Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-08-01

ing, useless, selfish toll is making a
failure out of your life? The temporal
necessities of life are very small, yet
thousands of people plod on, and on,
and on, in q treadmill Of mercantile
drudgery. a. though their very happi-
ness depended upon raising their store
from a four story to a ten story dry
goods emporium.
Rich Mans Failure.
Some time ago a lady visited an old
school friend who had married a mer-
chant in one Of our eastern cities. That
night when they were seated together
for quiet chat she said, CLARA, how
is your husband getting along?" mis-
erably," answered the wife "Why,
how is that? Is he not making a lot
of money? Is not this palace of
home your own? Is not his name writ
ten high as one of the great financiers
of this city," "Oh, yes" answered the
wife. John is making lot of money.
He is already what some people call
rich. But l certainly call him poor.
When we started out in life we did not
for all our necessary wants. Besides,
we had plenty of time for each other
and for our friends and for our church.
John then only had small store. He
would get home for supper on time.
Then all the evenings were ours. We
read together. We visited our friends
together. some weeks John would
get off a whole day, and together we
would take Il trip to the country and
roam among the Wild flowers. Our
Sundays were always spent together at
church and in the home. But now
John has sold himself to his work.
rarely see him. He works all day. He
works part OF the night. He always
has some business engagement on Sun
day. He makes lots of money, but
then he only puts that money back into
the business, and therefore it is not his
to use. He has to keep on working the
harder, to look after the bigger bust
ness. l certainly think that John is
making failure out of life. He is a
perfect slave to work, and we rarely
see each other for any of our old good
tines"
But this text has still another appli-
cation. 1t is a word of reproof to peo-
pie who waste their time and strength
in useless remorse over their undutiful
conduct to parents who are now dead.
Many men and women have sidetrack-
ed their direct duties to God by switch
ing them off to a family plot. l re-
member some years ago, after l had
spent four years in the west, I went
to Brooklyn to find my mothers grave.
Though l had lived over a quarter of a
century in Brooklyn, yet by the new
system of car lines established there
since I went to Chicago | could not
find Greenwood cemetery until l had
been put off three different cars. But,
though here and there one person, by
. long absence, may be unable to find
his mothers grave, there are thou
sands and tens of thousands of people
who have become blinded to the living
duties of life because they will persist
in tarrying by the family plots where
sleep their dead. Useless regrets for
the dead may have a great part in the
sidetracking of our duties to God. Who
was this young disciple to whom Christ
spoke? I do not know. The Bible does
not mention his name. But perhaps he
belonged to that great multitude who
spend one half of their lives in abusing
and neglecting the living and the 9th
er half in mourning and sobbing over
the dead Their love and grief are
purely Carlylean. They say that
Thomas Carlyle, the disgruntled, fault
finding, iconoclastic philosopher, was
the founder Of big school of copyists.
However that may be, I know there
are many people who emulate the writ
er of "SartOr Resartus" in one fact
After the death Of his wife his ha-
bitual lament was, ALAS, alas, she can
never know now how l loved herw
During her lifetime he had for her only
sharp words and none of the little deli
cate attentions which would have made
her happy After she was dead he
was imbittered by his consciousness
of his negligence and added to his
fault vituperation Of the people around
him. Better for him and them had the
sorrow for past failure toward his wife
led him to kindness toward his living
| friends. Perhaps this young man Of
my text was one who had i'll used
his father while he was alive, and
now that he was dead he wanted
to give him a big funeral Do you
wonder, if this was so, that Christ said,
LET the dead bury the deadF" Post
norton eulogies can never atone for
antemortem injustices.
Told Her Too Late
In Virginia a young woman was left
q widow with four small children. She
taught school and painted and stitched
and took in washing and worked all
day and far into the night in order to
send her boys to college and to give her
two girls a fine education. After awhile
these children grew up and went out
into the world and left their old mother
alone in the cottage where they We're
reared. Being finely educated, they
Il