Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1906-08-09

treacherous. murderous Indian would
stealthily creep up and tomahawk and
scalp the sleeping immigrants before
they could leap TO their feet and grasp
their rifles and fight for their lives.
God does not deal with man in this
matter as If he had to build as Robert
Louis ~Stevcnson's grandfather built.
That great engineer, Robert Stevenson,
built the famous lighthouse upon the
dangerous rocks of Little Cumbrac.
He built 1t bet wecn the storms which
often howl about and lombard the
Scottish coasts. When you build on
that coast you must hasten or you will
be swallowed up in the ~surgings of the
seas. Fut God says: Man, you can
build your house in the dry season of
the east. You will have plenty of time
to build II. You must not be slothful
or lazy. Time flies, but II does not fly
so quickly that you will not have plen-
ty Of time to do the work which | have
given you to do, If you will only o
SNANh'iVu''y Apply W NIL w ih't
work" THE rainy seasons are conf
ing" he warns us. But the rainy sea-
sons will not come before the dry sea-
son have given You plenty of time to
prepare for the onrlshing deluge." Is
not this a true Interpretation of my
text? Is not this "A true Interpretation
of the history of M personal lives?
ut IL yanly,, +,1or bay- iO,,D n,,-
dry season." or years of building, have
lasted. Ten years, twenty years, thirty
years, forty years, fifty years, have
they been. What! For some Of you
have they not lasted sixty years? For
the first ten or thirteen years of your
life you may not have been responsible
for what you did. but since her you
certainly have been responsible. The
other day the chaplain Of one of the
largest state p~enitentiaries told my
people that a few years ago there was
sentenced to bis penitentiary a boy
who came there in short trousers to
serve a sentence of many years. If
that boy, because he had committed a
fiendish crime, was looked upon as
morally responsible, does not God hold
US morally and spiritually responsible
for what we have buildcd since we
entered our teens. my teens As
we speak those words how far they are
Gcd does not work a snap Judgment
upon any one here today. He gives US
our work to do. lie gives us q long
dry season." or years of preparation,
in which to do that work. What have
you buildcd in your years of prepara-
ton? What have you done for man,
and what have you done for God?
VIC Are MI Builders.
But while l was bordering upon
dry seasons or years of preparation
which have come to us in rearing our
life work. this thought came upon me
with driving force: During our years
Of preparation for the 'rainy season.
we are all builders. We cannot get
away from that fact. Every Il of
us Is building, consciously or uncon-
sciously. We are either building upon
the rocks or we are building upon the
sands. We must be the wise man Of
the parable or the foolish man of the
parable. There is no escape. We have
to keep doing. and we must keep
growing, growing for good or growing
for evil.
In II OF his sermons Mr.. Spurgeon
tells us that on his g~randmother's man
telpiece, among other marvels, there
was an apple in q bottle. This apple
completely filled the inside of that bot
tie and was four or five times larger
than the bottles neck. AS a little boy
Sturgeon used to climb up on a chair
and study that bottle. He kept saying
to himself, How could a great big ap-
pie like that get into that neck?" Then
he tried to unscrew the bottom of the
bottle. Then he took it down and held
1t to the light TO see whether or 40 the
glass had been broken and glued to-
gether again. No, not one of these
facts could account for the big apple
In the bottle. But one day he found
out the explanation. While he was
playing in the orchard he saw his
grandmother take another bottle and
place 1t over a very small apple and
then tie the bottle to the stem and
leave it there. Yes, she left it there
until the little apple grew into a big ap-
pie, and she put that second bottle with
its apple alongside Of the first bottle
with its big apple on the mantelpiecc.
When | read that illustration / said to
myself, "Ah. that is the growth OF life"
We grow up without thinking of the
future, and some day we are suddenly
halted by n limitation that has been
around us from early years unknown to
us. BY some net or some neglect, some
sin or some weakness we have entered
into bonds which limit and stunt our
growth. 1t seemed n light thing at the
beginning, only n habit or a connection
that we might easily shake off, but IN
u maturity we are prisoners. BE
careful how you build, for every hour
we are building for good or we are
building for evil, We are laying the
foundations of our houses upon the
solid rock or upon the shifting sand,