Connecticut western news., 1892-12-15
,h. my friends, God, our Mother. is iusr

Oh, my friends, God, our Mother, is jusr as kind in our aff1ictions as in our pros- perities. God never touches us but for is better off than barren field, and if stone that has become statue is better off than the marble in the quarry, then that soul that God chastens may be his favorite.
 Oh, the rocking of the soul is not the rocking of an earthquake, but the rock- ing of Gods cradle. 'As one whom his mother comforteth, so will 1 comfort you" have been told that the pearl in an oyster is merely the result of wound or sickness inflicted upon it, and do not know but that the brightest gems of heaven will be found to have been the wounds of earth kindled into the jeweled brightness of eternal glory.
 remark that God has mothers ca pacity for attending to little hurts. The father is shocked at the broken bone of the child or at the sickness that sets the cradle on fire with fever, but it takes the mother to sympathize with all the little ailments and little bruises of the child. If the child have a splinter in it's hand it wants the mother to take it out and not the father. The father says, "Oh, that is nothing" but the mother knows it is something, and that little hurt sometimes is very great. So with God, our Mother; all our annoyances are important enough to look at and sympa- thize with.
 Nothing with God is something. There are no ciphers in Gods arithmetic. And if we were only good enough of sight we could see as much through micro scope as through 8 telescope. Those things that may be palpable and infni- tesimal to us may be pronounced and in- finite to God. A mathematical point is defined as having no parts, no magni- tude. It is so small you cannot imagine it, and yet mathematical point may be a starting point for 8 great eternity. Gods surveyors carry very long chain. A scale must be very delicate that can weigh grain, but Gods scale is so deli cate that he can weigh with it that which is so small that grain is a million times heavier.
 When John Kitto, poor boy on a back street of Plymouth, cut his foot with 8 piece of glass, God bound it up so successfully that he became the great Christian geographer and comments tor known among all nations. So every wound of the soul, however insignificant, God is willing to bind up. As at the first cry of the child the mother rushes to kiss the wound, so God, our Mother, takes the smallest wound of the heart and presses it to the lips of divine sym pathy. "As one whom his mother com forteth, 80 will comfort you"
 DIVINE AND MoTHERLY PATIENCE.
 I remark further that God has moth CTS patience for the erring. If one does wrong first his associates in life cast him off; if he goes on in the wrong way his business partner casts him off; if he goes on his best friends cast him off his father casts him off. But after all others have cast him off, where does he go2 Who holds no grudge and forgives the last time as well as the first? Who sits by the murderer's counsel all through the long trialP Who tarries the longest at the windows of 8 culprit's cellP Who, when all others think i'll of a man, keeps on thinking we'll of him? It is his mother. God bless her gray hairs if she be still alive, and bless her grave if she be gonei And bless the rocking chair in which she used to sit. and bless the cradle that she used to rock, and bless the Bible she used to readl
 So God, our Mother, has patience for all the erring. After everybody else has cast man off God, our Mother, comes to the rescue. God leaps to take charge of a bad case. After all the other doc tors have got through the heavenly Physician comes in. Human sympathy at such time does not amount to much. Even the sympathy of the church, am sorry to say, often does not amount to much. 1 have seen the most harsh and bitter treatment on-the part of those who professed faith in Christ toward those who were wavering and erring. They tried on the wanderer sarcasm and bill ingsgate and caricature, and they tried little tattle. There was one thing they did not try, and that was forgiveness.
 A soldier in England was brought by sergeant to the colonel. "What," says the colonel, bringing the man here againl We have tried everything with him." "Oh, mo-" says the sergeant; "there is one thing you have not tried. would like you to try that" What is that" said the colonel. Said the man, Forgiveness" The case had not gone so far but that it might take that turn, and 80 the colonel said: Well, young man, you have done so and so. What is your excuseP" II have no excuse, but am very sorry" said the man.
 "We have made up our minds to for. give you," said the colonel. The tears started. He had never been accosted in that way before. His life was reformed, and that was the starting point for a positively Christian life. O church of God, quit your sarcasm when a man fallsl Quit your irony, quit your tittle tattle, and try forgiveness. God, your Mother, tries it all the time A mans sin may be like continent, but Gods forgiveness is like the Atlantic and Pa cific oceans, bounding it on both sides.
 THE DIVINE HAND.
 The Bible often talks about Gods hand. I wonder how it looks. You re- member distinctly how your mothers hand looked, though thirty years ago it withered away. It was different from your fathers hand. When you were to be chastised you had rather have mother punish you than father. It did not hurt so much. And fathers hand was diff ferent from mothers, partly because it had outdoor toll, and partly because God intended 1t to be different The knuckles were more firmly set, and the palm was calloused.
 But mothers hand was more delicate There were blue veins running through the back of it. Though the fingers, some of them, were picked with needle, the pol,,, of if xyoo eof+ Ob ;t ,,,o. ,,or,,