Connecticut western news., 1893-09-07

will perish" "No," says star, "I'n
 watch over it tonight" "No," says the cloud, "I'll give it drink" ''No." says the sun, "pll warm it in my bosom" And then the wind rises and comes bending down the grain and sounding it's psalm through the forest, and say, "Whither away, O wind on such swift wingT" and it answers, "I am going to cool the cheek of that violet" And then see pulleys at work in the sky, and the clouds are drawing water, and I say,
 What are you doing there, O clouds?" They say, "We are drawing water for that violet" And then I look down into the grass, and say, "Can it be that God takes care of poor thing like you?" and the answer comes up, "Yes, yes; God clothes the grass of the field, and he has
 never forgotten me, a poor violet" Oh, my friends, if the heavens bend down to such insignificant ministry as that, tell you God is willing to bend down to your case, since he is just as careful about the construction of a spiders eye as he is in the conformation of flaming gal axies.
 Plato had fable which I have now nearly forgotten, but it ran something like this: He said spirits of the other world came back to this world to find a body and find a sphere of work. One | spirit came and took the body of a king and did his work. Another spirit came
 and took the body of 8 poet and did his work. After awhile Ulysses came, and he said: "Why, all the fine bodies are taken, and all the grand work is taken There is nothing left for me-" And some one replied, "Ah, the best one has been left for you." Ulysses said, Whats
 that?" And the reply was, "The body | of common man, doing a common work and for a common reward" A good fable for the world and just as | good fable for the church.
 But, I remark again, we ought to | bring the religion of Jesus Christ into | our ordinary blessings. Every autumn | the president of the United States and | the governors make proclamation, and we are called together in our churches to give thanks to God for his goodness But every day ought to be a thanksgiv | ing day. We take most of the blessings | of life as matter of course. We have | had ten thousand blessings this morning | for which we have not thanked God. Before the night comes we will have | thousand more blessings you will never | think of mentioning before God.
 HOW TO APPRECIATE OUR BLESSINGS. | We must see blind man led along by | his dog before we learn what grand | thing it is to have ones eyesight. We must see man with St. Vitus' dance be-
 fore we learn what grand thing it is
 to have the use of our physicalenergies We must see some soldier crippled, limp
 ing along on his crutch or his empty coatsleeve pinned up, before we learn | what grand thing it is to have the use | of all our physical faculties. In other | words, we are so stupid that nothing but | the misfortunes of others can wake us | up to an appreciation of our common blessings. .. . .5.. l We get on board train and start for | Boston and come to Norwalk bridge, | and the draw is off and crashl goes the | train. Fifty lives dashed out. We es- | cape. We come home in great excite | ment and call our friends around us. and | they congratulate us, and we all kneel | down and thank God for our escape | while so many perished. But tomorrow | | Boston. You cross that bridge at Nor
 walk; you cross all the other bridges; | you get to Boston in safety. Then you
 return home. Not an accident, not an
 alarm. No thanks. In other words, you seem to be more | grateful when 50 people lose their lives
 and you get off thai you are grateful to
 God when you all get off and you have
 no alarm at all. Now, you,ought to be
 thankful when you escape from accident,
 but more thankful when they all escape.
 In the one case your gratitude is some
 what selfish; in the other it is more like
 what it ought to be.
 Oh, these common mercies, these
 common blessings, how little we appre-
 ciate them and how soon we forget
 theml Like the OK grazing, with the
 clover up to its eyes, like the bird pick
 ing the worm out of the furrow-never
 thinking to thank God, who makes the
 grass grow and who gives life to every
 living thing from the animalcul9 in the
 sod to the seraph on the throne. Thanks
 giving on the 27th of November, in the
 autumn of the year, but blessings hour
 by hour and day by day and no thanks
 at all.
 I compared our indifference to the
 brute, but perhaps wronged the brute.
 do not know but that among it's other
 instinctsit may have an instinct by which
 it recognizes the divine hand that feeds
 it. I do not know but that God is
 through 1t holding communication with
 what we call irrational creation" The
 COW that stands under the willow by the
 water course chewing it's cud looks very
 thankful, and who can tell how much a
 bird means by it's song? The aroma of
 the flowers smells like incense, and the
 mist arising from the river looks like the
 smoke of morning sacrifice. Oh, that
 we were as responsive!
 If you were thirsty and asked me for q
 drink and gave you this glass of water,
 your common instinct would reply, "Thank you" And yet, how many
 chalices of mercy we get hour by hour
 from the hand of the Lord, our Father ) and our King and we do not even think
 to say, '"Thank you." More just to men than we are just to God. .a5 ..E NGRATITUDE.
 Who thinks of thanking God for the "dIer gushing up III IIo well, IOaIn1ng in the cascade, laughing over the rocks, pattering in the shower, clapping its
 hands in the sea? Who thinks to thank } God for that? Who thinks to thank God for the air, the fountain of life, the bridge of sunbeams, the path of sound the great fan on a hot summer day Who thinks to thank God for this won 7 derful physical organism, this sweep oi r vision, this chime of harmony struck into the ear, this crimson tide rolling 3 through arteries and veins, this drum r ming of the heart on the march of i'm
 mortality?
 I convict myself, and convict every , one of you while say these things, that a | ma ara 11na rr,roniotiua of tho no,o,x,o o,