Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1903-01-26


to clear He called his wife into his
study and said: Kate, this is the hap
piest time of all my life. | can truly
say that tonight l am glad God took
my money. | know, Kate, that l was
only thinking of my gold and not about
the good which / could do with it.
Kate, we will give ourselves to God
tonight. We will give to him our chill
dren and our whole future lives, and
VIC will promise God that never again
shall we work six days and twenty-five
hours each week for the world and
only give to God two hours of church
service on Sunday" That is the his
tory of your friend George. That is
the reason you now hear of George as
an elder in the church, as Il leader in
the prayer meeting, as director in the
| Young Mems Christian association, as
| q church visitor who never refuses to
| call on the poor. 1t was a dark night
when that financial storm overlook
| George on Lake Galilee, but that storm
| drove George to Christ.
My friends, you think Georges fig
urative history cannot be duplicated in
| life l tell you that it can. | declare
to you today that there are thousands
and tens of thousands of American
| merchants who would never have been
| able to see clearly the spiritual face
of Jesus except through a financial
tempest The best merchant l ever
| knew was consecrated to Christ
through Galilean tempest. Mr.. A. F.
Brooks was not only the chief member
of the old Second Presbyterian church
of Pittsburg when 1 was there, but he
was also the most influential Christian
layman in the city. He told me just
before his death that the cause of his
conservation to Christ came to him
when dishonest partner made him
lose millions of dollars. Had it not
been for the action of that dishonest
partner at that time Mr.. Brooks would
have become before closing his career
not only one of the wealthieSt men in
Pittsburg, but also one of the wealth
lest men in the United States. Oh, We
merchants, in those hours of trials and
financial embarra ssment l want you to
make your troubles the stepping stones
|
1 want you here and now to feel that
Christ constrained you to enter the
leaky boat of financial shipwreck so
that you might truly see his face, as
the disciples saw the living Christ in
the fourth watch of the night on Lake
Galilee.
In the Dark Hours.
The dark, tempeStuous nights when
the shadow of the death angels wing
lowered over the home have often been
in Gods sight the bright shining days
for the broken hearted household cir
| Gle. 1t was awfully hard for you to
hear the doctor say there was no hope
You felt that other people might die
but somehow the truth was never fully
brought home to you until then that
your mother or wife or child could ever
be taken. Since that moment not only
this life, but the next has for you al
entirely different significance.
Why did you place upon her cofhI
plate the words "At rest|' Did yOu
D mean that her sleep was to be an end
less sleep, which shall never have al
awakening? You used to revel in the
theories of Darwin's evolution. You
f used to claim that the physical maj
was only a higher form of a developed
animal. Man was born like dog; III
l must die like dog. Did you still Cling
3 to those theories when you placed upol
her coffin lid the words ''At rest!" Oh
) no. You Immediately went back to tn
sweet faith of your father and mother
You acted in your own life just a
{ Ethan Allen, the New England infidel
{ acted in reference to his dying daugh
t ter. She called the great Revolution
t ary soldier into her bedroom and said
L Papa, am going to die. Mamma say
e there are Christ and hereafter-1f
I trust him. You say there is no here
/ after l am dying, papa, and l mus
make my last decision now. WhO1
L shall l believe? Shall l accept man
y mas Christ or your infidelity?' Th
- great soldiers frame shook with emt
II ton. Then, though he had just finishe
u his famous infidel book called "Reasol
/ the Only Oracle of Man," he turne
u and said, MY darling, you had bette
W die in your mothers faith, and not
H. my unbelief." And so when the deaf
1t angels wings began to fiutter over tt
o. bed of one of your loved ones with or
IL blow it not only struck your heart, b,
e. is also knocked your infidelity clean OF
s. of your life. You Immediately said, {
~ you looked into. the pale face sleepir
I'll in the casket: Il know she lives.
&c know she is living in some other wor
~ for mo" And as Won look I'M TO 8,
he where that other world is do you n
}" feel that you were being struck by
an Galilean tempest, as were the discipl
NJ of old? Do you not feel that throus
re. the dark shadow of the death angel
lal wing you have been able to see Il
ST. spiritual face of Jesus Christ as new
Ies before? 1t was trouble that did it
e: +c,.,..,s.t,,n,,S. t:n..Lln lone which