Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1902-07-14

siQued, yet wonderful to say, some of
the mightiest Christian heroes and
heroines have been men and women
who were physical weaklings. Some
of the most famous mental and spir-
itual giants of the ages have been
those whose physical frames were so
frail that they could have been de-
stroyed almost as easily as dew
drop could be flung from the surface
of leaf or q humming birds life
could be crushed out between the
thumb and the forefinger of a mans
hand John Summerfield's body was
so frail that it withered away under
the touch of consumption while he
was yet q boy. John Summerfield
died when he was but twenty-seven,
yet he lived long enough, with that
frail body, to bring the gospel mes
sage to the whole English speaking
race Of his time. Fanny Crosby, the
inspired hymnologist, who has written
over 5000 hymns, by means of which
many thousands Of souls have nestled
safe In the Arms of Jesus (Which is
perhaps her most popular hymn, has
such a weak, frail little body that
there seems to be nothing to her phys
ically, and in addition to her other
physical infirmities God put out the
light of her two eyes. And there she
sits, in the darkness of her own room,
in order that with her eyeless sockets
she may better see the face of Jesus
Christ. Frances E. Willard in all prob
ability never saw a perfect we'll day
in thirty years, yet with her weak
body she headed one of the mightieSt
reform movements of her time. With
| her devoted companions she toured up
and down this land, speaking in every
town and city of 10000 inhabitants or
over. When she became too feeble to
travel, in order to ,ep her from work
| ing her friends ent her across the
seas. Yet even tt IRE, under the shad-
ow of the trees, lie would write her
i letters, which reused all the women
of Christendom to better deeds for
! God and humanity.
To show what power this sickly little
woman was able to exercise, male
auditor gave his impression of her to a
friend in this way: when she COM
menced to speak, l felt sorry for her.
She seemed to be such a wee little bit
of a sickly woman, so very frail and
helpless, but when Frances e. Willard
had been speaking a short time this
wee little bit of woman seemed to
me to grow nine feet tall, and she
seemed to have in her hand a battering
ram with which she was pounding up
on the door of my heart until | had to
open it and let the Saviour in." To
show what was the influence of this
frail little woman and the work which
she did l would quote statement
made by Wendell Phillips. He turned
to young man, who was complaining
that there were no great reformers to-
day, because there were no great re-
forms to champion, and said: Young
man. did you hear Frances E. Willard
speak tonight? If you did, in that
frail, little sick body you saw one of
the mightiest powers for good this
world has ever seen. You also saw her
denouncing. perhaps. the mightiest
curse of all ages, the curse of intoXi-
cants. Go and do as the sickly Frances
E. Willard is doing"
The Solicitations of the Saints.
Now, to you who are sitting before
me today with the pale face of an in
valid | bring the salutations of the
saints who have lived in the C3sarean
palaces of physical infirmity. l would
tell you to do something for God in
spite of your bodily pain, as blind John
Milton did; as Bella Cooke, who has
been bedridden for over forty years, is
doing; as Paul did, who was Gin bodily
presence weak" Your very physical
sufferings ought to bring you closer to
Christ Your very sicknesses ought tC
make you the more anxious to do some
thing for the Saviour now that your
time on earth may be short. They
ought to make you as anxious to dc
something for Christ as was the dying
president of Union college, who, wheI
his physician told him he had but one
hour on earth to live, said, Then place
me upon my knees, that l may spen(
that hour in prayer with God, pleading
for the salvation of sinful souls!
| Would that today, in the presence o.
: these saints who have lived in tn,
modern Caesars palaces Of physica
torture, we might all consecrate on
= frail as well as our well bodies to thu
: service Of the Lord Jesus Christ!
: l would encourage those Christians
e also who are trying to maintain thei
!. Christian integrity in spite Of an evi
e past. By this statement l mean thos,
r Christians whose past sins have beer
T heralded over the world, even a
d Gains sin was known by the blacl
+ mark which had been stamped upol
Y the murderer's brow. If it is hard TO
s a young girl to be good and pure AM
e true when she is living in a Christian
r home and has practically never beel
: out Of her mothers care, how nue.
d harder must it be for a young girl
r be good and true and pure when sh
/ hod hor 10 fod n