Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1902-04-28
w. c. T. u. COLUMN.
THE TRANSFORMING COMPANIONSHIP.

char acter of good Bishop Myriel in
Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables."
Jean Vatican is a convict-largely
unjustly one, and this fact maddens
him. After long service in the terrible
galleys he is at the end of his nineteen
years. sentence, and is released. But
nobody will receive him, give him
shelter, food-though he offers pay
for it; nor will anyone employ him.
He is pariah among his fellows.
At last, tired, hungry, with his
spirit utterly worn, he knocks at the
door of the good bishops house. To
his surprise he is welcomed. "Mon-
sieur," said the bishop, "take seat
and warm yourself. We are just
sitting down to supper, and while you
are having yours, your bed will be got
ready"
Vatican tells the good bishop who
he is-a convict whom nobody will
receive, a man with ban upon him.
"You must he cold, monsieur. The
wind coming down from the Alps is
chilli" is the bishops answer. "Mon-
sieur''-a light fell on the convict's
face when addressed by such title.
ITO a released felon, it was like
glass of water to shipwrecked sea-
man. Ignominy thirsts for considerate
treatment"
Well, the story is too long for full
telling. The good bishop calls Vatican
his brother: tells him that his house
is not his own, but Jesus Christ's, and
that therefore it's doors swing open
welcomingly to all children of trouble
and sorrow; bids the silver candle
sticks and silver plates grace the table
for Valiean's sake; gives him as guest
the seat of honor; and so the meal Is
eaten and the homelike talk goes on,
till Jean Vatican is shown to a soft
and snowy bed.
But after some hours of profound
slumber, the very unaccustomed SOFT
ness of the bed wakens Vatican. Then
the as yet unhealed bitterness In his
heart at his felon's plight finds lure
and temptation in the good bishops
silver. He struggles against it for
time, but the evil triumphs, and be
stealthily steals the bishops silver
and escapes. Next day the police
seize him with the stolen pelf upon
him. and hale him before the bishop.
But the good bishop dismisses the
police; bids Vatican keep the silver;
says to the poor criminal, "Jean
Vatican, my brother, you no longer
belong to evil but to good. 1t is your
soul that 1 have bought; 1 redeem it
from black thoughts and the spirit of
perdition, and I offer it to God"
And Jean Vatican goes forth a
changed mantle thrall of the bish-
ops goodness. Henceforth his one
purpose is to become himself like the
good bishop. And the subsequent
story is the detailing, notwithstaDd-
ing innumerable difficulties and the
most tragic temptations, the triumph
ing of that purpose. Companionship
with goodness has wrought goodness.
In that wonderful address upon the
"Changed Life" Professor Henry
Drummond quotes Professor Huxley
as saying:
81 protest that if some great power
would agree to make me always think
what is true and do what is right, or
condition of being turned into sort
of clock and wound up every morning
1 should close with the offer" But
we cannot be clocks. We are mer
and women, and we go by something
other than springs and weights.
met this which somebody says
know not who, "Now and then some
one sends forth the cowardly whine
why didn't God make it impossible
for me to do wrong?' My brother, &
thing constructed like that wouldn'
have been a man. 1t would have
been a machine. No one ever feel
like barring his head to combination
of wheels and belts and levers fol
performing it's work. 1t can't dt
anything else. God has made it pos
sible for every man to be honorable
and noble. If He had made it impos
sible for him to be anything else
honor and nobleness would be mean
ingless terms"
But though we cannot be clocks AM
machines, but must be men an
women, and must therefore be move'
, and energized by different method
than those which push machines, an
sure every one of us can most deepl
sympathize with Professor Huxley
longing to be, somehow, made t
, think what is true and to do what
o. 10 ,,oh10r -"AvTA