Connecticut western news., 1884-01-23
TNe Remarks of Rev NAT Walker at Eddie Smiths Funeral,
 January 0.

We are brought to-day face to face with one of the hardest problems of theology. St Peter tells us that in the sacred volume "are some things hard to be understood;" he might further have said with the same truthfulness, that there are some things hard to be under stood in Gods dealings with human life Not merely hard to be understood, but entirely beyond our comprehension. But thank God we are not required to understand them. The thought of this is of infinite comfort, where otherwise we would be filled with dismay.
 All in vain did the Psalmist of old cry, 'Lord let me know my end and the number of my days, that may be certified how long have to live" That is just the problsm which the Almighty has not seen fit to enable us to solve. That there should be the utmost uncer- I tainty as to the continuance of our earth ly existence from day to day, is one of the wisest features of the Providence which guides our path.
 Why one life is cut off almost at it's very conception and yet another pro- longed beyond it's seeming usefulness is something on which we will do we'll to reflect, but which it were mere folly to profess to understand. It is hid in the mysteries of eternity, which we shall know in that day when the veil shall be taken away from before all faces and when the tears shall be wiped from all eyes.
 But is there nothing for us to learn from such events ? Yes, thank God, all we need and more than We deserve They are sent as trials of our faith, as lessons in the way of holiness. He would have us learn in our bitter affiction, as did the holy Job, to trust him though he stays, to trust though he bids us give back the dearest object that he has lent us. Perhaps one reason why we find it so hard to give up our treasures to Gods keeping, is because we fail to remember what the Psalmist tells us so plainly, that our children are "a gift and herit- age that cometh of the Lord" God lends them to us, but in our wilfulness we take possession and dispute his right to any share in the control God lends them to us, bear in mind. He lends them to us for our joy and comfort, but if he bids us restore the loan, shall we resent the bidding and murmur at his command !? He lends them to us and bids us train them in his love and ser vice; but if instead of leaving them con- tinually in our care, he takes them in tender and compassionate love unto himself, to nurture them for us in a bet ter climate and with more heavenly nourishment, to give them back again at i last, takes them to himself that those little hands may beckon us upward, ''that we may cling to the mighty hand of our Redeemer more steadfastly through all the night watches of our lives, till the day dawn and the sh. .dows flee away" shall we murmur shall we doubt his goodness and his love?
 Dare we question that love, or pre- sumo that we can care for that dear one as tenderly as does the Saviour? Could we have the heart to wish that tender soul torn from the unspeakable joys of Paradise and brought again to combat with the sin and sorrow of this weary, wicked world God forbid. True love real, unselfsh love could not endure the thought. No-after the first wild burst of grief is past, there comes to the parents heart-the heart sustained by the love of Christ and strengthened by the grace of the Holy Ghost, the Con- forter,-there comes to such parents heart the holy calm which David felt when he exclaimed in full submission to Gods ordering, when his child was talk en from him, "Now he Is dead, where fore should I fast; can bring him back again ? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me-"
 ''SoEfOw net, brethren, fer them thAt