Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1905-06-05

manned and the DnnQ and the help
lessf When a stream of gold began to
flow through your counting room:
when you got beyond the awful strug-
Gle for daily bread; when you had
more than two garments in your ward
robe. did you get down upon your
knees and say, 20 God, | thank thee
that thou hast given me much. | thank
shee that L can now give to others in thy
name. Now | can be eyes for the blind
and clothing for the naked and food
for the hungry and shelter for the
bomeIess?' Did you, do you make that
nraver? Like the ant, are you trying
m protect your people from outside
dangers? Like the ant, are you trying
TO help the helpless and care for those
who are mentally. physically and spir-
itualIy doomed unless you come to their
rescue?
The thoughtful love of the ant for
her sisters was beautifully illustrated
nv an incident IN the life of the noted
sage of Philadelphia, Benjamin Frank
lin. One day he discovered a number
of ants feasting in a molasses pail. He
drove them out and suspended the pail
in midair from hook in the center of
the ceiling. Much to his surprise. after
Franklin had been reading for awhile.
he saw an overlooked ant which had
been hidden in the pail crawl out and
climb up the handle to the string and
I'D to the ceiling, across the ceiling to
the side wall, down the side wall and
disappear. A short time afterward the
philosopher saw that same ant leading
a retinue of other ants. The process
sion followed her up the wall, over the
ceiling to the hook, down the string,
along the handle and into the pail Of
molasses again, where she and her
friends gorged themselves with mo-
lasses until they could hold no more.
In the illustration of the ant going to
find her sisters that they might enjoy
a meal instead of eating selfishly alone
cannot you and I find a spiritual les
son?
"Oh, yes" says some one, "but that
ant did not have to divide her meal.
She had all she wanted. Why would
she not be willing to let her sisters eat
their fill also? There was hanging
from that rope a big pail Of molasses."
True; true But, my friend, have not
most Of us a big pail of molasses? If
you and / should give to the hungry
we would still have enough food left
for our own tables If some of us
should clothe the naked we would still
have enough warm garments for our
backs; if some of US should be crutches
for the lame we would still have our
own straight limbs which God has Civ
en- to us with which to walk and run
and leap as a hind upon the mountain
side Oh like the ant, will you not be
kind and merciful and loving to your
fellow men who need your sympathy
and help?
Hard Workers the Females.
But cannot close without one sim
pie paragraph, to state that this SER
mon of all sermons should teach its
lesson to our wives and mothers and
sisters and daughters as no other SER
mon l have ever preached. Have you
not noticed how l have always used
the feminine gender in speaking Of the
ant ''She does this 'She does
that ''She does the other thing"
The reason I speak thus is because
the naturalist tells us that the little
black ant we see in the roadway be-
longs to the feminine gender Yes,
the hard workers of the ant hills are
always females. No sooner is the
nuptial journey taken than the male
ant disappears. So, when I come to
the house of God, to the place where
Christian workers dwell, find in
evitably that the wives and the moth
ers and the sisters and the daughters
are the leaders there in Christian
work. AS the mother rocks the cradle,
SO is the child developed for God. 1t
is the sisters Christian life that leads
the brother to Christ. It is the way
in which a wife lives that decides the
way the husband lives. o woman,
today, with the ant hill as my pulpit,
ask you will you not go to work for
Christ? Will you not, here and now,
consecrate your prayers and your
lives for the salvation of your fathers
and brothers and husbands and sons
to God? Our powerful preacher of
this morning is a priestess-the ant.
win you not plead with your loved
ones to bow at Christ's altar, which is
as low as the grave hillock, which is
as low even as an ant hill? 0 God,
give US one generation of women for
Christ. and then we shall have a whole
world saved for Christi
copyright, 1905. by Louis K1opsch.l