Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-04-18

cupboard - always full OF 1000 ana Tue
wardrobe Is always full Of clothes,
most of us accept the luxuries OF life
as the ordinary commonplaces. Then
we wonder why any person will grum-
BILE about being cold or hungry. When
we are born under the shadow of
church spira and are baptized Mt the
church affairs and we nre sent 70 her
Sunday schools and are invited to sit
at her communion tables, we are very
apt to believe that the church is like
an Indigenous plant that has always
been here and that always will be here.
Now, my friends, wnnt TO tell you
that the church OF the Lord Jesus
Christ YVES never planted anywhere
successfully unless it was first planted
there in blood soaked soil The plant
ers of the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ were The heroes who were al
ways looking for the harvests Of the
future and never living for their own
personal benefit and reward
Great Sacrifices.
Where did the American church come
from? Did the first great explorers
who came across the seas find the little
white meeting houses in the center OF
every Indian village and planted upon
every hilltop and dotted here and there
over the broad praries OF the west?
ooh, no" Won say. 1T was only by
the greatest sacrifices OF Marquette
and Eliot and Roger Williams and mis-
sionaries Of such ilk that the church
of Jesus Christ was ever planted upon
American shores. Then after the
churches were established in the east
the backwoods preachers like Petei
Cartwright and Ravens and the daring
missionaries like Bishop Whpplc led
on their cohorts Of cvangeiists. Far
Their and farther west they carried the
cross, and farther and farther west
they went until at last that cross
reached the Pacific coast. The Mora
vans penetrated into the snow and ice
Of the arctic with the news, and by
and by Sheldon Jackson lifted the
cross and carried it far north amid the
Alaska SHOWS. So. step by step. the
brave missionaries have struggled and
starved and in many places have died
consecratng with their bodies the land
they had won Yes, the American
church came as the results of the hum
bic sacrifice Of thousands Of obscure
ministers of whom the world knows
nothing.
Paul once asserted that In his work
he was surrounded by a great cloud OF
w c n
church affairs today cannot We see the
faces OF the noble self sacrificing mis-
sionarins who have made such a church
service as this a possibility? Are they
not standing above this pulpit today ?
An eyewitness once declared that the
most beautiful part OF all Father Tay-
lor's ministry was his intense realiza-
ton Of Christ's presence. The things
he would say and 90 might have been
lrreverent in another, but in Taylor
they seemed only evidence Of Christ's
reality. Sitting one Sunday at the
Lords table to administer the com
munlon. he concealed the cup. Then in
deeply solemn tone he said, children,
| I bring you a gift from Jesus, some
]
voice breaking. he said. ut Is the wine
Of the covenant. his own blood shed for
YOU, and he bids me say, Drink We all
of it," And he brought forward the
cup, md, looking at it, he wept Yes;
all the good we enjoy has come to rs
as that wine by sacrifice They lived
their lives of sacrifice to give us this
gospel sanctuary. We are today gath,
ering in their ripened harvests. One
man soweth, and another reapeth."
Humble Sewers.
But we do not have to 90 alone into
the past centuries to find the sewers
All those who have planted harvests
for their fellow men are not to he
found alone in the damp. dark cells OF
Il Savonarola or Huss. You remcm
Der well a seed planter who never
wore a monks cowl. Her face was
wrinkled and her hair was white and
her hands very thin when you last saw
her Her throne room was the nursery
and the Kitchen. Her realm was the
old home OF your boyhood. The world
at large never thought that she amount
cd to much. She never had a large
harvest. She was always sowing. She
was sowing her life in the heart and
brain of this child and that child and
the other child. She had good sec
end in her sowing That other sower
was the husband who stood by hei
side. Indeed. they had so little that
they always lived in Il plain house and
dressed in very plain clothes and ate
very simple food and never went any
where outside of their own little town
One day some years ago you began &c
be ashamed Of their shabby clothes
The neighbors seemed TO have sc
much better than they. You sharply
said, Mother, why don't you get q
better dress? Why does not father
move into a better houseW You re
member Just how she looked as she
said: "Well. son, this dress IS warm
enough. and I guess the old house vii
do for pa and me. We cannot afford
much better clothes and give you chill
dren all the education you ought tc
have. We are willing for you children
to gather the harvests Of our life's
work. We do not care 80 much wha
becomes of us II you boys only turr
out well. We are sewers, Just humble
l.,l