Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1906-10-01

mt a halo about the past, but the past
was never as bright or as happy as is
4be present You would not live your
life over again if in order to do it you
had to surrender the blessings now at
/ hand.
Surrenderfng the Past.
Our past lives cannot be lived with
out surrendering the present; but,
| thank God. we can live out the future
! with the present and the past to a
! great extent combined into one And
| we can combine the present and the
! pslst IN the yearaM which is to come by
| guarding against the most awful mis-
| take we made in past years. We have.
/ tried to fight the battle of life alone.
! we have tried to conquer in our
| own strength rather than in the
strength of the Lord God Almighty,
| who has always promised to sustain
| US if we would put our trust in him.
We can now grip a hold of the arm of
my friends, il we put our trust in
| Christ do you not believe that with his
! help we could during the coming years
overcome many of the mistakes of the
J past? We can make the past, purified
! Of its evils, live and breathe again in
the future We can. Yes, we. can! If
! we only enter the new year with
Christ's help we should be able to undo
many of the wrongs Of the past, be-
sides taking advantage of the blessed
opportunities Of the future
Not only that, but still another bless
ing may be ours. In Christ we may be
able to live again during the years Of
| the coming eternity with those who
have made the past years for Us so
| happy. We shall not be at that time
like the old lady who lived for many
years in the city Of Los Angeles. She
died there at eighty-four years Of age
in November, 1905. When she died it
was found out that for the last TWEEN
ty-eight. years of her life she had con-
ceaIed in her attic the dead body of her
Oldest daughter This was the body Of
a young girl Of twenty-seyen years,
who had breathed her last in the far
east, and her body had been shipped
from Amherst, Mass, to the home Of
her mother in the far west. For nearly
thirty long years this broken hearted
mother had chung to the body of her
child and carried it wherever she went.
So sdlne of us have been clinging to
the dead bodies of our loved ones
which were buried many, many years
ago. But if we will only give our
hearts TO Christ here and now on the
fastf Sunday Of the year Christ will
somG..day give our loved ones alive
back to Us. Then we will not have to
choose between wife and mother or
husband and father or brother and
child. Then we shall have them all to-
gether again. Then the past and the
present and the future shall be united
= into one Then father and mother,
brother and sister, wife and husband,
childraa and grandchildren shall all as
.sembfs together before the throne. of
God to forever sing the song of Moses
and the Lamb Oh, my friends, will
you let your past life live again in
Christ? $50
A Joyful Ending. 4.
Thus in .closins~tllis, sermon on the
last Sunday of tffsNear do not feel
a sense of sadness sfch as have of
ten felt upon similar. occasions in the
past. Whenever 1 kaye attended the
watch night meetins&,of previous New
Years ewes the: r4sging of the bell
when the clock sfrttk L has always
sounded. to me ike the tolling of a
dirge 1t has feen to me a death
1 q
the bell when.the hearse enters the
cemetery. As.the clock struck /, 2, 8
4, 5, g. Z, 8,.:sg 10, II, II, it seemed to
call: Dead and .gone! The years al
|. 1900 and 1907 III s1go2 and 1908 ana
1904 and 1903 Ere dead and gone'
: They are dead and. gone forever! Hear
81 it, We living. Dead and gone forever!'
81 But as I hear. the clock striking the
Z midnight hour tonight it will not be a
..tdirge, but a promise Of reunion. II
ff. will ring: 1.-The year. of 1905 is not
4 dead and gone forever. Thou shalt
, 7 meet it with its sanctifed joys and
sorrows. Thou shalt meet it again
smiling with the faces of those who
: have made thy lastH&elve months
:. happy and blessed. Tpatsshalt meet
f the year of 1905 coningsarth to greet
thee. D Christian. with the sacred
yestrs of 1890 and 1880 and 1870 by its
side. All these years, shall live again
if thou wilt put thy faith in Christ
and have him live insthee and thou in
him" My friends, on this last Sun
. day of the year. wilt thou have the
midnight bell toll for. thee dirge or
ring out for thee a" gospel triumph
You can here and now decide if you
shall live over again your happy past
Thou blessed past with our hallowed
dear ones! Art thou alive? Shall it
come forth to greet us at the day of
: judgment and, purified of all evil live
!. with US through all the coming eterni-
ties? 1t will. Thou year of 1905, go
,, forth and assemble for US the dear
years that are gone. Assemble them
to greet US when, like Christ, we shall
r,.orS aud