Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1906-09-24
Calnase
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee. ID. d.


sermon the preacher sounds stirring
note Of arousal and fresh encourage
ment 10 those who are disposed to sink
I'm the battle Of life and 10 give way TO
unavailing regrets. The text is II San-
uel xix. -. so the king returned and
came to Jordan"
The world has no use for die common
scold. When universal fault finders
can see nothing but lshortcomings in
their fellow men they are apt TO de-
nounce sins Similar to those to which
they themselves are addicted. what
is the matter with your the clapper
asked the cracked bell in the old leg
end. You utter nothing but discords.
You are 40 good to anybody" Yes
answered the bell, that may be true.
But what are you complaining about?
Was not my metal all right until you
pounded crack in my side? And, fur
thernlore. would not the world think l
was an right now if you did not con-
tinue TO pound me and advertise my
weaknesses" SO it often happens that
the people who are most active in de-
really denouncing the evil results of
which they themselves are the direct or
Indirect causes. Like a boomerang,
their complaints fly in a circle. They
Sfrike back Mt the very lips which start
ed those complaints on their evil flight.
The world has but little use for the
kcommon scold. 1t has also little use
4 for those who do not heed the danger
signals Of life which are lifted all about
them 1t has unutterable contempt for
the pilot who will not steer away from
the buoys marking the dangerous reefs,
or for the engineer who will not stop
his locomotive when the warning tor
pedO is exploded under his wheel, or
= for the sea captain who will not keep
his eye upon the falling barometer
when the ship is drawing near the ice
berg regions. or for the physician who
does not keep n careful record of the
patients fever. or for the statesman
who does not ferret out and check the
evils skulking behind the pillars of the
legislative halls. There is no sense il
declaring that the sun is shining wheI
a tornado is battering down the har
vests and knocking the unripe fruit of
the swaying branches. 1t is no sign O.
great virtue to be always looking upOl
the bright side of things when cOndi
tons about US are all askew and coulC
be made right if we would only e
forth to gTapple with the wrongs ant
scatter the causes which are bringin
forth evil results.
scold: neither was he one, of thos
wishy washy, effeminate, pusillanimou
characters who are afraid to say tina
their souls are their own. He couI
speak out boldly and bravely when
behooved him so to speak. When tn
king did right, Joab was ready to say
'Thou art right, o my king" Whe
the king did wrong, JOab was ais
ready to say, "Thou art wrong, M
king" And because he was ready
denounce the kings follies just as en-
phatically as he was to praise tn
kings virtues he was able to eXercis
the far reaching influence on David
life that is described in the chapter c
my text.
In the first place, the icOnOclast opel
ed the eyes of the king to the man
blessings with which he was surrounC
ed. With one herculean blow Joa
shattered the idol of the kings gri'
and made him stop worshiping at Il
shrine of his hayward sons gray
With the keen, sharp words of a ffie1
he went into the royal bedroom al
cut and slashed that weeping pare
with his verbal stiletto until at last L
king realized that even father has
right to spend a lifetime bemoaning
dead Absalom if by such course he
doing an injustice to his living frienC
And yet, my brothers, how many IN
and women there are just like Dav
They never seem to be able to tn
their weeping eyes away from the
Gus of a tombstone. They never SCI
TO be able to see the laughing eyes a
the smiling lips or to hear the low
words of those who are living for thu
in the nurseries and sitting rooms
their own homes.
David's Greatest Battle.
The greatest battle of David's care
was over. 1t was an awful fight. d
Throne had been tOttering upon its fol
, dations. AS Alfred the Great had
fee his capital when he was defeat
by the Danes at Athelney. and as r.
ert Bruce was an exile in Ireland
six long years before he came back
his Scottish throne, and as Charles
was a wanderer upon the face of
. earth, when Cromwell was dictator
Westminster, so King David, on
count Of the uprising Of his son Alb
lonl. was a fugitive from'his Jerusal
paiace. 1t was not a mere playful SOU
which had struck his ship Of stf
1t was a tornado, which was ripp
the sails and making the gunwales S
under the foaming raging bi1o'
King David's head was in danger.
=. the whole royal family were mena
by the instruction of which this