Connecticut western news., 1892-02-11

successful in the accumulation oi property how few have not met with reverses of fortune. while many of those who then were straitened in circumstances now hold the bonds and the bank keys of the nation and win the most bows on the exchange. Of all tickle people in the world i Fortune is the most tickle Every day she changes her mind. and woe to that man who puts any confidence in what she promises or proposes She cheers when you go up and she laughs when you come down. Oh. trust not moment your. hearts af fections to this changeable world Anchor your soul in God. From Chr1st's love gather your joy. Then | come sorrow or glailness. success or defeat, riches or poverty. honor ar disgrace. health or sickness. life or death. time or eternity. all are yours and we are Christ's and Christ is Gods.
 Learn also from my subject the comforting truth that afflictions are | arrested as soon as they have accom- | plished their mission. For seven years did Nebuchadnezzar dwell among the beasts of the field, but at the expiration of that time his req son returned. and as soon as with | proper humility be acknowledged the God of heaven he was brought back to his palace and reinstated in his former affiuence and power Now it does seem that when heavy trials come upon us if is as though they had no limit. We exclaim. All thy waves and thy pillows have gone over me" but forget that the depth of that sea and the power of that pillow are definitely determined
 God sees how much our pride is and he sends just enough advensity | to humble it. He wees just how worldly minded we are and pulls us | just hard enough to detach us from our follies He gees how hard our heart is and smites just hard enough | to break it He sees how our eyes have been blinded and he cuts only | just enough to remove the scales from our spiritual vision As soon as Abraham's faith ls sufficiently tried the lamb k provided Az soon as Pharaoh consents to let the chil dren of Israel depart the plague | paIlses As soon as the lsraelites have been sufficiently disciplined by the1r wander1ngs they find thelr way into Canaan. But to some the limit is not set in this life. Their whole ' pilgrimage is through the wilderness and the world is to them valley of tears
 But perhaps God has special | throne III heaven that no ordinary saint can occupy. and by extraor dinaIy tr1als he has prepared that | Christian soul for extraordinary glory God will not keep you in the furnace one moment too long. Just as soon as Paul had met with enough imprisonment and stOurgings he reached up and plucked his eternal crown God will keep us po longer under the hammer and on the stocks than tx necessary to fit tus for en trance into the haven of eternal rest Glory be to the divine grace that. as soon as our afflictions have ayom | plished their mission. they are UT | rested
 DEFEAT OFTEN A DIVINE GUIDE. The defeats and sorrows of life have sometimes been the greatest advantage It was because Dante failed as statesman that he gave up | politics and wrote his immortal "Di vinia Commetlia" Ii was violent thunderstorm that first set Martin Luther seriously thinking. and the thunder of this worlds disaster has started many rrSDrmation James Y. Simpson went from a surgeons operating table to experiment and see if he could not find something that would alleviate human pain. | and he kept on until be had distov cred chlor,)for1n a. an an,tsthetic. | and the story of distress has almost always been followed by the story of rescue.
 For many years after Sr- kespeare's death his work was so little apprecl ated that m 1866 there was only one edition of his works. and that of only three hundred copies. in exlstepce, and that edition was nearly all burned m the great London fire But forty | eight ,Uples hal been sold out of the t1ty. and those forty eIght copies ! saved Shakespeare for all nations and all tune. Your suppression on smaller ss.ale may last a gopi while. but for all you are worth you will | yet shine out on earth or m heaven.
 Again. learn from my subject that connected with the most distressing | judgments of God there are displays | of divine mercy God might justly have left SebuchadneZzar in the field. but infinite compassion brought him back to the palace. No s'oner was Eden blasted than blessing fol | lowed on the heels of the curse promising the coming of one who would destroy sin and make the whole world paradise. The deluge deseends. but not until Noah hal in vitel the people into the ark. The | destroying angel comes upon Egypt for the sniting of the first born, but left unmolested every house whose door was spr1nkled with the blood of sacrifice.
 Fiery tempests bear down upon Sodom. but not until two angels have warned Lot and his family to flee from the destruction. Jerusa lem was utterly destroyed but not until Jeremiah had sounded an alarm. bidding them turn from thelr abomi nations. On the darkest cloud of