Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1903-06-15

than your father or mother. sister or
brother. He is a friend whose love is
beyond your mental grasp. whose love
"passetS all human understanding"
Two Kinds of seed.
Let rae tell you what Jesus Christ
can do for you. In every child's ma
ture there are two kinds Of seed. One
Of these Is capable of growing into a
tree of righteousness. and the other Is
capable of growing into a tree of wick
edness and sin. Now. when Jesus
takes charge of a child's nature IL Is
the good seed that grows. and then tie
child's life starts well. and when the
child becomes a man or woman that
life is happy one and blessing to
the world. Children. these words may
be very hard for you to grasp, but l
think | can explain my meaning by
very simple illustration. | hold in my
hand an apple. Where did it come
from? "Oh, l know" says young
boy sitting in that class behind his
teacher. My mother last summer
took me TO the country. While | was
there | used to visit farmer who had
a farm just back of our hotel. There
in his field he had a great big apple
orchard. The farmer used to let me
climb those trees and pick the apples
which grew upon the branches. They
were awfully big trees. Some of them
were so big that had to get a ladder
to climb them. Some of them were so
big that after / had climbed them /
found four or five birds nests in the
same tree. Some of them were so big
that my mother used to come out on
hot days and hang her hammock under
the branches and there do her sewing
and knitting"
apple grows upon a branch in an
orchard. But where did those big
trees come from which produced the
apples? "Oh, do not know" answers
the boy. II suppose they have always
been there. Why, mother said that
some of those apple trees were forty
or fifty years old. Some of them were
as old as my grandfather and grand
mother. and they are awfully old"
Yes, my boy, you are right again.
Some apple trees live to be very, very
old. But those trees did not just grow.
Every tree had beginning. If you
cut open the apple which hold in my
hand you will find in the center of it
an apple core. Right in the center Of
the apple core you will find little
brown seed. Now, children. If you
will take this apple seed and plant it
in the ground in the springtime that
seed will burst open and begin to grow.
The little roots of that seed will begin
to grow down. A little green shoot
like grass will begin to grow up. Then
the green grass will change after
awhile into a stem. The stem will
change after awhile into a tree trunk.
From that tree trunk will grow the
branches. From the branches will
grow the leaves and the blossoms.
From the blossoms will afterward
grow the apples. The apple tree does
not come forth from nothing. The ap-
pie tree first grows from the little seed
like that which hold in my hand.
- Christ the Guide.
Now, little child's life can be com.
pared to a seed. How? Because you
know a seed does not grow unless it is
rightly planted in the right kind OF
ground. Weeds will grow anywhere
without any care. So if the good seed
/ spoke of just now does not get cared
for and looked after 1t will not grow
but the bad seed will. and your lives
will become like weeds-good for moth
ing. Now. If you ask Jesus to look aft
er you and take charge of you, out OF
your nature can grow the great tree:
of righteousness which will bear fortl
good fruit if you will only let the root!
of your heart grow about the rock o.
Calvary, upon which once stood tn,
Saviour's cross. Do you not see, chill
dren, how important it is that you Civ,
your life to Christ now if from you
little selves must come all that is goo,
or all that is bad?
Little children should come to Chris
soon, very soon. Their Christian ia
theirs and mothers will not be abb
much longer to shield them from tn
evil temptat tons as they have been abb
to do. When my little boys and girl
were at home could do what please
with them. l could say Susan" o
Gertrude" or Thomas De Witt" o
"Frank"-for / have four children
wish you would not associate with tina
little boy you were with this morning.
And If one of my little girls should say
"Why, papa?' / would answer: II
not think he is nice little boy. hear
his mother call to him today to com
into the house, and he answered,
won't come And when his mothe
went after him he lay right down in th
street and began to kick and screaI
; and bite. Now, no good little boy wi
ever act like that, and do not war
you to go with him"
But, children. though I may hav
been able to guard and shield and prc
tect my little girl while she was q
home, there came a momentous da