Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-04-02

pure ideal to draw him out of hiiil-
self. When Munkacsy's famous pic
ture, "Christ Before Plate" was being
exhibited in one Of our American cit
les, an unkempt and filthy looking man
was one day seen to enter the room
and to stand and look for hours upon
the sad and beautiful face OF the Sa-
viour. At first he stood before that
painting with his hat upon his head;
then, as the spirit of the picture began
TO take possession of him, he reached
up and reESbved his hat. The follow
ing day the man came back, but this
time he had washed his face and his
hands. Next day he came again and
stood before the picture. This day he
had his clothes cleaned. Day after
day, as long as that picture was in the
city, this man came, each time i'm
proved in apparel, each time with more
of divine light and love flooding his
| heart and soul. My brothers, If we
reach up for lofty ideals those ideals
will lift us up. If we only see and talk
about the dcpravities in our brothers
nature, those evil deeds will drag us
down.
The golden lips Of gospel silence are
often Just as important for our spirit
ual development as the silver tongue
OF speech. Joseph Addison, the great
English author and critic. once gave
| description of his feelings when listen
| ing to n masterpiece rendered by
noted orchestra. He said that he was
not so much impressed with the great
tidal waves of sound which dashed
themselves against his eardrums as
the waves of the mighty deep in mid
winter beat against the Holland bikes
or with the volume of mingled sounds,
as when the voices Of the cclestials
seemed to blend with the voices of the
terrestrials, as he was impressed with
the deep silence which suddenly en-
sued when the orchestra leader lifted
his baton in the midst of the piece and
comman ded his musicians to halt. Me
thought" he wrote, this short inter-
val of silence had more music in 1t
than any short space of time before or
after it." The most eloquent passages
of our spiritual development may of
ten be found when we press the golden
lips of gospel silence against our neigh
boris faults, when we are dumb and
say nothing, absolutely nothing.
Scandals Publish Themselves.
The golden lips Of gospel silence
should remain closed because, as n
rule. 1t is not necessary to emphasize
scandals. Scandals are always loud
voiced. They publish themselves AS
l speak some one sitting in pew has
been saying to himself: rs it not right
to denounce other peoples faults!
Shall we not warn our friends against
these sins? Shall we not point out
mems errors as we'll as their virtues
Did not Paul write to young Timothy
cnjoning him to rebuke as we'll as to
exhort, to reprove as we'll rs preach
the word?' Yes, that is true; but, as
rule, when man sins he does not
find very great lack of reprovers and
rebukers. While there is generally Il
, great scarcity OF exhorters and encour-
ayers when he does right.
The late DR.. Joseph Parker the grea.
London preacher, once said: "The aver
age newspaper prefers not to print
]
; should arise this morning and preach
the most eloquent evangelistic sermon
ever delivered from any English pull
pit. no special notice would be taken
t OF the same, but if | should preach In
an alpaca coat and stand under al
l open umbrella. which | might hold III
my left hand, every newspaper in Aus
| traia, New Zealand, America or the
British isles would have an account OF
the same tomorrow morning" Fur
thermore, in every community there
, are scores of men and women who
r, consider themselves self appointed
=, messengers of evil. They are ever
willing to leave the home on wasl
/ Monday or on Saturday afternoon
n when they ought to be preparing fol
=. the sacred Sabbath, if they can only
@ peddle some story of Satanic GOSSIP
= about the neighborhood. And so, my
q brother, you need not be afraid tina
- enough condemnatory emphasis vii
9 not be placed upon your neighbour
. faults The simple fact is, If some o.
ls do not tell and Systematically tall
\ about our neighbors' virtues, the sin
= ful world may come to the conclusion
Il that they have no virtues; that the.
are startling examples of total deprav
!, ity through and through.
-, A clean heart instinctively finds SOM
q good in every mans nature. A honey
. bee always scents the flower. IT is tn
p, FREELY of the night who loves to ligh
-, his little lantern and to hunt for tn
- creeping vermin in the quagmire ant
=, in the disease breeding recesses Of tn
y masmatic swamp. An old and yet
Il very suggestive story goes thus: ON
>, day wagon was driven up countr
- road in front of Pennsylvania farm
. house. The driver had all his childre
+, md goods and chattels in his vehicle
=, He was moving and wanted TO find
new home. He called out to Quake
:, farmer sitting upon the porch: "Strar
ger what kind of people live in tn
next town. mean in that town whic
10 is Just over the hill? I want to settl
- there" "Wcll, friend" answered tn
p, Quaker farmer, what kind of peopl
- did thee leave in the place from whenc
- thee camep "Oh," replied the farme
-. they were the meanest people o
=. earth. Every one Of them would sta
-. you in the back If he could. The
!. would cheat you and cut your thron