Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-02-29

DuliU the alIaT OF Jesus 1DTISIf Is LOl
most OF its influence spiritually depict
ing? Some time ago l read wonder
full book entitled THE Call of the
Wild" The central figure Of that story
was magnificent dog, cross between
a St. Bernard and a Great Dane. lie
was stolen from his California home
and sent far north into the Klondike
regions, where he was compelled to
drag the miners sleds over the Alaskan
SHOWS. Jack London, the writer, with
a master hand traces him from a great,
big. loving house dog down and down
until he is n dog thief among dog
thieves. He traces his degeneracy down
and down until at last the bayings of
the wolves call him into the darkness
of the northern forests, and 1.-The call Of
the Wild is answered by 1.-The response
of the wild"
obey the Divine Command.
Is not society's call too often "the
call of the wild?' In the social world
when you give banquet do you not
for the most part ask only those in
your own social set? Do you obey the
divine command, when thou makest
a dinner or a supper call not thy
friends nor thy brethren, neither thy
kinsmen noe thy rich neighbors, lest
they also bid thee again and a recon-
pense be made thee. But when thou
makest a feast call the poor, the
manned, the lame, the blind, and thou
shalt be blessed, for they cannot rec
ompense thee, but thou shalt be recon-
pensed at the resurrection of the just.
Is not society's call often "the call of
the wild" because it is a call to selfish
ness, the call of only doing good to
them who do good to you? Is it not
often the call merely Of wealth to asso-
ciate with wealth and social caste with
social caste? Oh, We worshipers at the
social shrines, better heed today the
Lenten CALI Better snuff out the many
lights of the bathrooms and the BAN
quet halls! Know We not that during
the spring fast the lowly Nazarene is
knocking at the door of your hearts
trying to get in?
IT'S true we cannot reach Christs for
tieth day,
Yet to go part of that religious way
Is better than no deed.
Neither ought other mems abuse of Lent
Spoil the good use. lest by that argument
We forfeit all our creed.
The Lenten Call.
The. Episcopalian Lent, in the next
place, is protest against business alb
sorption. 1t says to the merchant, the
manufacturer and the professional
irrh+ tn Tn
deed, you must work and work hard if
you are to support your family and
meet the financial necessities which
are yours. But, o man, you have no
right to make the acquisition of money
the chief object of your life any more
than you have a right to live to eat.
BY the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat bread But that sweat should not
make thee Indifferent to God or to the
higher purposes of life, for which thou
vert created"
But the great danger of money max
ing is that the acquisition of wealth
may become a passion. The calls of
the money market become so great and
urgent that On average business man
does not feel that he has time to stop
and think about his relations to God.
Amid the whirI Of business activities he
| feels a great deal as did Oliver Wen
dell Holmes during his trip through
England. He said he went so fast he
had time ito talk with lots of people,
but he had time to have a true CONVEX
Sation with none" By that the poet
Holmes meant that he had time to drop
here a word and there a word, but he
went through Europe so quickly he
had no time to exchange heart to heart
! thoughts with great thinkers, as he did
with Max Muller when he lay in his
house sick for nearly a week. But,
though the business world would de-
mand all of a mans energies, the
Lenten season comes into a busy mer-
chants life and says, 20 man, you
should never be too busy to take time
to think of your responsibilities to
God"' So the Episcopalian Lent sends
its best men straight into the very
heart of Wall street. In old Trinity
church in the busiest part of the day
during the Lenten season we hear the
Christian preachers voice calling, as dc
the Mohammedan priests from the
minarets of the eastern mosques: sc
business men, come to prayers! Come
to prayers! o We business men, come
to prayers, come to prayers, come tt
prayers"
Plea For Higher Life.
The Ienten season pleads with bust
ness men for the higher life, as l once
heard Robert Speer plead with a great
audience Of men for the higher life
Men," said he, Il have always beer
ambitious. By that 1 mean 1 have al
ways wanted to make the most out OF
my life. If l had thought l coulG
have made more out of my life by en-
tering the United States army L Ger
tainly would have done so. Had ]
thought l would have made more ou
Of my life by entering business
should have consecrated my energies
to money making. But l did think