Connecticut western news., 1892-10-20

prayers those wnO were your nrSt friends, and friends than whom you will never have better-I mean your old father and mother. By the memories of the old Scotch kirk where you were baptized, and of the English fireside by which you played, and of the Welsh hills and valleys among which you roamed, and the old homes on the banks of the Tweed and the Shannon and the Clyde, charge you be honorable and true and Christian. You have good ancestral blood in your veins. Prove yourself worthy. It seems to me that the Gospel is making mighty strides over there. Only one thing saw in the chapels and churches I did not like. That is lack of appreciation of each other as between the national church and the dissenters. Now each is doing a great work that the other cannot do. God speed them all, they of the episco- pacy and they of the dissentersl Some need the ritual of the national church and others the spontaneity of the Wes- leyan In the kingdom of God there is room for all to work and each in his own way. Some people are born Epis copalians and others Methodists and others Baptists and others Presbyte- rians, and do not let us force our notions on others.
 CHRISTIAN UNION INDEED.
 AS for myself, I was born so near the line that feel at home as much in one denomination as in another, and when in the Episcopal church the liturgy stirs my soul so that cannot keep back the tears, and it overwhelms me with its solemnity and its power. When in an old fashioned Methodist church the re- sponses of s.Amenp' and "Halleluiaht' lift me until, like Paul, l am in blessed bewilderment as to whether in the body or out of the body, God knoweth." And as for the Baptists, though I have never been anything but sprinkled, 1 have immersed hundreds and expect to immerse hundreds more in the baptistry under this pulpit where now stand.
 What is the use of controversy about anything except how we shall keep close to the cross and do the most for helping people for this world and the next? May there come in England more cordiality between the national church and the dissenters. Although I would be called dissenter there, almost my first step in England was into banqueting hall--
 the lord mayors banquet, given to the bishops and high officials of the national church, the great and good and genial archbishop of Canterbury at their head, and more magnificent group of folks, intellectually and spiritually, I never got among, and 1 found that, though we had never met before, the archbishop and myself were old friends. But all up and down Great Britain found multi tude that no man can number enlisted for God and eternity, and tell you the kingdom is coming.
 If the pessinists would get out of the way-the people who snivel and groan
 and think everything has gone to the dogs or is about to go-I say if these pessimists would only get out of the way the world would soon see the sal vation of God. Christianity is only an- other name for elevated optimism. Was Isaiah an optimist? See his deserts in carnadined with red roses and showed under with white lilies, and his lamb asleep between the paws of lion. Was St. John an optimist? Read the uplift- ing splendors in the Apocalypse and the halleluiah chorus with which the old
 book, which they cannot kill, closes. The greatest thing 1 can think of would
 be to have a triple alliance of America, England and Russia in complete har- nomination, and then to have upon all of them come deluge of the Holy Ghost. Let the defamation of other nations cease. Peace and good will to men. For that glorious consummation, which may be nearer than we think, let us pray, re- mem mbering that God can do more in five minutes than man can do in five centu- ries. If the consummation is not effected
 in our day, shall ask the privilege of
 coming out from heaven little while to
 look at this old world when it shall have put on its millennial beauty. I think God will let us come out to see it at least | once in its perfect state before it is | burned up. l should not wonder if all | heaven would adjourn for an excursion | to this world to see how shipwrecked | planet was got off the breakers and set ! afloat again amid the eternal harmonies. | Meanwhile let us do all we can to make | it better, and it will somehow tell in the r final result, though it be only child's
 sob hushed, or a trickling tear wiped l from d pale face, or thorn extracted from tired foot, or sinful soul washed white as the wool. May God help us to | help othersl And so these lessons of
 gratitude and sympathy and helpfulness
 and vindication have brought you on
 the wings of this morning.