Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-03-06

not 80 destructive as the antarctic
Once In awhile the arctic will let OK.
plorers come back, but the antarctic
hardly ever. When mt the south pole a
ship sails in, the door Of ice is almost
sure to be shut against its return. So
life to many millions Of people at the
south and many millions OF people at
the north is a prolonged SILVER. But
when / say that this Is cold world
chiefly mean fguratively. II you want
to know what is the meaning Of the or
binary term OF receiving the cold
shoulder" get out Of money and try to
borrow. The conversation may have
been almost tropical for luxuriance of
thought and speech, but suggest your
necessities and see the thermometer
drop to so degrees below zero, and in
that which TIL a moment before had
been a warm room. Take what is an
unpopular position on some public
question and see your friends Fly as
chaff before windmill. AS far as
myself is concerned, | have no word Of
complaint, but look of day by day
and see communities freezing out men
and women Of whom the world is not
worthy. Now 1t takes after one and
now after another. It becomes popular
to depreciate and defame and execrate
and lie about some people. This is the
best world ever got into, but it is the
meanest world that some people ever
got into. The worst thing that ever
happened to them was their cradle, and
the best thing that will ever happen to
them will be their grave.
WhaHpeople want Is warmth. Many
years ago man was floating down on
the ice of the Merrimac, and great eff
forts were made to rescue him. Twice
he got hold of q plank thrown to him
and twice he slipped away from 1t, be-
cause that end of the plank was cover
ed with ice, and he cried out, For
I Gods sake give me the wooden end Of
the plank this timer and, this done he
was hauled to shore. The trouble is
that in our efforts to save the soul
there are too much GOODNESS and icy
Formally, and so the imperied one
slips off and floats down. Give it the
other end of the plank; warmth Of
sympathy, warmth of kindly associa-
ton, warmth of genial surroundings.
| The world declines to give 1t and in
many cases has no power to give it.
and here is where Christ comes in,
and as on a cold day, the rain beating
and the atmosphere full Of sleet the
hen clucks her chickens under her
wings, and the warmth of her own
breast puts warmth into the wet feath-
ers and the chilled feet of the infant
| group of the barnyard. so Christ says
| to those sick and frosted and disguised
and frozen of the world: Come in out
| Of the March winds of the worlds crit
! icism, come in out Of the sleet of the
worlds assault. come in out of world
that does not understand you and does
not want to understand you. / will
comfort, and l will soothe, and I will
! be your warmth as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wing" Oh,
the warm heart of God is ready for all
those to whom the world has given the
cold shoulder.
Christ Takes the Storm.
But notice that some one must take
the storm for the chickens. All, the
hen takes the storm. / have watched
her under the pelting rain. l have seen
her in the pinching frosts. Almost
frozen to death or almost strangled in
the waters. and what a fight she makes
for the young under wing if dog or
hawk or man come too near, And
| Al. ~ -, ~
for us. What food Of anguish and
tears that did not dash upon his holy
soul? What beak of torture did moi
pierce his vitals? What barking Ger
berus of hell was not let out upon him
from the kennels? Yes, the hen takes
the storm for the chickens, and Christ
takes the storm for US. Once the tenn
pest rose so suddenly the hen could not
get with her young back from the new
ground to the barn, and there she il
under the fence half dead. And now
the rain turns TO snow, and it is ar
awful night, and in the morning the
wilderness about the gills and the beal
down in the mud show that the mother
is dead, and the young ones come ou
and cannot understand why the mother
does not scra tch for them something t
eat, and they walk over her wings ant
call with their tiny voices. but there /:
no answering cluck. She took the
storm for others and persisted. Pool
thing Self sacrificing even unto death
And does it not make you think Of
him who endured all for us? SO thu
wings under which we come for spir
itual safety are blood spattered wings
are night Swallowed wings, are tempes
torn wings. In the Isle of Wight
saw the grave of Princess Elizabeth
who died while a prisoner at Carts
brook castle. her finger on an open Bi
Bile and pointing to the words, Come
unto me all We that labor and arr
heavy laden. and will give you rest
Oh. come under he wings
But now the summer day Is almos
past, and the shadows of the house ant
barn and wagon shed have heightened
The farmer, with scythe or hoe Of
shoulder, is returning from the fields
The oxen are unyoked. The horses ar
crunching the oats at the full bin, TIL
air is bewitched Of honeysuckle an
wild brer. The milkman, pail in hand
is approaching the barnyard Tn
fowls, keeping early hours, are collec,
ing their young "Cluckw "Cluck,
"Cluckw And soon all the eyes of tina
feathered nursery are closed. TIL