Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-05-27


2entance and prayer has put himself
into alliance with the Almighty God.
Made all right by the SaviOur's grace,
this man goes to work to make the
world right. He says to himself: GOD
launched this wortS, and he never
launched q failure. The garden of
Eden was q useless moraSs compared
with what the whole world will be
when il blossoms and leaves and fash
es and resOunds with its coming glory.
God will save it anyhow, with me or
without me, but [ want to do my share.
l have some equipment, not as much
as some others, but what 1 have / will
use. l have power to frown, and 1 will
frown upon iniquity. l have power to
smile, and l will smile encoura cement
upon all the struggling. l have vo-
cabulary not so opulent as the vocab-
ulary of some others, but | have a
storehouse of good words, and 1 mean
to scatter them in helpfulness. 1 will
ascribe right motives to others when it
is possible. If 1 can say anything good
about others, l will say it. If 1 can
say nothing but evil of them, 1 will
keep my lips shut as tight as the lips
of the sphinx, which for 5000 years has
looked off upon the sands of the desert
and uttered not one word about the
deSOlatiOn. The scheme of reconstruct
ing this world is too great for me to
manage, but l am not expected to boss
this job. l have faith to believe that
the plan is we'll laid out and will be
well executed. Give me a brick and
trowel, and 1 will begin now to help
build the wall. l am not a soloist, but
1 can sing Rock of Ages to a sick
pauper. 1 cannot write a great book,
but l can pick a cinder out of childs
eye or a splinter from under his thumb
nail 1 now enlist in this army that is
going to take the world for God, and l
defy all the evil powers, human and
satanic, to discourage me. Count me
into the service. l cannot play upon a
musical instrument, but l can polish a
cornet or string harp or applaud the
orchestra"
All through that mans experience
there runs a faith that will keep him
cheerful and busy and triumphant. l
like the watchword of CromwelPs
"Ironsides'' the men who feared moth
ing and dared everything, going into
battle with the shout: ''The Lord of
hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is
our refuge Selahr' No balance that
human brain ever planned or human
hand ever constructed is worthy of
weighing such a spirit. Gold and pre-
ciOus stOnes.are measured by the carat,
which is four grains. The dealer puts
the diamond or the pearl on one side
of the scales and the carat on the other
side and tells you the weight. But we
need something more delicately con-
structed to weigh that wonderful quail
ity of faith which l am glad to know
will be recognized and rewarded for all
time and all eternity. The earthly
counterpoises on metallic
balances the iron, the coal, the articles
of human food, the solids of earthly
but he cannot test or an
nOunce the amount of things spiritual
Here is something which the Attic and
weighing systems of the
past and the metric weighing system !
of the present cannot manage. "The |
Lord weigheth the spirits"
RuinOus Ambition.
Put also into those royal scales the |
ambitious spirit. Every healthy man
and woman has ambition. The lack of |
it is a sure sign of idiOcy or immOrali-
ty. The only question is, What shall |
be the style of our ambition? To stack |
up a stupendOus fortune, to acquire |
name, to sweep everything |
we can reach into the whirlpool of our |
own selfishneSs-thati is debasng, ruin |
Gus and beautiful. If in such a spirit |
we get what we start for, we only Sc
cure gigantic 6iScOntent. No man was |
ever made happy by what he got. 1t
all depends upon the spirit with which
we get it and the spirit with which we
keep it and the spirit with which we
distribute it. Not since the world stood |
has there been any instance of COM
plete happiness from the amount of &C
emulation. Give the man of worldly |
ambition GO years of brilliant successes.
He sought for renoWn, and the nations
speak his name; he sought for aff1u-
ence, and he is put to his wits end to
find out the best stocks and bonds in
which he may make his investments;
he is director in enough banks and |
trustee in enough institutions and pres
dent of enough companies to bring on
paresis, of which he is now dying. The |
royal balances are lifted to weigh the
ambition which has controlled him a
lifetime. What was the worth of that
ambition? How much did it yield for
usefulness and heaven? Less than a
less than a grain of sand, less
han an atom, less than nothing. Have
a funeral a mile long with carriages; |
let the richest robes of ecclesiastics
rustic about the casket; caricature the
scene by choirs which chant BLESSED
are the dead that die in the Lord