Connecticut western news., 1890-12-17
CONN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER

cedars in the Bible was to suggest that we ought, in our religious character, to be deep like the cedar, high like the cedar, broad branched as the cedar.
 A traveller measured the spread of the boughs of one of these trees, and found it one hundred and eleven feet from branch tip to branch tip, and have seen cedars of Christian character that through their prayers and chari- ties put out one branch to the utter most parts of America and another branch to the uttermost parts of Asia, and these wide branched Christians will keep on multiplying until all the
 But mark you, these cedars of Leb- anon could not grow if planted in mild climates, and in soft air, and in care fully watered gardens. They must have the gymnasium of the midnight hurricane to develop their arms. They must play the athlete with thousand winters before their feet are rightly planted, and their foreheads rightly lifted, and their arms rightly muscled. And if there be any other way for de veloping strong Christian character ex- cept by storms of trouble, l never heard of it. Call the roll of martyrs, call the roll of the prophets, call the roll of the apostles, and see which of them had an easy time of it. Which of these cedars grew in the warm valley? Not one of them. Honeysuckles thrive best on. the south side of the house, but cedars in Syrian whirlwind.
 Men and women who hear this or read this. instead of your grumbling because you have it hard, thank God that you are in just the best school for making heroes and heroines It is true both for this world and the next Rock that baby in cradle cushioned and canopied; graduate him from that into a costly high chair and give him a gold spoon; send him to school wrapped in furs enough for an arctic explorer; send him through a college where he will not have to study in order to get a diploma, because his father is rich; start him in profession where he be- gins with an office the floor GOV cred with Administer, and a library of books in Russian morocco, and an armchair upholstered like a throne, and an embroidered ottoman upon which to put his twelve dollar gaiters, and then lay upon his table the best ivory cigar holder you can import from Brussels, and have standing outside his door a prancing span that won the prize at the horse fair, and leave him estate enough to make him independent of all struggle, and what will become of him? If he does not die early of in anition or dissipation, he will live a useless life and die an unlamented death, and go into a fools eternity.
 PERFECTED THROUGH SUFFERING.
 But what has been the history of most of the great cedars in merchan- disc, in art, in law, in medicine, in statesmanship, in Christian usefulness "John, get up and milk the COWS; it's late; it's half past 5 in the morning Split an arlnful of wood on your way out, so that we can build the fires for breakfast. Put your bare feet on the cold oilcloth and break the ice in your pitcher before you can wash. Yes, it has been showing and drifting again last night, and we will have to break the roads," The boys educational ad- vantages, long oak plank without any back to it in country school house, c%1 o1, than heat. Pressing on from one hard ship to another.
 After while Q position on salary or wages small enough to keep life, but keep it at it's lowest ebb. Starting in occupation or business with prosperous men trying to fight you back at every step. But after 8 good while fairly on your feet, and your opportunities wid- ening, and then by some sudden turn you are triumphant. You are master of the situation and defiant of all earth and hell. A Lebanon cedar! John Milton on his way up to the throne of the worlds sacred poesy must sell his copyright of Paradise Lost" for seventy-two dollars in three pay ments. And William Shakespeare, on his way up to be acknowledged the greatest dramatist of all ages, must hold horses at the door of the London theatre for a sixpence, and Homer must struggle through total blind ness to immortality, and John Bun van must cheer himself on the way up by making flute out of his prison stool, and Canova, the sculptor, must toll on through orphanage, mod cling lion in butter before he could cut his statues ill marble. And the great Stephenson must watch COWS in the field for few pennies and then be- come a stoker, and afterward mend clocks before he puts the locomotive on as track, and calls forth plaudits iron parliaments and medals from kings. Abel Stevens is picked up a neglected child of the street, and rises through bis consecrated genius to be one of the most illustrious clergymen and histo- rians of the century. And Bishop James of the same church in boyhood worked his passage from Ireland to America and up to usefulness, where, in the bishopric, he was second to no one who ever adorned it
 While in banislment Xcnophon wrote his ,"Anabasis" and Thucydides his History of the Peloponnesian War;" andVictor Hugo must be exiled for many years to the island of Guernsey before he can come to that height in the affec- tions of his countrymen that crowds the Champs Elysees, and the adjoining boulevards with one million mourners, as his hearse rolls down to the Church of the Madeleine. Oh, it is tough old world, and it will keep you back and keep you down and keep you un-