Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-06-13


order that we, as fledgelings, may learn
to fly on and up. He tumbles US down
so that we may soar higher than the
cliffs upon which we are born, higher
than the mountains whose bald heads
are frozen amid perpetual SHOWS. and
higher than even the morning clouds
that have lowered over us in many
benedictions. He treats US just as a
true parent should always treat his
child. Some few weeks ago l was Wis
iting upon the ranch of wealthy man
in California. He turned and said to
me: NO young man ever amounts to
anything unless he is compelled to
work for his own mental and physical
and spiritual development. So firmly
do I believe it is the mountain upon
the man and not the man upon the
mountain that brings man to the high
est development for which God intend
ed him that 1 have compelled my boys
to work for every cent they have re-
lceiyed, even when they were little chill
dren. | never give them anything
without a return. If they want spend
ing the fences or cutting the wood or
gathering the walnuts. If they want
a gun or a riding horse they must buy
it with their own money which they
have earned. l have not told them that
each year they have an $4,000 income,
which was left them by a dead rela-
tive and that at twenty-One years of
age they will be independently rich.
l know that knowledge would ruin
them. 1 make them work for every
cent they spend. In their working l
am developing two of the finest boys
in all this part of the country
The Dead Heart Led On.
That earthly parent is developing his
children by work. Cannot we realize
God is developing us spiritually, men
tally and physically by work, and hard
work? Why were the old Yankees, born
amid the New England hills, and the
old highlanders, born amid the Scot
fish heather, of the same heroic mold?
We have read that in the chivalric
times the Scottish crusaders were be-
ing driven back, when an old highland
chief took from his girdle the leathern
bag which incased the heart of the
dead Bruce. He flung it far into the
ranks of the enemy, as he cried: Thou
brave heart of mighty Bruce, lead US
on to victory! Lead us on! Lead us on!'
Then the fleeing highfanders turned
and charged where the dead Bruce
would have led them: Oh, how we
thrill at the story of that mighty deed!
But why did the Scotchmen and the
Yankees of old belong to races of
giants and the Latin people of Central
America and of the southern parts Of
Portugal and Spain degenerate into a
race of pygmies? Difference Of blood?
Perhaps. But l believe it was not so
much difference of blood as a differ
ence of geographical surroundings.
In the southern parts of Europe all
that the inhabitants had to do for cen
turtles was to tickle the soil and it
would laugh with plenty. While
among those northern snow clad hills
not only did the inhabitants have to
fight human enemies, but climatic ones.
Any man who wreSted harvest from
the New Hampshire valleys or from
the Scottish highlands had by neces-
sity to be strong of brain and power
fully muscled of arm. 1t was the eli
matte obstacles which made the New
Englanders and the Scottish clans the
mighty men they were and are, and it
is trouble, great trouble, which always
develops men. The old parental eagle
pushes her fedgeIings off the nest to
teach her young how to fly. God
pushes US one and all out into the
abyss of fathomless trial to teach us
how to take care of ourselves. God
does not want to run perpetual nurs-
cry. He wants to make US of men and
women of fully developed powers. He
disturbs US from our places of ease and
comfort and thrusts us forth into
scenes of conflict and difficulty in order
that we may learn to use the spiritual
powers with which we are endowed,
and to teach us in dire extremity what
Infinite resources there are in him for
every one of his children who looks
confidently up to him and cries, "Our
Father"
NOu dSdlIl Sl1lo up Jul hCobo anu
pushes us off our eyries, as the eagle
does its young, to show us our limita-
tons as we'll as our possibilities. The
! eaglet has to learn what it cannot do
as well as what it can do. 1t must
be taught in one sense how to depend
upon itself; it must be taught in an
other sense how it must depend up
on the parent bird. The Bible in the
| beautiful figure of my text pictures the
old eagle, when the right time comes,
stirring up the nest and pushing her
young off the cliff. oh, yes, that is
beautiful. but the next statement of
| the verse is just as beautiful. When
the young bird drops down and down
and the fluttering wings grow weaker
and weaker, then the f1edgeling gives a
faint, frightened call for help. Then
what happens? Why, the old bird at
once starts to the rescue. Swifter than
any sea gull ever dropped into the wa
tiers to clutch a fish, swifter than ever