The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1905-06-16

| and two feet tnat lnlnk. l lnlnk al
over my body. All that / wish is a
chance to work, and | will work on
until I become indispensable to thee.
'Ah,' says the world, L need you. Go to
work in my service and great shall be
your reward
The Love Burden of Home.
But as Paul begins to strap the diff
ferent loads upon mans back, as
the Arabs of the east weight down
! their camels for the desert journey,
and yet the man grows stronger and
stronger as he bears these burdens, |
see Paul lift another heavy burden and
place it above the top of the physical
and the mental burdens. This last
burden is the love burden of the home.
When Paul says, Every man shall
bear his own burden" he also seems
TO say: every man, If possible, shall
care for his aged father and helpless
old mother. He shall care for his wife
and children. He shall look after his
HELPLESS brothers and sisters. And in
caring for these domestic love burdens
he is also uGNelOpluS hliIoSiL anu IA
creasing his own strength
Who are the strong men OF this town!
Who are the giants physically, men
tally, morally and spiritually? Are
they the men who grow up with the
idea that they would not take unto
themselves a wife and the care of chill
dren until great financial success was
theirs and they could live in Easy
streetW Did they refuse to marry IN
til they could take their brides to as
fine home as that in which the girls
fathers and mothers were passing the
evening time of their livesF NO. In
evitably they are the men who had
nothing to start with but two stout
arms, a clear brain and a willingness
to work. Hardly had they got foot
hold in business when they married.
They married mostly on faith, hope
and charity" for they had not much
else in sight Then came the children.
And in these young mems struggles to
provide for their little ones and to lift
the burden of domestic love they de-
veloped their strength to herculean
proportions.
There has been a great deal of fun
made of President Roosevelts denun-
citation of those who would shirk the
burdens of the home and not marry
when they ought to marry, but be-
lieve Theodore Roosevelt is right. And
| would Furthermore state that one of
the great reasons why | believe our
were men of such sterling
worth was because they not only be-
lieved in having a home, but they also
believed that the greatest honor which
could come to a man was to train up
a large family Of boys and girls for
God. And did they not train well their
large families of children? When Sam
uel the prophet came to the house of
Jesse to anoint one of Jesse's sons king
of Israel the proud father presented to
the man of God his seven strapping
boys. But Jesse was not prouder of
his sons than some of the noted New
England divines We're of their children.
Only the other day | was reading over
q list of the families of these theolo-
gians who so nightly helped to make
this country what it is today Let me
read the list to you: Rev. Increase
Mather had ten children. Rev. Peter
Hobart had eleven children. Rev. Sam
uel Danforth had twelve children. Rev.
Samuel Treat had thirteen children.
Rev. Edwood Taylor had fourteen chill
dren. Rev. Nathan Birdseye, one of
my own direct ancestors and one of
the most noted of Connecticut divines,
had sixteen children. The great Rev.
John Sherman had twenty-six children.
Jonathan Edwards had twelve chill
dren. Lyman Beecher, who was the
father of more brains than any Amer
lean who ever lived, had thirteen chill
dren. These men as well as their lead
ing parishioners, most of whom were
fathers and mothers of large families,
developed themselves and, l believe,
became the strong men and women
they were largely through the domestic
loads they voluntarily set themselves
to lift. When young men and young
women shirk the duty of going to the
altar because the duties there
are heavy they stunt their moral and
mental and physical growth instead of
increasing their stature thereby.
A Minister'S Love Burden.
"Well." SAYS some one, "what does
that mean? Do you mean that l must
marry, whether ! would or no, and
have homer Oh, no. If you do not
want to marry, l am not here to tell
you to marry. But l am here to tell
you that for your own good, strength
and power, you should have love
burden. If you cannot have a wife
and children of your own, then /
would have you at least do as did
Rev. Thomas Marshall, the great mis-
field secretary of the Presby-
terrain church. He was one of the
gentlest, sweetest, purest and loveliest
men | ever knew. The first time he
was to preach in my pulpit ON mis-
sions, l sent word in a letter to HIM,
which read about like this: Bring
along Mrs. Marshall and take dinner
with u.s." When he came over
asked, Where is your wife?' He
laughed his gentle laugh, saying, Il
have no wife" ''What, are you one
of the most unfortunate of all crea-
lures, an old bachelors" No" he an
swered with a gentle smile, Il am not
a bachelor" Then in the quiet of my
study. he told me the pathetic and
beautiful story of his life. He Is dead
now. He is with his redeemed wife.
And so 1. feel no diffidence in telling
this beautiful story.
Many, many years ago, Thomas
Marshall was a young missionary
minister in a little western town. 1t
was his first charge. He then built
. ..ot- 20 ~ n baautiful