Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-11-21

easy enough TOT men anu women 10 SIT
down and criticise the pew, and crit
icise the pulpit. and criticise the ways
of raising church money, and criticise
the choir loft, but | want to tell you
that the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is not only puTer in thought. but
that the leaders of the churches as
well as the common people are purer
IN their spiritual lives.
More Tolerance Now.
There is more tolerance and human
ity in the modern church. In ancient
times no mercy was shown by the lead
ers of the church to heretics. When
they heard of men who differed from
the doctrines of the church they imme-
diatelv got together their thumbscrews
and instruments of torture. They start
ed forth with sword and spear and bat
tleax. They said, IF you will not be-
your tongue and blind your eyes and
cripple your feet and burn your homes
and Stay your sons and daughters
Read the history of the covenanters.
Read the story of the massacre of st.
Bartholomew at Paris. Read the his
tory of the dark ages. Look at Charlie
magne trying to convert his kingdom
by having the priests drive the masses
into the water like herds of cattle and
there baptize them by the wholesale
Christianity became a matter of polit-
zeal allegiance. Individual conviction,
spiritual purity, devotion to Christ,
counted for little in those times. Men
did not read or think. They accepted
without question the dogmas of the
leaders of church and state, some of
whom were men without principle,
openly immoral of life. Let us thank
God that we did not live in those
times. There is still much to be de-
sired. We are still far from Christ's
ideal, but as we read of those times of
spiritual and moral darkness we realize
how far the church has advanced.
"Well," says some one, what is the
good of going way back to the dark
ages to find that the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ is better spiritually
today than it was in the past? Why
not try to draw your illustrations d
little nearer at hand? The result is
the same Conditions in the early part
of the last century were in startling
contrast to those of today. The minis
try in those times was largely made
up of men who entered it not on high
spiritual grounds, but as a means of
making a genteel living. Their service
was perfunctOry and lifeless. Their
moral character was often reprehensi-
BILE. The highest places were held by
men of genius but Of Christless lives.
The clergy of those times were men
like Dean Swift, of whom it was said
that when he was in the pulpit he
was SO much a saint that he ought not
to be allowed to go out of it, and when
he was out of the pulpit his life was
so evil that he ought not to be allowed
to enter it." With spiritual leaders so
destitute of the power of Christ, what
could be expected of the people?
: SO lax were the ideas of the Christian
church a hundred years ago that after
a presbytery meeting it was the usual
custom for the presbytery to adjourn
to q nearby tavern, and all the minis
tiers would there openly drink their in
toXicating liquor the same as the ma
jority Of the sports of a race track
would now drink The assistant pastor
Of my Chicago church told me when he
entered the ministry every minister of
the presbytery which ordained him,
with the exception of one, publicly
drank intoxicating liquors. Yet he
Furthermore stated that within few
years he lived to see all the ministers
of his presbytery total abstainers and
out and out temperance advocates, with
but one exception. Among the records
of presbytery in the western part of
Pennsylvania 1 have been told that one
church elected one of its members an
elder because that man on the day Of
the laying of a cornerstone Of the
church furnished a barrel of whisky,
so that all who came to the corner
stone laying could drink as much as
they would.
"ThOse Good Old Times"
l would sooner live in my present
modest home than in the damp rooms
where Mary, queen Of Scots, had to
| dwell. And as for the habitatiOns of
my grandfathers and grandmothers
they We're places no living man would
now put up with for a moment. We
sentimentally talk about the andirons
OF the old fashioned fire hearth. Did
you ever try the luxury of one? Most
OF the rooms of the old farmhouses had
to be closed in winter, because they
could never be kept warm. In the
bedrooms the ice would freeze in the
pitchers. In the kitchens our grand
fathers would be hugging the fires anf
burning their coat tails on one side ri
them while they were having a wbo,e
carnival Of chills playing hide and Seek
on the other side of their physical an3t
omies. Then our grandfathers, for tbf
most part, had the pleasure of dressing
without any wooden underwear next
to their skins. They had the luxury Of
| malarial fever, scarlet fever and dinh
liberia, which used TO ravage almost
every house on account of poor water