Connecticut western news., 1889-11-27

The idea of my texts is just as true when applied to Gods providence. Who mas not come to some pass in life thoroughly inex. plicable. You say: .'what does this mean? What is God going to do with me now. He tells me that all things work together for good. This does not look like it." You con- tinue to study the dispensation. and after awhile guess about what God means. tie means to teach me this. I think he means 10 teach me that. Perhaps it is to humble my pride. Perhaps it is to make me feel more dependent. Perhaps to teach me the uneer- tainty of life" But, after all. 1t Is only guesS-a looking through the glass darkly. The Bible assures Us there shall be satiSfac- tory unfolding. "What do thou knowest not Eow. but thou shalt know hereafter. You will know why God took to himself that only child. Next door therc Was Il house. hold of seven children.
 Why not take one from that group, instead of your only one: Why single out the dwell- inr in which there WAS only one heart beat ing responsive to yours! Why did God give you child at all, if he meant To take It away! Why fill the cup of your gladness orimmlhS; if he meant to dash it downt Why allow aii the tendrils of your heart 10 wind around that object, and then. when every hore or your own life seems to be intcrioched with the child's life. with strong hand to tear you apart, until you fall bleeding ard crushed, your dwelling desolate, your hopes blasted, your heart broken? Do you suppose that
  it plainer than any mathematical prohiem-as plain as that two and two make four. In the light of the throne you will see that II Was right ''Just and true are all Thy ways, Thou King of Saints!"
 Here is Il man who cannot get on In the world. He always seems to buy at the wrong time and sell at the worst disadvantssc. He tries this enterprise, and fails; that business, and is disappointed. The man next door To him has lucrative trade. but he lacks GUS \ is increased. But that yesr his family are sick. and the profits arc expended Ill trying to cure the ailments. He gets discouraged look. Becomes fSthless as to success Be gins to expect disasters. Others walt Tor something to turn up; he waits for it to turn down. Others. with only half as much eau cation and character, get on twice as we'll. He sometimes guesses as to what 1t all means. He says:
 @Perhaps riches would spoil me. Perhaps poverty is necessary to keep me humble. Perhaps I might, if things were otherwise, be tempted into dissipation." But there is no complete solution of the mystery He sees through glass darkly; and must wait for ton? Yes; God will take that man in the light of the throne and say: ..Child immor- tai, hear the eXpanationl lou remember the failing of that great enterprise. This IS the explanation And you will answer: Ut is all rightw l Providence. There is no question we ask | oftener than Whys There are hundreds of graves that need to be explained. Hospitals for the blind and lame, asylums for the idiotic and insane almshouses for the destitute, and a world of pain and misfortune that demand more than human solution. An! God will | clear it all up. In the light that pours rom the throue no dark mystery can live. Things | now utterly inscrutable will be illumined as | plainly as though the answer were written | on tha iaSDer wall or sounded in the temple | anthem.
 Bartimeus will thank God that he was | blind and Lazarus that he was covered with sores; and Joseph that he was cast into the | pit and Daniel that he was denned with lions | and Paul that be was humpbacked; and David | that he was driven from Jerusalem; and the | sewing woman that she could get only few pence for making garment; and that invalid that for 20 years he could not lift his head ! from the pillow; and that widow that she had | such hard work to earn bread for her child | ren. You know that in Q song different voices carry different parts.
 The sweet and overwhelming part of the l hallelujah of heaven will not be carried by those who rode in high places and gave stump l tuous entertainments, but pauper children | will sing 1t, beggars will sing it, redeemed bod carriers will sing it, those who were | once the offscouring of earth will sing it. The hallelujah will be all the grander for earth's weeping eyes and aching heads and | exhausted hands and scourged backs and ma-tyred agonies.
 Again: The thought of my texts Is true | when applied to the enjoyment of the right eOus in heaven. l think we have but little idea of the number of the righteous in l heaven. Infidels say: "Your heaven will be a very small place compared with the world | of the lost; for, according to your teaching, | the majority of men will be destroyed" I deny the charge. suppose that the multi | tude of the finally lost as compared with the lr .x,nr l..a | full. suppose that the few sick people in | the hospitals of our great cities, as compared | with the hundreds of thousands of well peo- | pie, would not be smaller than the number | of those who shall be cast out in suffering, compared with those who shall have upon l them the health of heaven.
 | For we are to remember that We are Nv- ! ing in only the beginning of the Christian | dispensatiOn, and that this whole world is to
 be populated and redeemed. and that ages of | light and love are to flow on. If this be SO, | the multitudes of the saved will be in the
 vast majority. Take all the congregations
 that have assembled for worship throughout | ChriStendom. Put them together. and they
 would make but small audience compared | with the thousands and tens of thousands
 and ten thousand times ten thousand, and the hundred and forty and four thousand that shall stand around the throne. Those
 flashed up to heaven in martyr fires; those
 tossed for many years upon the invalid
 couch; those fought in the armies of liberty
 and rose as they fell; those tumhled from
 high scaffoldings, or slipped from the mast
 or were washed of into the sea.
 They came up from COrinth, from Laodi,
 cea. from the Red Sea bank and Gennesaret'i
 wave, from Egyptian brickyards and Glide
 on's threshing floor. Those thousands o1
 this moment having their eyes closed, anC
 their limbs stretched out for the sepulchre
 \ general expecting an attack from the enc
 my stands on 8 hill and looks through fielc
 glass and sees in the great distance multi
 tudes approaching, but has no idea of thei
 numbers. He says: II cannot tell anything
 about them. l merely know that there ar,
 great number" And so John, without
 attempting to count, says: "A great multi
 tude that no man can number"
 We are told that heaven is a place of happi
 ness; out what do we know about happiness
 Happiness in this world is only half-fledget
 thing; fiowery path with serpent hissin.
 across it; broken pitcher from which thu
 water has dropped before we could drink it
 thrill of eKhiiaratiOn, followed by disss
 trous reactions. To help us understand th joy of heaven, the Bible takes us to river We stand on the grassy bank. We see tn waters flow on with ceaseess wave. But tn filth of the cities is emptied into it, and tn
 banks are torn, and unhealthy eXhalation
 spring up from it, and we fail to get an ide
 of the River of Life in heaven.
 We get very imperfect ideas of the re unions of heaven. We think of some fiesta day on earth when father and mother wer , yet living, and the children came home.
 good time that! But it had it's drawback al! were not there. That brother went oil t sea, and never was heard from. That siste : did we not lay her away in the freshness O her young life, never more in this world t look on her! An! there was 8 skeleton a the feast; and tears mingled with our laugh ter on that Christmas day. Not so witt ] heavens reunions. It will be an uninterrupt
 ed g,adness.
 Many 8 Christian parent will look aroun, and find all his children there. "Ahv' h l.. i.l<&