Connecticut western news., 1892-12-15
GODS MorHERIY LOVE.

vine mercy IS to take back tha wandererI How is it done? By picture. A good father. Large farm with fat sheep and oxen. Fine house with exquisite ward robe. Discontented boy. Goes away. Sharpers fleece him. Feeds hogs. Gets homesick. Starts back. Sees an old man running. It is fatherl The hand, torn of the husks, gets ring. The foot, infamed and bleeding, gets a sandal. The bare shoulder, showing through the tatters, gets a robe. The stomach, gnawing itself with hunger, gets full platter smoking with meat. The father cannot eat for looking at the returned adventurer. Tears running down the face until they come to smile-the night dew melting into the morning. No work on the farm that day, for when bad boy repents and comes back promising to do better, God knows ] that is enough for one day, "And they began to be merry" Picture-"Prodigal Son Returned from the Wilderness" So God, our Mother, teaches us everything by pictures. The sinner is lost sheep. Jesus is the bridegroom. The useless
 man barren fig tree. The Gospelis is a great supper. Satan, sower of tares. | Truth, a mustard seed. That which we , could not have understood in the ab- stract statement God, our Mother, pre- sents to us in this Bible album of pie lures, God engraved. Is not the divine maternity ever thus teaching us?
 remark again that God has @ moth CTS favoritisn. A father sometimes shows sort of favoritism. Here is a boy-strong, well, of high forehead and quick intellect. The father says, 1 will take that boy into my firm yet," or, "I will give him the very best possible education" There are instances where, for the culture of the one boy, all the others have been robbed. A sad favor | itism, but that is not the mothers favor 1 ite. 1 will tell you her favorite.
 There is a child who at two years of age had a fall. He has never got over it. The scarlet fever mufaed his hear ing. He is not what he once was. That child has caused the mother more anx- | ious nights than all the other children. If he coughs in the night she springs out of sound sleep and goes to him. The last thing she does when going out of the house is to give charge in regard to him. The first thing on coming in is | to ask in regard to him.
 Why, the children of the family all know that he is the favorite and say:
 Mother, you let him do just as he pleases, and you give him great many things which you do not give us. He is your favorite." The mother smiles; she
 knows it is so. So he ought to be, for if there Is any one in the world that needs sympathy more than another it is an in- valid child, weary on the first mile of life's journey-carrying an aching head,
 8 weak side, an irritated lung. So the mother ought to make him favorite. God, our Mother, has favorites. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth"-that is, one whom he especially loves he chas- teneth.
 God loves us all, but is there one weak and sick and sore and wounded and suffering and faint? That is the one who lies nearest and more perpetual ly on the great loving heart of God. Why, it never coughs but our Mother God-hears it. It never stirs weary limb in the bed but our Mother-God- knows of it. There is no such a watcher as God. The best nurse may be over borne by fatigue and fall asleep in the chair; but God, our Mother, after being up 8 year of nights with 8 suffering child, never slumbers nor sleeps.
 IN THE FURNACE or ATFLICTIoN. "Oh," says one, Il cannot understand all that about afaictionl" A refiner of l silver once explained it to Christian lady, II put the silver in the fire, and
 keep refining it and trying it till can see my face in it, and then take it out :"
 Just so it is that God keeps his dear children in the furnace till the divine image may be seen in them; then they are taken out of the fire. "Well," says some one, "if that Is the way that God treats his favorites, do not want to be favorite."
 | There is barren field on an autumn day just wanting to be let alone. There | is 8 bang at the bars and 8 rattle of whifhetrees and clevises. The field says,
 What is the farmer going to do with
 me now?" The farmer puts the blow in the ground, shouts to the horses, the
 colter goes tearing through the sod, | and the furrow reaches from fence to
 fence. Next day there is bang at the
 bars and 8 rattle of whifaetrees again. The field says, 'I wonder what the farm CT is going to do now?" The farmer
 hitches the horses to the harrow, and it
 goes bounding and tearing across the
 field.
 l Next day there is 8 rattle at the bars
 again, and the field says, "What is the
 farmer going to do now?" He walks
 heavily across the field, scattering seed
 as he walks. After awhile cloud comes,
 The field says, What, more troubler
 It begins to rain. After awhile the
 wind changes to the northeast, and it be.
 gins to snow. Says the field: "Is it not
 enough that have been torn and tram.
 pied upon and drowned? Must now be
 showed underT' After awhile spring
 comes out of the gates of the south, and
 warmth and gladness come with it. A
 green scarf bandages the gash of the
 wheat field, and the July morning drops
 crown of gold on the head of the grain
 "Oh," says the field, "now know the
 use of the blow, of the harrow, of the
 heavy foot, of the shower and of the
 snowstorm. It is well enough to be trod
 den and trampled and drowned and
 showed under if in the end can yield
 such glorious harvest" "He that go
 eth forth and weepeth, bearing precious
 seed, shall doubtless come again with re
 joicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
 THROUGH GREAT FERTILIZATION.
 When l see God especially busy ir
 troubling and trying Christian, know
 that out of that Christians character
 there is to come some especial good. A
 quarryman goes down into the excava
 tion, and with strong handed machinery
 bores into the rock. The rock says
 "What do you do that forT" He put.
 powder in; he lights fuse. There is {