Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1905-05-22

Oh nv sister, your words are tragfcaj
| What You have no use for the church
of Jesus Christ merely because you are
! harboring a bitterness against some
church members who did not do as
! they ought to do? Do you mean to tell
me that you today have divorced all
your interests from the church of the
! Lord Jesus Christ, which has done so
much for your spiritual life and is do
ing so much for the salvation of the
! world. merely because you do not like
| O few members in it?
Turned Against Church.
When | speak to you thus / am not
talking at random. There are hundreds
and thousands of just such people as
! you who have turned their backs unon
the church, Gods mightiest agency for
/ doing good, merely because they have
had an unfortunate experience with
some of its members. The other davsI
was talking to noble man. He 6ivar
| away hundreds and thousands of dol
lars each year. Within his large mer-
camille establishment he runs a school.
that his girl clerks and his bow clerks
who have to earn a living at the time
they should be in the scboolroom
should not be entirely deprived of an
| education. He gives hundreds of dol
lars annually for the temperance cause
! No man who is trying to do right and
is flung on his back ever appealed TO
him for help in vain. Yet that man
with all his vast influence, has not for
years darkened church doors. Years
! ago there was a church difficulty which
revoived about him and his family
| Sad, sad, infinitely sad, that he shouId
refuse to be one with the church he-
cause of bitter grudge he holds
! against some church members who did
not treat him right! For. in spite of all
| he has done, l confidently assert that
the seed he had sown would have null
| tiplied a thousandfold instead of. as
now, producing. only sixtyfold had he
! been working inside of the church of
God instead Of outside That man for
years has held aloof from the church
! because he cherished resentment
| against some of it's members. He dis
obeyed the injunction of nv text. "I,et
| AAOC liz sun dCN1I uJO1 YOUR NcaJ0. -
Never ask me to be a member of the
Humane society again." said the wife
of one of my elders a short time ago
| why not" about ten years ago T
went to one of their meetings. OF all
| the backbitings and censorious criti-
cism ever heard theirs were the
worst" Oh, friend, is such a state
| mont riOhf9
Christ, is that any reason you should
refuse to be disciple of Christ? Be
cause last year one of our missionary
| leaders or one of the trustees of an
orphans home proved rascal and was
| found to be a defaulter, is that anv
reason we should refuse our aid to-
ward those benefcent institutions? In
your hatred for man you are binding
your eyes to the good you can do to
! institutions and great reformatory
movements. You are acting as foolish
| ly as the astronomer who would refuse
| to climb the stellar ladder of the night
and walk with God amid the infinities
Of space merely because a fly speck
| gets upon the lens of his telescope.
| - 411tAI1 oAOW Ol5SS1s w 1OGn NOOI
horizon. Do not peevishly stop your
tramp up the heights of Mount Wash
ington, where you can see all New Eng
land under your feet, merely because
a snarling puppy comes out Of barn
yard and barks at you as you walk
along the country highway. Do not
sap your life's usefulness by your
/ Ioroc, inst n Two or,
principles. Live for movements. Live
for institutions. If some people who
are working by your side for those
causes are not what they ought to be,
then do not as a coward desert your
post on the picket lines of the worlds
great armies in the time of mortal
combat.
! Drop Your Hatreds.
But there Is yet another reason why
you should drop all your hatreds and
animosities as k.ndlings into the great
CONGREGATIONS Of the setting sun. You
may be purified by the divine fires Of
trouble. But no man was ever able to
make brother better and truer and
purer by hatred and malice and wrath
and contempt. You have tried it in
the past. You have piled up your ex-
cor1ating remarks in great heaps You
nave rolled down great avalanches Of
uenunciation. You have exhausted your
whole vocabulary and roamed through
hundreds of dictionary pages to find ver-
plage sulphurous enough to depict your
whitening contempt But did it do any
good? Have you made your brother love
you any better? Have you made him a
truer or better man? Have YOU help
ed Your relationship with him in the
least? For fifteen years YOU have
walked down the street and met him
on an average at least once a week.
You stare at him. What good are you
accomplishing by such bitter actions?
Absolutely none. Absolutely no good
results for yourself Absolutely no
good results for him.
Motive For Crime
What is the purpose hidden in your