Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-04-09


that your brother ministers Will speak
well of you? Forty per cent. How
large percentage represents the de-
sire to be intellectual and to have the
brainy men of Edinburgh praise your
sermons? Ten per cent. How large
percentage represents your desire to
have your children move in good So
ciety? Fifteen per cent. What per.
centagc of your ambition is left to
serve, for Christ's sake, the poor and
the helpless? Only about 8 per cent
OF your whole life" Dr. Bonar awoke
from the dream horror struck. In that
midnight hour he then and there prom
scd to give himself wholly up to the
higher motive of serving for Christs
sake alone. Like that Edinburgh min
lister. may we be willing to honor Jesus
not so much for what he may do for
us as for what we may do for him.
Thc FickIeness Of Humanity.
Palm Sunday emphasizes the reckless
and unrcasoning fckleness of the hui
man race Christ. the popular favor
lite, being led to cruciflxion within six
days after Ms triumphal entry into Je-
rusalem, has his counterpart all over
tho world. Human likes and dislikes,
adulation and denunciation, approba-
ton and prejudice are very apt to tread
upon each others heels. The oscillat-
ing pendulum which swings one way
gathers momentum to swing rs far the
other way.
II we make an idol of common hui
man clay. as the French did Of General
Boulanger In 1889. then in n very little
while we may become iconoclasts and
smash our idol and also the shrine be-
fore which we once worshiped. Presi-
dent Carnot understood this fickleness
of the human race. When the Man on
Horseback" as Boulanger was called,
threatened to ride down the Champs
Elysees and overthrow the French re-
public, some Of the leading statesmen,
like ex- Premier Waldeck Rousseau,
wanted the president to quietly lead
Boulanger to the outskirts of the city
and have him shot for the good Of
France. The president only smiled at
his friends anxiety. He said to them:
WAIT, wait Just n few months. The
rabble will turn. Then the most popu-
lar man of France will be the most de-
spiscd. Such popular alteration as this
is always short lived" Cnrnot spoke
better than he knew Not only did the
tidal wave of public alteration which
threatened to lift the MAN on Horse
back into the Tulcries subside. but
within n few months General Boulan-
ser was fricndlcss. In despair he com
mitted suicide by the grave Of his mis-
tress, Nine Bonucmain, while an exile
in Brussels
The Duke of Wellington well under
stood the flckleness of popular ap-
plausc. Long after the conQucror of Ma
poleon had regaincd his popularity and
had become the most beloved subject
Of the Victorian empire he always kept
the fence around his city home broken
down as an object lesson to recall the
time when the London mob battered it
down TO show their disgust at one of
his official acts as prime minister,
William T.. Gladstone was again and
again execrated in the streets of the
British capital, through which his dead
body was afterward carried to sleep its
last sleep among the honored dead of
Westminster, the Prince Of Wales, now
king. being among the pallbearers.
Joan of Arc, who led the French ar
mics to victory. was deserted by her
followers, who came to believe her a
witch and a devil The same tongue
which once charmed the Roman assem-
blics was afterward cut out from the
mouth of Cicero by the mobs and nailed
up in the Roman Forum, with the cpl
taph, Thou fool, wag no more" All,
we do not have TO stand among the vo-
ciferating multitudes of Palm Sunday
! 10 hear and see the ficklcnesS of the
human race, We can see everywhere
the human idols being shattered. The
/ same voices that are ready to cry TO us.
Put him upon throne" are the voices
which tomorrow will call, Lead him
away TO execution
Popular Applause Worth Seeking:
Now, my brother, as the alteration of
| the human race is so short lived, it
does not pay to sacrifice every thing for
! popular applause. Cannot and will MOI
we live with the noblcr and higher pur
pose of trying TO have God rather than
man think well Of us? Would that we
might one and all heed the blessed ad-
/ vice which "Chincsc' Gordon a short
! time before his death wrote to friend.
then living in distant England;
Dear Friend Why will you keep
caring for what the world says? Try,
/ oh. try TO be no longer Il slave to ii.
| You have little idea Of the comfort Of
freedom from it. 1t is bliss. All this
caring for what people will say is your
pride. Hoist your flag and abide 10y it.
Thank God | am quite well and 50
happy now that | resigned the govern
mont of the province and put all tho
faults on my Friend He is able to
bear them and will use me as long rs
he pleases as his mouthpiecc, and
when he il done with me he will put
me one side. Casting all your care on
him has just come to mind"
Palm Sunday indicates the city Ms
the greatest of all backgrounds where
the spiritual conquest Of n sinful world
is to be decided. 1t is the field of Es
draelon, where the Satanic and divine
powers will make their last stand and
grip and wrestle in mortal combat II
is the Sedan where the dcmoniac In