Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-03-11

| As one whom his mother comforteTn so
will I comfort you" It is to throw US
back upon God that we have this min
istry of tears.
| like what Martin Luther said to
Philip Melanchthon when Melanch-
thon has gone to bed discouraged and
saying to Luther: "Our cause is lost.
We have had all our work for nothing.
/ am in a state of despair Then
Luther said: "Come, Philip, we have
had enough Of such talk. Let us sing
the Forty-siXth Psalm of David: God is
our refuge and strength, a very pres
ent help in trouble; therefore will not
we fear though the earth be removed
and the mountains cast into the midst
| of the sea, though the waters thereof
roar and be troubled, though the noun
tains shake with the swelling thereof.
| SeIahv"
| Sympathy of Tears.
| Again, it is the use Of trouble to ca
| pacitate us for the office of sympathy.
| The priests under the old dispensation
were set apart by having water sprin-
kled upon their hands, feet and head,
and by the sprinkling of tears people
| pathy. When we are in prosperity, we
like to have a great many young peo-
pie around us, and we laugh when they
laugh, and we romp when they romp,
and we sing when they sing, but when
we have trouble we like plenty of old
folks around. Why? They know how
to talk. Take an aged mother, rs years
| Of age, and she is almost omnipOtent
in comfort. Why? She has been
through it all. At o'clock in the morn
ing she goes over to comfort q young
mother who has just lost her babe.
Grandmother knows all about that
trouble. Fifty years ago she felt it.
At II o'clock of that day she goes over
to comfort a widowed soul. She knows
all about that. She has been walking
in that dark valley 20 years. At
o'clock in the afternoon some one
knocks at the door, wanting bread. She
knows all about that. Two or three
times in her life she came to her last
loaf. At 10 o'clock that night she goes
over to sit up with some one severely
sick. She knows all about it. She
knows all about fevers and pleuriSieS
and broken bones. She has been doc
and pouring out bitter drops and shak-
ing up hot pillows and continuing things
to tempt a poor appetite. Drs. Aber-
nethy and Rush and Hosack and Har-
vey were great doctors, but the great
est doctor the world ever saw is an old
Christian woman. Dear me, do we
not remember her about the room when
we were sick in our boyhOOd? Was
there any one who could ever so touch
a sore without hurting it? And when
she lifted her spectacles against her
wrinkled forehead so she could look
closer at the wound it was three
fourths healed. And when the Lord
took her home, although you may have
been men and women 80, 40, so years
of age, you lay on the coffin lid and
sobbed as though you were only or 1O
years of age.
A Soul of Infinite Value.
Your troubles are educational. ] go
into the office of a lapidary, an artif1cer
in precious stones, and l see him at
work on one precious stone for few
minutes, and he puts it aside finished.
I see him take up another precious
stone, and he works on that all the
afternoon, and l come in the next day
and still find him working on it, and
he is at work on it all the week. l say
to him, why did you put only 20 min
utes' work on that one precious stone
and put a whole week on this other"
"Oh,' he says, that one upon which
put only 20 minutes work is of but lit
tie worth, and L soon got through with
it. But this precious stone upon which
1 have put such prolonged and careful
work is Of vast value, and it is to flash
in a kings cOronet." So God lets one
man go through life with only little
cutting of misfortune, for he does not
amount to much, he is small soul and
of comparatively little value, but this
other soul is of great worth, and it is
cut of pain, and cut of bereavement,
and cut of persecution, and cut of all
kinds of trouble, and through many
years, and 1 ask, Dear Lord, why all
this prolonged and severe prOcess?"
and God says: "This soul is of infinite
value, and it is to fash in a kings cor
onet. He shall be mine in the day
when l make up my Jewels"
You know, on well spread table the
food becomes more delicate at the
last. I have fed you today with the
bread of consolation. Let the table
now be cleared, and let us set on the
chalice of heaven. Let the Kings
cupbearers come in. "Oh," says some
critic In the audience, ''the Bible con-
tradicts itself. It intimates again and
again that there are to be no tears in
heaven, and if there be no tears in
heaven how is it possible that God {
will wipe any away" I answer,
"Have you never seen child crying
one moment and laughing the next
and while she was laughing you saw
+oorc cfiu ON bar. faco2'' nor