Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1922-04-12
Special Services This Week.
Continued from page one)

the midst of them the one whom he
loved most of all-his mother. Duty
had kept him active so that he had not
seen his mother as often as was de-
sired, but the true love of a son had
not diminished. Gladly would he have
taken her into his arms, but these
were fastened tightly to the beams of
the cross. He might loosen them and
come down, but the redemption of the
world was in his care and there was
no other way but to cause her grief,
and speak such words of comfort as
was possible, at the same time pro-
vide for her future welfare. Seeing
the disciple and the mother whom he
loved a word brought each into fell
lowship with the other, one with SYM
patty and the other with a duty.
The current idea of comforting is
that of babying, coddling or the CIV
ing of kind of narcotic. Nor is
this wholly unwarranted. So long as
we live in this world of sorrow, pain
and weakness and sin, this kind of
comfort will be necessary to calm the
throbbing heart. In itself, there is
no virtue in pain. God does not care
to make his children suffer, for Gin all
their Affections he was afflicted" New
ertheless he desires to have all do his
will and when his will for his own
is fully wrought out he "shaH wipe
away every tear from their eyes" and
the "angel of his presence" shall
save them and he shall redeem them.
The administration of an anesthe-
tic is but a temporary expedient to
suppress pain. Too often the cause
still remains. The only permanent
and safe relief comes from the re-
storation of the organs and tissue to
their normal state by process of
healing and strengthening. God the
comforter, is not merely a consider
but a strengthened. 1t is often very
painful to pass through the process
of bodily restoration and this is
equally true in the spiritual. A man
cannot be chloroformed into insensi-
bility while you take out his heart of
stone and substitute a heart of flesh.
Oftentimes God cannot make this
change without pain. ''Whom the
Lord loveth he chasteneth," eff We
not sons" But God does not allow
are without Christening then are We
the trial to come without erecting a
haven of shelter from the storm.
Sometimes he plans before us some
duty to dry the weeping eye and dis
pei the darkness, the gloom is COW
cred with activity, while the heart
still hopes for the meeting in the
eternal home. Pride must often be
buried, the selfish spirit broken and
the ambitions changed, but in the
end that which seemed grievous yield
ed the peaceable fruits of righteous
ness, saved by the fire of trial, oppo-
sition or misfortune.
The great physician is at work en-
deavoring to make us, healthy in soul.
Do not fight against him. Your doc
tor could do little for you under such
circumstances. Takes sides with God
against your old self. Jesus said to
the man with the withered hand,
"Stretch forth thy hand" and the
man obeved and is healed. He says
to YOU, "stretch forth thy soul" and
only he who obeys is developed. There
NAV be pain, sacrifice or self-denial
now. but before long there will be the
thrill Of the truly developed soul.
The kingdom of heaven is oftened
entered by the door of tribulation,
unless we learn easily the deep lesson
of faith and trust.
However, God seldom resorts to
pain as a restorative and only when
the Individual cannot otherwise be
treated or when it pleases his will
to use it as a Savior to others. "He
does not aff1ict willingly nor grieve
the children of men," The tree rock
ed and swaved by the wind and storm
sends down it's roots and takes a firm
err grip on that which will hold it
erect. So is all Gods dealing with
the human soul. AS the trial OF
affection comes upon us we take a
firmer grip by the roots of faith,
upon that mower which alone can sup
mort us. God comes with the ba1~o of