Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1901-08-01

| latous through such n channel. If the
secret society has advantaged you in an
| honorable calling. it is II good one, but
has your credit failed? Are bargain max
ers now more anxious how they trust you
with bale of goods? Have the men
whose names were down in the CONNER
cal agency AL before they entered the
society been going down since in COM
mcrcial standing? Then look out. You
and | every day know of commercial cs-
adjustments going to ruin through the
| social excuses of one or two members,
| their fortune beaten to death with ball
| players bat or cut amidships with the
front prov of the regatta or going down
under the swift hoofs of the fast horses
or drowned in the large potations Of
cognac or Monongahela. That secret So
ciety was the Loeb Earn. Their business
was the Vile de Havrc. They struck,
and the Vile dc ITavre went under!
The third test by which you may know
whether the society to which you belong
is good or bad is this: What Is it's effect
on your sense of moral and religious OBJ
legation? Now, If | should take the
! names of all the people in this audience
! and put them on n roll and then / should
lay that roll back of this organ and a
! hundred years from now some one should
| take that roll and call it from to u
! there would not one OF you answer.
say that any society that makes me for
get that fact is bad society.
/ When | go to Chicago, | am sometimes
/ perpcXed at Buffalo, as | suppose many
travellers are. as to whether it Is better
to take the Lake Shore route or the Mich
! igan Central, equally expeditions and
equally safe. getting 10 their destination
at the same time. But suppose that
! hear that on one route the track is torn
| up, the bridges are down and the switches
are unlocked. 1t will not take me great
| while to decide which road to take. Now,
/ here are two roads in the future-the
| Christian and the un-Christian, the safe
and the unsafe Any institution or any
association that confuses my IDEAS in re-
gard to that fact is bad institution and
| n bad association. | had prayers before
| / Joined that society. Did | have them
nfterward! | attended the house OF God
before | connected myself with that un-
ion. DO | absent myself from religious
influences?
In the Last Hours.
Which would you rather have in your
| hand when you come to die, pack Of
cards or Bible? Which would you
rather have pressed to your lips in the
closing moment, the cup of Belshazzarcan
wassal or the chalice Of Christian COM
munion? Whom would you rather have
! for your pallhearers. the elders of Il
| Christian church or the companions
! whose conversation was full Of slang and
! innuendo? Whom would you ratlvr have
| for your eternal companions, those men
who spend their evenings betting. gam
na,ti,, nd tnl1t
/ vile stories or your little child, that bright
girl whom the Lord took: Oh, you would
not have been away so much nights,
would you, if you had known she was
going away SO soon? Dear me, your
house has never been the same place
since. Your wife has never frightened
up. She has never got over 1t. She
| never will get over it. How long the
evenings are with no one to put 10 bed
and no one to whom to tell the beautiful
! Bible storics What a pity it is that you
| cannot spend more evenings at home in
| trying to help her bear that sorrow You
| can never drown that grief in the wine
| cup. You can never break away from
| the little arms that used to be flung
! around your neck when she used to say,
| Papa, do stay with me tonight, do stay
with me tonight" You will never be
able to wipe away from your lips the
dying kiss of your little girl. The fas-
| cination of n bad secret society is SO
great that sometimes a man has turned
his back on his home when bis child was
! dying Of scarlet fever. He went away.
Before he got back at midnight the eyes
had been closed. the undertaken had done
his work, and the wife, worn out with
three weeks watching. lay unconscious
in the next room. Then the returned
| father comes up stairs, and he sees the
/ cradle gone and he says, What is the
matter" On the judgment day he will
find out what was the matter.
Oh, man astray, God help you! l am
going to make Il very stout rope. You
know that sometimes ropemaker will
take very small threads and wind them
together until after awhile they become a
ship cable. And ! am going to take some
very small, delicate threads and wind
them together until they make a very
stout rope. l will take all the memories
of the marriage day-a thread of laugh
ter, thread OF light thread Of music
thread OF banqueting thread of con
gratuIation-and twist them together.
and | have one strand. Then | take a
thread of the hour of the first advent in
"a
preceded, and a thread Of the light that
followed and a thread Of the beautiful
scarf that little child used to wear when
she bounded out at eventide to greet
you, and then a thread of the beautiful
dress in which you laid her away for the
resurrection. and then l twist all these
threads together, ANA | have another
strand. Then | take thread of the
scarlet robe of suffering Christ, and a
thread Of the white railnent Of your loves
ones before the throne, and string Of the
! harp cherubic, and a string OF the harp
seraphc, and | twist them all together,
and have third strand. oh" you
say, either strand is enough to hold fast
world No | will take these strands,
and will twist them together, and one
end of that rope | will fasten, not to the
communion table, for it shall be renov-
ed; not to pillar of the organ. for that
will clumble in the ages but | wind il
round and ronnd the cross of a sympa
thizing Christ, and, having fastened one
end Of the rope to the cross, | throw the
other end to you. Lay hold of it! Pull
for your life, Pull for heaven.
a NnnN