Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-08-20

Moses IN ORDER to throw the spiritual
responsibilities upon his Joshuas. He
says to us one and all. "It Is not right
for you, OH young man, to learn to
lean upon your fathers and mothers
spiritual life, You must learn to lean
upon my divine arm, and mine alone.
And in the leaning I will protect thee
and care for thee as I did for your
Christian parents"
The Sweetest Notes of God.
The sweetest gospel music is more
often found to be the echo of dirge
than to come from n fantasia or ser
enade or a dithyramb. Mozart's Last
Requiem" composed for his own OBJ
sequies, was his masterpiece. A beau
tiful legend teaches this: Many years
ago German knight wanted to change
the towers Of his castle into great
nolan harp. When the strings were
first strung from tho towers no sound
came thorefrom. No note was struck,
because the slender fingers Of the spir-
its OF the summer winds were not
strong enough 70 bend the strings, al
though they were able to lightly touch
the billiards. had wrists punched with
muscles. With the strong touch of mu-
steal masters they began to run the
gamut Of every scale. Accompanied by
the shriekings of the tornadocs, the
strings of the castled towers began to
vibrate and send forth the sweetest Of
melodies. God sounds his sweetest
t,O hn -,ri,, ,f 81
itual hearts when we seem to be the
most weak and helpless. He often de-
velops his children by the pruning hook
Of trouble. He makes us lean heaviest
upon the divine heart when our own
hearts have been gashed open by the
gravedigcer's spade, and when the
dark nights of sorrow have obliterated
all considerations save the one star
which cleaned over the Bethlehem crib
on the night that Jesus was born.
God will bless the Christian workers
Of the present generation because
Christ has emphatically and distinctly
promised that by the weak things Of
this world God shall confound the
mighty. That means that no child of
God is too young to lead sinners to tho
cross no Christians arm is too weak
to WELD a sickle in Gods harvest field;
no lip is too dumb to utter farrcach.
ing prayer, if that lip only belongs to
true disciple Cf Jesus Christ
When E1oGuencc Meant silence.
We can prove this statement by TO-
counting the history of the famous re-
vival services held among the students
of Edinburgh n few years ago. Henry
Drummond of blessed memory, Henry
Drummond. whose chief MISS, was
given TO the redemption for Christ of
student life, gave an account OF this
movement on his last visit to this
country y couple athletes of the
University of Edinbul gh were about IA
sail as foreign missionaries. Their
classmates wanted to give them n big
farewell. They hired one of the lar.
-cSt halls in the city. As those athletes
we're about to go forth as missionaries
.hcy prepared a big religious service.
after these young men had departed
few of the Christian students left in
the Colleg" came together and decided
y
llgious service every week. These
services We're to be addressed for the
most part by the students themselves.
\ committee was selected and arrange.
ncnts made. Every student who was
GSkod 10 address that meeting had to
nave two Characte ristics-the one. q
pure. noble life; the other, he had to be
n Of lui 10
to m invitation to address that meeting
was cloqucncc. If man was known
10 have the silver tongue" of speech
be was compelled to keep a golden
silence What was the result Of these
series Of meetings, held Sunday after
Sunday in old Edinburgh by plain I'M
assuming and, in most cases. by zone
talent" students? Not only did crowds
OF students weekly hll the hall, but
scores and hundreds of young men
were brought TO confess Christ. The
like Of that religious influence had
never before been seen in old Scotland,
although Edinburgh had been blessed
with pulpitcers whose names were
famous all around the world.
Then the result of these meetings
began to spread. These humble. one
talent young men in patches of four
and five were sent to other colleges
and universities and also to villages
and towns These plain young men,
by consecrnted Christian lives, not
only moved Edinburgh, but also all
Scotland and all Eneland and all
Wales and, to some extent, religtously
influenced the whole world. Mark you.
my brother, that religious influence
was not started by Jonathan Ed.
wards or a Robert McChevna or q
Frederick Robertson. but by plain
humble individuals, who were conse.
Grating their lives TO Jesus Christ If
God can and did bless those modern
Joshuas will he not bless us as indi-
yiduals If we here and now consecrate
our lives to his service and pray and
plead AMI work as we ought to pray
and plead and work? He will, my
Christian brother. He will, he will.
He will, even though we may be phys
ically and mentally weakiings. He
Will If we Will only throw ourselves
upon his divine and ommpotent
strength.
God will bless the Old as well as the
young. Oh how often in religious
work l have heard this excuse given:
II believe that ought TO give myself
up TO religious work, but the trouble Is
am too old. l have wasted the best
part Of my life. l am too old to start