their hopeful
ness Of spirit, an indispensable help.
l cannot see how heaven could make
them any IOvelier than they are or
were. But there are exceptions. There
is a daughter in that family whose ia
Their is impatient and the mother
querulous. The passage of many years
does not always improve the DISPOSE
ton, and there are a great many dis
agreeable old folks. Some of them for
get that they were ever young them
selves, and they become untidy in their
habits and wonder how, when their
asthma or rheumatism is so bad, other
people can laugh or sing and go on as
they do. The daughter in that family
bears all the peevishness and unreal
sonable behavior of seniIity without
answering back or making any kind
of complaint. If you should ask her
what her five talents are or her one
talent is, she would answer that she
has no talent at all. Greatly mistaken
is she. Her one talent is to forbear
and treat the childishness of the old
as we'll as she treats the childishneSs
of the young. She is no musician, and
besides there may not be piano in
the house. She cannot skillfully swing
a croquet mallet or golf stick. Indeed,
she seems shut up to see what she can
do with a l90lp and broom and a
brush and other household implements.
She is the personifcation of patience,
and her reward will be as long as
heaven. Indeed, much of her reward
may be given on earth. She is in a
rough college, from which she may
after awhile graduate into brightest