Connecticut western news., 1892-05-26

 of times you go through the Bible, but the number of times the Bible goes you. Pause. reflect. Selahi
 So also on the scroll of your life and mind. We go rushing on in the song of our prosperity from note of jDy to note of joy. and it is a long drawn out legato. and we become indifferent and unapprs- ciative when suddenly we come upon a blank in the music. There is nothing between those bars. A pause. God will fill it up with sIckbed, or n com mercial disaster. or Il grave. But. thank God. it is not breaking down. It is only pause. It helps us to appreciate the blessings that are gone. It gives us higher appreciation of the blessings that are to come
 The Selah of Hahakkuk and David is a dividing line between two anthems. David begins his book with the words. Blessed is the man. and after seventy four Selahs he closes his book with the words. Praise ye the Lord" So there are mercies behind us. and there are going to be mercies before us. 1t is good for us that tiod halts us in our for tunes. and halts us with physical dis tress. and halts us at the graves of our dead More than once you and have been halted by such Selah. You wrung your hands and sad "l cant see any sense in this Providence: 1 cant see why tiod gave me that child. If he is so soon going to take ii away. Oh, my desolate home! Oh. my broken heartr You could not understand it. But ii WAS not Selah of overthrow. It gave you greater appreciation of the bless ings that have gone: it will yet give you greater appreciation of the blessings that will come.
 HISTORICAL CITATIONS.
 When the Huguenots were being very much persecuted m France father and mother were obliged to fly from the country. leaving their child m the pos session of n comparative stranger. They did not know whether they would ever return. or returning. if they would be able to recogmze their child. for by that time she might be grown. The mother WAS almost frenzied at ~>' thought of leaving the child. and then. even if com ing back again, not being able to know her Before they left the father drew his sword and he marked the wrist of that child with d deep cut. It must have been great exigency to make father do that.
 Years of absence passed on anu after awhile the parents returned, and their first anxiety was to find their lost child. They looked up and down the land. ex- amining the wrists of the young people. when To. after awhile the father found a maiden with scar upon her wrist. She knew him not, but he knew her. And oh the Joy of the reunionl So it is now. Whom the Lord loveth he chas- teneth." He cutteth. he marketh and when he comes to claim his own the Lord will know them that are his: know them by the scar of their trouble. know them by the stroke of their desolation
 Oh. it is good that the Lord sometimes halts us. David says. 1t is good that have been afflicted. Before 1 was afflicted l went astray, but now have kept thy word" Indeed. We must all soon stop Scientists have improved human longevity. but none of them have proposed to make terrene life per petual But the Gospel makes death only Selah between two beatitudes- between dying triumph on the one side of the grave. and celestial escort on the other side of the grave. Going out of this life. to the unprepared, is great horror.
 "tiive me more laudanum." said dying Mirabeau: give me more laudanum. that l may not think of eternity ard what is to come" And dying Hobbes said. "l leave my body to the grave and my soui to the great perhaps" It was the discord of an intideI's life breaking down into the Jargon of despair: but the Gospel makes the death of the Christian Selah between redemption and en- thronenent. Almost we'll. said dying Richard Baxter. almost we'll" Play those notes over again-tbose notes which have been 80 great Il delight and solace to me. said the dying Christian Mozart None but Christ. none but Christ" exclaimed dying Lambert
 Richard Cameron. the Scotch cove nanter went into the battle three times praying: Lord. spare the green and take the ripe. This is the day have longed for This IS the day 1 shall get my crown Come let us fight II to the last Forwardl' So you see there k only short pause. Selah of interniis sion between dy1ng consultations on the one side and overlapping raptures on the other.
 My flesh shall slumber in the ground
 Till the last trumpet's joyful sound;
 he sIstiu slfr
 And III my Saviour's image rise.
 AS AS EMPHATIC WORD.
 next speak of the Sslah of emphasis Ewald. the German orientalist and theo- loglan. says that this word means to as cend. and wherever you tind it. he says, you must look after the modnlation of the voice and you must put more force into your utterance. It is Il Selah of emphasis An my friends, yon and l need to correct our emphasis. We put too much emphasis on this world and not enough un tiod and the next world. People think these things around us are so important the things of the next are not worthy of our consideration.
 The first need for some of us is to change our emphasis. Look at wretch sness on throne. Napoleon, while yet emperor of France, sat down de- iected, his hands over his face. A lad came in with tray of food and said. Eat. it will do you good" The em- peror looked up and said. "You are from the country" The lad replied, Yes" '" Your father has cottage and few acres of groundy Yes" There is happiness" said the dejected emperor. Ahl Napoleon never put the emphasis in the right place until he was expiring It St. Helena.
 On the other hand. look at Satisfac- ton amid the worst earthly disadvan- tage. Il never saw until 1 was. blind, said a Christian man. "l never knew what contentment was while l had my