Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-09-19

distance to come back to God. Rut
YOU can come by divine grace. You
can come nov. You can come as quick
II as the new converts of the church
which Isaiah saw in vision came to
the mercy seat You can come with a
sunerlative swiftness. You can come
with the lightning velocity of a flying
dove.
But why talk about Isaiahs church
of the future? Why caption this ser
mon with the title, THE Coming Awak-
eningg" When Isaiah saw this migrat-
ing dove and used it as an emblem was
he abiding only to a future church? |
think not. | think as the Hebrew
prophet was standing there on the
mountain of inspiration looking off on
what was to come he kept saying to
himself, why is it not possible for
this vision of Gods church to be mate
rallied n0w? Is not God willing to
bring this beatific condition to present
man if the members of the children of
God will today cooperate with the
HOLY Spirit? Yes, he can, he will. was
the prophets thought. | know this is
the thought today running through
many a Christians mind. God can and
God will make the prophetic vision of
Isaiah come true now if we. the
church members, will only truly yield
ourselves and consecrate our minds
and hearts to Christs will o man,
O woman, the greatest enemy of
Jesus Christ today is not the infideI
and scoffer outside of the church. 1t is
the man and the woman inside the
church who do not cooperate with
Jesus in his purpose to save the world
for Christ through the agency of his
church. If we yield ourselves to his
will even the smallest and the most
insignificant can become mighty for
God, for, as Joshua hath said: Zone
man of you shall chase a thousand, for
the Lord your God he it is that fight
eth for you, as he hath promised you.
Take good heed, therefore, unto your
selves that We love the Lord your God"
ST. Marks of Venice.
The symbol of the dove which Isaiah
uses to describe the church could not
be better illustrated than by the spec
tacle in the great square of Venice,
which is f1anked on the one side by the
famous Cathedral of st. Mark. Will
but few exceptions l have seen all the
great cathedrals of the world. | have
seen some as white as that of st. Pc
ter's, whose walls, even though they
may be hundreds Of years old, seem to
be as white as the whitest of alabas-
ter. I have seen some dark as an Afri-
cans skin, others red as an Indians.
| have seen some cathedrals which i'm
pressed me by their gigantic size. The
higher | climbed on the roof of Mil
ans greatest structure the more my
awe and bewflderment. I have seen
some that were perfect poems in stone.
But, take it all in all, though it cost
not nearly as much as some others, the
most impressive cathedral I ever saw
was st. Marks of Venice.
Like unto natural scenery, st. Marks
is the Yellowstone park, not the YO-
semitic or the Gothard pass, among the
cathedrals. 1t impressed me not with
it's size so much as it's exquisite color
ings, its roof, it's walls, its arcades
all blended as the colors Of a rainbow
frozen in stone. The tops Of its lofty
columns were not hideous with grimy
gargoyles They were chiseled into
flower gardens, which grew at your
feet or with their leaves hung down
from above. These different flower
gardens were so perfectly chiseled that
it seemed as if the winds, sweeping up
from the Venetian canals were gently
swaying them as the rosebushes bend
ed under the touch of summer breeze
in your fathers garden.
Over the front doorway were the
four massive bronze horses which Ma
poleon carried away to Paris after his
conquest in Italy, but which the over
throw of the Bonaparte dynasty re
stored to their places. With arched
neck and sinewy limb like creatures of
life they seemed just ready for a bat
tlefeld charge or a run over the hills
after the hounds or a gentle caress by
mistress or chivalric knight. There,
within those walls, the chancel and au-
ditorium blend in such perfect har-
mony that when l stood before the al
tar's picture of the dying Christ l felt
for the first time in a European cathe-
dral that l was in the presence of God
and in the place of prayer.
Gods Feathered Loved Ones.
But, though l saw many places in
| the Venice cathedral that entranced
me, after all, my greatest lesson learn
ed there was outside Il cathedral
walls, and not within. | learned that
lesson there not from the cold stones
| of a building, but from the warm
| hearts of living doves. There, from
behind the towers and from within the
recesses down from the roof and the
| four great bronze horses, from pillars
and vestibules, the doves gather around
YOU by the hundreds. They came as
fearlessly to my side as my little chill
dren might come. They perched on my
shoulder, on my hat. They fiuttered
over my head. They crowded by the
hundreds at my feet to cat of the food