Connecticut western news., 1893-03-16

after another until almost the dawn Of the morning. The man sitting there writing until morning was industrious Walter Scott; the man who looked at him through the window was Lockhart, his illustrious biographer afterward. Lord Mansfield, pursued by the press and by the populace, because of certain line of duty, went on to discharge the duty, and while the mob were around him de- manding the taking of his life he shook his fist in the face of the mob and said,
 "Sirs, when ones last end comes, it can not come too soon if he falls in defense of law and the liberty of his country" And so there is, my friends, tug, tussle, trial, push, an anxiety, through which every man must go be- fore he comes to worldly success and worldly achievement. You admit 1t. Now be wise enough to apply 1t in reli- zion. Eminent Christian character Is only gained by the Jordanic passage; no man just happened to get good.
 Why does that man know so much about the Scriptures? He was studying the Bible while you were reading a novel. He was on fire with the sublimi- ties of the Bible while you were sound asleep; by tug, tussle, pushing and run ming in the Christian life that man got SO strong for God; in hundred Softer inos he learned how to fight; in hun dred shipwrecks he learned howto swim. Tears over sin, tears over Zion's desola- tion, tears over the impenitent, tears over the graves made, are the Jordan which that man had passed. Sorrow pales the check, and fades the eye, and wrinkles the brow, and withers the hands. There are mourning garments, in the wardrobe, and there are deaths in every family record: all around are the relics of tue dead.
 THE JORDAN OF DEATH.
 The Christian has passed the Red sea of trouble, and yet he thinks there is a Jordan of death between him and heav en. He comes down to that Jordan of death and thinks how many have been lost there. When Molyneux was explor- ing the Jordan in Palestine, he had his boats all knocked to pieces in the rapids of that river. And there are great many men who have gone down in the river of death; the Atlantic and Pacific have not swallowed so many. It is an awful thing to make shipwrecks on the rock of ruin-masts falling, hurricanes flying. death coming, groanings in the water, meanings in the wind, thunder in the sky. while God, with the finger of lightning, writes all over the sky, twill tread them in my wrath. and Twill tram pie them in my fury"
 The Christian comes down to this rag ing torrent. and he knows he must pass out, and as he comes toward the time his breath gets shorter, and his last breath leaves him as he steps into the stream, and no sooner does he touch the stream than it is parted, and he goes through dry. shod, while all the waters wave their plumes, crying: 70 death, where is thy sting? O grave, where ia thy victory?" God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more weeping, and there shall be no more death.
 Some of your children have already gone up the other bank. You let them down on this side of the bank; they will be on the other bank to help you up with supernatural strength. The other morn ing at my table, all my family present, thought to myself how pleasant it would be if could put all in boat and then go in with them, and we could pull across the river to the next world and be there all together. No family parting, no gloomy obseuuies. It wouldn't take five | minutes to go from bank to bank, and then in tl'at better world to be together forever. Wouldn't it be pleasant for you to take all your family into that blessed country if you could all go, together? I remember my mother In her dy- ing hour said to my father, Father, | wouldn't it be pleasant if we could all | go together| But we cannot all go to- gether. We must go one by one, and we must be grateful if we get there at all What heaven 1t will be if we | have all our families there to look
 around and see all the children are pres ent! You would rather have them all there, and .you go with bare brow for | ever, than that one should be missing to complete the garlands of heaven for your coronal. The Lord God of Joshua, | give them safe Jordanic passage
 Even children will go through dry shod
 Those of us who were broughtup in the country remember, when the summer
 was coming on in our boyhood days, we
 always longed for the day when we were
 to go barefooted. and after. teasing our
 mothers in regard to it for good while,
 and they consented. we remember the de-
 licious sensation of the cool grass when
 we put,our uncovered foot on 1t.
 And the time will come when these
 shoes we wear now, lest we be cut of the
 sharp places of this world, shall be taken
 off, and with unsandaled foot we will
 step into the bed of the river; with feet
 untrammeled, free from pain and fa-
 tigue, we will gain that last journey,
 when, with one foot in the bed of the
 river and the other foot on the other
 bank, we struggle upward. That will
 be heaven. Oh, I pray for all my dear
 people safe Jordanic passagei That is
 what the dying Christian husband felt
 when he said: "How the candle f1ickers,
 Nelliel Put it out. shall sleep we'll to-
 night and wake in the morning."
 COMFORT FOR THE BEREAvED.
 One word of comfort on this subject
 for all the bereaved. You see, our de-
 parted friends have not been submerged,
 have not been swamped in the waters.
 They have only crossed over These
 Israelites were just as thoroughly alive on
 the western banks of the Jordan as they
 had been on the eastern banks of the
 Jordan, and our departed Christian
 friends have only crossed over-not sick,
 not dead, not exhausted, not extin-
 guished. not plotted out, but with
 healthier respiration. and stouter pulses,
 and keener eyesight, and better prospects
 crossed over, their sins, their physical
 and mental disquiet, all left clear this
 side, an eternally flowing, impossible
 obstacle between them and all human
 and satanic pursuit. Crossed over! Oh,
 l shake hands of congratulation with
 all the bereaved in the consideration that
 our departed Christian friends are safel
 Why was there so much joy in certain circles in New York when people heard
 from the friends who were on board that