Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1903-03-30

ID certainly good Characteristic. !
feel that can trust him on that &C
count ! always like him around I
know when / am absent he will speak
well OF me. as he does Of Others" On
the other hand, when man has not
the golden lips Of gospel silence people
say of him: 81 do not like that man.
He may be good. kind and true, but he
certainly has a poor way of showing
it You cannot be in his company Eve
minutes before he is harshly criticising
some one He criticises his wife, his
mother, his employer, his absent friend
as well as his absent enemy. / always
feel when / am with him that he Is
watching me, so that he can harshly
criticise me when my back is turned.
do not like such man around"
This harsh criticism which we may
utter against our neighbors always has
a bad reactionary effect upon those
who make it. Therefore if we want to
have a great influence for good it is
very essential for US, for the most part,
to talk only about the virtues and the
good qualities of those with whom we
dation that a gospel minister can have
is that he speaks we'll of other minis
tiers; lawyer. that he speaks well of
lawyers; doctor, that he has kind
word to speak about his brother physi-
clans; a wife, that she speaks we'll of
| other wives and other wives children;
a servant, that she speaks well of her
| late mistresses. And yet the strange
| fact of life is many of us think we are
enhancing the value of our regulations
when we are picking flaws in the repu-
| tations of others.
| The Folly of Samson.
! Blind Samson tumbled down the Da-
gon temple upon the heads of the 5000
| Philistines. But when Samson de-
/ stroyed the enemies of his people he
also destroyed himself. So when we
attempt by harsh criticism to destroy
others we contribute to our own de-
struction. When party of Alpine
climbers wish to ascend the dizzy
heights they bind themselves togeth-
er with long rope. Slowly and eau
| tiously they creep over the glaciers
and stand upon the edge of the black
and yawning crevasseS. If one of their
number falls, the others must be very
quick of action. They must not only
bury their spiked heels in the ice, but
they must jam in the ice staffs also.
They know that if they cannot keep
their brother from falling he may drag
the whole party with him into the
opened jaws Of death. We are all, in
one sense, bound together in this jour
ney of life. When we try to fling a
brother down, there is a jerk at Oul
own belts. To greater or less extent
we will be dragged down. But wheL
we try by the golden lips of gospel 81
lence to screen a fallen brother and
make it easier for him to recover and
when we refuse to advertise his faults
we ourselves are helped up in the
struggle of life. We help ourselves
when we try to shield our fallen breth
rem.
The golden lips of aASpel silence new
er Intentionally speak harsh wore
against sinful neighbor. Why
Their owner knows that in the sigh
of God he is a sinner and that as
lost sheep he has erred and strayet
far from the divine pasturage. TIL,
better Christian is the more he real
ICES the encrmity of his own SINS th
more inclined he is to be less harsl
upon the sins of others. When Pau
first had his blind eyes opened by tn
good AnaniaS, he was able, to some eX
tent, to see his own faults. He wrote
| fho r. Of hn
Paul went on in his spiritual growth
He saw his past blacker and blacke
in the eyes of God. Then he wrote
unto me, who am less than the leas
of all the saints" Paul went Of
growing higher and higher in spiritua
life until at last, just before his mai
tyrdom, he could cry out in rapture
"This is a faithful saying and worth
of all acceptation-that Christ Jesu
came into the world to save sinners
Of whom am chief" Oh, my brother
!. by prayer and conservation and b
grace cannot and will not you come S
near to God that you will cease to col
denim your fellow men? Cease becaus,
like Paul, you can feel that you are th
chief of sinners?
, Would that every one of US coul
: have the beautiful eulogy passed upo
us which President John Adams ono
= passed upon his great predecesso
When the sage of Massachusetts, stoo
;. for the first time before Stuarts Fl
! nous picture of Washington, he SAT-
There was man who when occasio
;, required knew enough and had Sc
control enough to keep his mouth shl
and say nothing" When we hear pc
pie harshly criticised. may we, in ii
name of Christ, say nothing or only,
:, necessary. speak up in their behalf :
= Christ would have us speak. May v
= learn this lesson not by standing b
= fore the picture of an earthly hero, b1
y lnr- tho tomb Of q mo r.fu1od ord