Connecticut western news., 1891-08-06
CANAAN CONN, THURSDAY, AUGUST G. 1891

Scotch history. It took the stormy sea, and the December blast, and the deso- late New England coast, and the war whoop of savages to show forth the prowess of the Pilgrim Fathers
 When amid the storms they sang,
 And the stars heard, and the sea-
 And the sounding aisles of the dim wood
 Rang to the anthems of the free.
 THE LIFTING UP OF THE NATION.
 It took all our past national distresses, and it takes all our present national sorrows, to lift up our nation on that high career where it will march along after the foreign despotisms that have mocked, and the tyrannies that have jeered shall be swept down under the omnipotent wrath of God, who hates oppression, and who by the strength of his own red right arm will make all men free. And so it is individually, and in the family, and in the church, and in the world, that through dark ness and storm and trouble men, wom. en, churches, nations, are deyeloped.,i
 Again, 1 see in my text the beauty of unfaltering friendship. Isuppose there were plenty of friends for Naomi while she was in prosperity; but of all her acquaintances, how many were willing to trudge off with her toward Judea, when she had to make that lonely jour- ney2 One-the heroine of my text. One-absolutely one. suppose when Naomi's husband was living, and they had plenty of money, and all things went we'll, they had great many call CTS; but suppose that after her hus- band died, and her property went, and she got old and poor, she was not trou- bled very much with callers. All the birds that sang in the bower while the sun shone have gone to their nests, now the night has fallen.
 Oh, these beautiful sunfowers that spread out their color in the morning hourl but they are always asleep when the sun is going down! Job had plenty of friends when he was the richest man in Uz; but when his property went and the trials came, then there were none so much that pestered as Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite.
 Life often seems to be a mere game, where the successful player pulls down all the other men into his own lap. Let suspicious arise about mans charac- ter and he becomes like bank in a panic, and all the imputations rush on him and break down in day that o1,, 1,so so1 ;v have had strength to defend itself. There are regulations that have been half a century in building which go down under some moral exposure, as a vast temple is consumed by the touch of sulphurous match. A hog can up root a century plant.
 In this world, so full of heartlessness and hypocrisy, how thrilling it is to find some friend as faithful in days of ad- versity as in days of prosperity! David had such friend in Hushai; the Jews had such a friend in Mordecai, who never forgot their cause; Paul had such a friend in Onesiphorus, who visited him in jail; Christ had such in the Marys, who adhered to him on the | cross; Naomi had such a one in Ruth, who cried out, "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following 1 after thee; for whither thou goest, will go; and where thou lodgest, will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest will die, and there will I be buried the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me. , OUT OF DARKNESS INTO LIGHT. Again, I learn from this subject that paths which open in hardship and dark ness often come out in places of joy. When Ruth started from Moab toward Jerusalem, to go along with her moth er-in-law,' suppose the people said "Oh, what foolish creature to go away from her fathers house, to go off witl | a poor old woman toward the land o1 Judea! They won't live to get across l the desert. They will be drowned ir the sea, or the jackals of the wilderness will destroy tllem." It was a very dark morning when Ruth started off witt Naomi, but behold her in my text ir the harvest field of Boaz, to be affianceo to one of the lords of the land, and be come one of the grandmothers of Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory. And so il often is that path which starts very darkly ends very brightly.
 When you started out for heaven, oh l how dark was the hour of conviction how Sinai thundered and devils tor mentcd, and the darkness thickened All the sins of your life bounced upor you, and it was the darkest hour you ever saw when you first found out youl sins. After awhile you went into tho harvest field of Gods mercy; you be gan to glean in the fields of divine promise, and you had more sheaves than you could carry, as the voice o. God addressed you, saying Blessed i: the man whose transgressions are for given and whose sins are covered" very dark starting in conviction, a very bright ending in the pardon, and the hope, and the triumph of the Gospel!
 So, very often in our worldly bushes. or in our spiritual career, we start of on very dark path. We must go The flesh may shrink back, but there i: voice within, or a voice from above saying, You must go;" and we have tt drink the gall, and we have to carr, the cross, and we have to traverse Jne desert, and we are pounded and Hailed of misrepresentation and abuse, and we have to urge our way through ter thousand obstacles that have to bt slain by our own right arm. We have to ford the river, we have to climb thu