Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-07-11

has a lot q !nctlgent. selfish, lazy folks
ahout him trying TO live off the results
of his hard earned toll.
Some one listening to me says, Eyes.
that is So" Then you turn and saw:
"Uhat shall | do about my drunken
brother's family? Shall pay any
more money TO let him keep on drink
inpY" What shall | do about nv
daugbter?" says another. Il do not
want her TO leave her husband. and
vet I certainly do not want to keep
on supporting both of them in their
foolish extravagances." What shall
I do about my hayward boy?" says
another Shall l let him go to the
dogs and not support him any longer?'
"What shall l do in reference to that
lazy partner" says another. He
won't work, and yet he expects half
of the profits What shall l do in
reference to my husbands" says a
troubled wife He is always loafing
around or entering into wildcat spec
Nations which bring us in nothing to
sunport the family" What shall l
do in reference to my wife" says a
tro,1hled husband. "She spends my
money right and left. She is more in
terested in euchre parties than in the
| economy of the home Shall l leave
herr" What shall you do, my friends?
| Well. | am not here to tell you in de-
| foil but this / do assert in general:
Do not let the injustices of the past
| blind your eyes to the pressing duties
| of the present. Because your kith and
| kin and business partners have been
| and are now doing wrong to you, do
not YOU do wrong to them. Be pa
tent. Be careful, and if you must err
| let it be upon the side of mercy. God
| does not tell you to weigh the past so
| much as to conscientiously solve the
pressing responsibilities directly at
hand. 'Stand still'' before you snap
the golden cords Of affection which
bind you to that hayward sister, that
hayward brother, that hayward child,
that Maynard husband. "Stand stilr'
| if YOU do not know what to do. STAND
| still and see the salvation of the Lord
Be very patient when sickness comes
and old age comes and the wearing
| faculties VI u1lllU UOIly oSCLu W I'LL
fit YOU for the active duties Of life. Be
very patient when you seem to be like
an old, wornout horse turned out upon
the commons to eat little and sleep
a little and live a little longer and then
die Some of us with great gusto in the
days of our youth used to sing in Sun
day school that old hymn:
Oh, to be nothing, nothing,
| Only to lie at his feet
A broken and empty vessel,
For the Masters use made meet.
The Right Time to Die.
But when the advancing years pass
on, and by sickness or old age we seem
to be laid away upon the shelf as use
less by busy world, then most of us
do not appreciate the petition of that
song prayer. We do not want to be
nothing, nothing" We want to be
something, something" and have that
something a very active something"
Sometimes at the funeral of a strong
man we see a suggestive floral tribute
in q broken column. That means the
man died in his prime. That means,
most of US say, rs it not too bad that
he had to go when he had SO much to
live for?' But l do not think it takes
nearly as much divine grace to die in
your physical and mental prime as it
takes to live on in physical invalidism
or in decrepit old age. In the first in
stance Il Christian man like a warrior
is struck down at blow. In the sec
ond instance a man is like an aged
veteran in a soldiers home, like Jobs
war charger smelling the battle from
afar and yet not able to answer the
bugie call for the grand charge. The
saddest scene during all my stay in the
west was when in the Methodist Epis-
copal conference five noble men who
had served their church as bishops long
and faithfully were retired and placed
upon the superannuated list. But, as
God has placed some of you upon the
great waiting list as physical or
mental ineffectives, be patient. Trust
him. Even in your retired field of wait
ing you have a work to do. 1t will
all come out right. Yes, sick one and
aged one, it will all come out right.
You may not be able to understand
Gods ways now, but it will all come
out right.
Thus today, as the waiting" lesson
is the hardest of all gospel lessons to
learn, l am going to close in the beau
, tiful words of one whose poem has
been very near and dear to me- / am
preaching against. my own Impotence
Just as l am against yours. l know
, that parent can never bring his child
up right unless he teaches that child
TO learn to trust him and wait; there
fore no child of God can ever trust
God unless he is at times ready to
stand still and see the salvation of
the Lord" These verses embody the
whole thought of my text:
When my boy with eager questions,
Asking how and where and when,
Taxes all my store of wisdom,
Asking o'er and Ger again
Questions oft to which the answers
, Give to others still the key,