Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1901-10-31

ltlhut u INV aAt ~
body to the earth whereof it Is made"
Had Shakespeare lost his reason when he
wrote his faith in Christ and the great
atonementP Put your antagonist n few
questions like that, aud you will find him
cxcusing himself for an engagement he
must meet Immediately or he will start
on n retreat like that which our northern
troops made for yonder Long bridge after
the battle of Manassas. A discourse OH
God's competence and mans limitations
would not have had such an effect upon
Job as the interrogation of the text,
"Canst thou bind the sweet influence of
Plciadesy'
Sweet Influences From A.nr.
These words also recognize farreaching
Influences. Job probably had no ade-
quate idea of the distance of the worlds
mentioned from our world, but he knew
them to be far off, and we, who have the
advantage of modern sidereal investiga-
ton, ought to be still more impressed than
was Job with the question of the text, asst
oats before us the fact that worlds hun
dreds of thousands of miles distant have
q grip on our world. There are sweet in
i~luenccs which hold us from afar. There
may have been in our ancestral line per-
haps 200 years ago some consccratcd man
or woman who has held over all the gen
e%rations since an influence for good which
We have no power to realize, and we in
turn, by our virtue or vice, may influence
those who shall live 200 years from now.
Moral gravitation is as powerful MS ma
tcrial gravitation, and If, as my text
teaches and science confirms, the Plei-
AIDES. which are millions of miles from our
earth, influence the earth We ought to he
J inurpSSnl with how wp may he IntilItpI-
ed by others far away back and how we
may influence others far down the fu-
tnrc. That rill away up among the Ale
c%,nnics, so thin you think it will hardly
and its way down the rocks, becomes the
mighty Ohio rolling into the Mississippi
and rolling into the sea. That word YOU
utter. that deed you do, may ugmcn it.
self as the years 90 by until rivers cease
to roll and the ocean itself shall be dried
up in the burning of the world. Paul,
who was all the time saying important
things, said nothing more startlingly sug-
gestive than when he declared, "None of
us liveth or dieth to himself" Words,
thoughts, actions, nave an eternity of
fight. As job could not bind the sweet
influences of the Seven Stars, as they
were called, so we cannot arrest or turn
aside the good projected long ago. Those
influences were started centuries before
our cradle was rocked and will reign CEN
turtles after our graves are dug. oh, il is
q tremendous thing to live. God help us
TO live Alright.
Astronomers can easily locate the Plci-
AIDES. They will take you into their OBJ
servatorics on n clear night and aim their
revealing instrument toward the part in
the heavens where those seven stars have
fl.ir Inlittl. and thnv will point IN fha
constellation Taurus. and you can see for
yourself. But it is impossible to point to
Influences far back that have affected our
character and will affect our destiny. We
know the influences near by-paternal.
maternal, conjugal-but by the time we
have gone back two generations or Mt
most three our Investigations falter and
fail. Through the modern interesting
habit of searching back to find the ances
trail tree we may find a long list Of
names, but they are only names. The
conservation or abandonment of ONE one
200 years ago was not recorded. 1t would
not be so important if you and | by our
good or bad behavior blessed or blasted
only those Immediately around us, but
our goodness or Our badness will reach as
far as the strongest ray of Alcyone-yea,
across the etcrnities. Under this consid-
Grafton what do you think of those who
give themselves up to f~rivolity or idlencss
and throw away fifty years of their ex-
istcncc "a though they were shells or peb-
hlcs or pods instead Of embryo eternities?
Surprises of the Next World.
| suppose one of the greatest surprises
of the next world will be to see what
wide. farreaching influence for good or
evil we have all eXcrtcd. | am speaking
of ourselves, who are only ordinary peo-
pie. But who can fully appreciate the
farrcaching good done by men Of wealth
in Great Britain for the working classes
Mr.. Lister of Bradford, Edward .Akroyd
of IIaliGlx. Thomas Skies of Hudders-
field. Joseph Wentworth and Josiah Ma
son and Sir Titus Salt? This last great
soul, with his vast wealth, provided I1t
houses ut cheap rent for 1900 working
people and chapel and cricket ground and
croquet lawn and concert hall and say
ings bank where they might deposit some
of their earnings and life insurance for
those who looked further ahead and bath
houses and parks and museums and lee
ture halls with philosophical apparatus,
the generous example of those men of a
previous generation being copied in many
. places in Canada and the United States,
making life, which would otherwise be a
prolonged drudgery, an inspiration and 9
JOY.
At Dunfermline. Scotland, is n stone
; house, the room on the second tool
twelve feet by fourteen in size. The m,
nual rent of that room years ago was
, 500. That was the one room in which
the father and mother of andrew Carne
= gle lived with the whole family, lntlu
ences were started there which mad An
, drew Carnegie the most distinguished
philanthropist of all time, and what hi
-, gifts Of great libraries on both sides the
sea will do for the coming generations
do not think any angel OF God would
have enough capacity to calculate. WhC
could bind the sweet influences of tina
,, plciades?
= After awhile there will he a man VIII
u will do for churches and missionary soci
/, cites and Bible distribution what Andrew
=, Carnegie has done for libraries, and thcI
the millennium will be here. The millcn
' MUM is here. The shower OF u~ncounteC
! millions of dollars for all good purpose
] think is the first step of- that COLDER
; thousand years Of peace and holmes
= which have been predicted and for which
! the world has so long waited. AS tn
, snowdrop belongs to January and the vic
j let to March and the honeysuckle to Jun,
= ard the chrysanthemum to November, 81
u this bloom and fragrance of generosit,
. on the part Of the worlds wealth meal