Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-02-29

STOCK, we uEu TIE spring last CoLueS
just before the days when the house
wives are turning the houses upside
down in their semiannual attacks upon
the dust and the moths. 1t is the time
which we husbands dread, but it is the
housekeeping time. which every pru-
dent wife declares is essential for the
physical health of her family. 1t is alb
solutely necessary to keep physical dirt
cut of a house, yet in spite of all pre-
cautions it will keep creeping in every
where Although the workmen in the
Philadelphia mint are as careful as
they can be, the dirt and the fine parti-
cles of gold will sift through the floor
cracks. So great are these siftings that
every year the floor is taken up and
the dirt is separated from the gold, and
thousands of dollars worth of gold are
thus collected for the United States
treasury. In spite of az our precau-
tons the minute, innume~able stains OF
sin will creep into the heart. There
fore each year it is very desirable to
obey the call to the Lenten spring fast.
Once a year is certainly not too often
to take a spiritual accounting and to
conduct a serious self examination. The
call to a fast should reach the ear OF
every Christian. What does that mean?
Shall our wives and mothers and sis
tiers 60 to the grocer and the butcher
and the baker and say, 1--WE do not
want any more meat or vegetables or
bread for the next forty daysT Does
it mean that all the members of a home
shall go without physical nutrition, as
DR.. Tanner tasted for forty days and
Leonard Thress tasted for fifty days
and Rev. G. II. Dalrymple tasted for
thirty-nine days and Milton Rathburn
tasted for thirty-siX days and Estella
f. Kuenzel tasted for forty-one days?
oh, no. The habit of fasting, inspired
by boastful folly and the desire of see
ing how long we can live without tast,
ing food, is just as sinful as the oppo-
site extreme of gluttony, to see how
much one can eat without utterly de-
stroying the smooth workings of the di-
gestive organs.
Spiritual housekeeping does not
mean the complete abstinence from
physical food. 1t does mean emphatic
ally the reconsecration and the rededi-
cation of the domestic fireside to Jesus
Christ through self abnegatiOn. 1t
means that we shall have prayers at
the cradle. 1t means that we shall
have prayers in the bedroom and pray
ers in the parlor and prayers in the sit
ting room and prayers in the kitchen
and have the dining room spread with
q gospel banquet of the dread of life"
If next week you were to entertain the
king Of England or the emperor of Ger
many, you would turn your home up
side down to make it attractive for the
advent Of his majesty. Shall we not in
the same way, by spiritual houseclean-
ing, prepare for the entertainment Of
our Heavenly King by casting out of
doors all sinful thoughts and desires
which find Judgment in our hearts?
Preparations For Christ
The Lenten season in the home means
simply the spiritual preparation for
Christ to visit the home. When Mar
tin FarQuhar Upper, the famous Eng
| lish poet, came to visit us in Brooklyn
we gave to him the very best room in
| the house. We gathered together the
| most famous literary men of the city
to meet him. At that party Horace
Greeley came, and William Cullen
| Bryant came and read his ''Thanatop-
SIS" and George William Curtis came,
and I think John G. Whittier came.
well remember my mother giving to
me Tupper's popular book, "Proverbial
| Philosophy" and saying: Read that
| book. You should know who Martin
| FarQuhar Upper is before he comes,
| and then you can honor him as he
| should be honored." In like manner
| the Lenten season in the home is an
| appropriate time for the spiritual prep
| aration for Christs coming to the
| home The children should be told all
about him and be prepared to welcome
| the Saviour as a friend. The cook and
the chambermaid should be told all
about him, so that they may know how
Christ loved Martha, the busy cook, as
well as the gentle Mary who sat at his
feet. Home friends should be told all
about him, so that they also may come
in and honor the divine guest AS we
in the Brooklyn home read and reread
the writings Of the English poet in or.
der to know what his thoughts might
be, so to prepare for the advent of
Christ in the home we should read and
reread the words which he spoke unto
his disciples of old. We should prepare
to greet Christ not as a stranger, but
as long loved and anxiously awaited
friend.
For Better Church Life.
The Lenten season is an annual plea
for the capitalization of the church
Ministers Of the different Protestant
churches are more and more getting
into the custom of going into q re
treat at least once a year, where by
fdsting and prayer they may spiritual
~ prepare themselves for their &C.
clesiastical ministrati0ns. At least
once a year as church members We
should go into a spiritual retreat ,