Connecticut western news., 1893-08-24

the horns Of the altar and brought down the blessing of God upon his household and upon the stranger within their gates Rude but glorious Christian hospitality!
 WELCOME GODS MESSENGER.
 Again. this woman i'll my text was great in her kindness toward Gods mes senger. Elisha may have been a stran- ger in that household, but as she found out he had come on divine mission he was cordially welcome. We have great many books in our day about the hardships of ministers and the trials of Christian ministers. 1 wish somebody would write a book about the joys of thu Christian ministcr-about the sym pathies all around him, about the kind nesses, about the genial considerations of him.
 Does sorrow come to our home and is there shadow on the cradle, there are hundreds of hands to help, and many who weary not through the long night watching, and hundreds of prayers go- ing up that God would restore the sick. Is there burning brimming cup of ca- lamity placed on the pastors table, are there not many to help him to drink of that cup and who will not be comforted because he is stricken? Oh, for some body to write book about the rewards of the Christian minister-about his sur roundings of Christian sympathy
 This woman of the text was only type of thousands of men and women who come down from the mansion and from the cot to do kindness to the Lords servants. suppose the men of Shunem had to pay the bills, but it was the large hearted Christian sympathies of the women of Shunem that looked after the Lords messenger.
 Again, this woman in the text was great in her behavior under trouble.
 Her only son had died on her lap. A very bright light went out in that house. hold. The sacred writer puts it very tersely when he says, "He sat on her the writer goes on to say that she ex- knees until noon, and then he died" Yet claimed, Ut is wellr' Great in prosper ity, this woman was great in trouble.
 THE SAHARA OF SORROW. .s#
 Where are the feet that have not been blistered on the hot sands of this great Sahara? Where are the shoulders that have not been bent under the burden of grief? Where is the ship sailing over glassy sea that has not after awhile been caught in a cyclone? Where is the gar den of earthly comfort but trouble hath hitched up it's fiery and panting team and gone through it with burning plowshare of disaster? Under the pelting of ages of suffering the great heart of the world has burst with woe. E.. -.-z...
 Navigators tell us about the rivers, and the Amazon and the Danube and the Mississippi have been explored, but who can tell the depth or length of the great river of sorrow made up of tears and blood rolling through all lands and all ages, bearing the wreck of families and of communities and of empires-foam- ing, writhing, boiling with the agonies of 5000 years? Etna and Cotopaxi and Vesuvius have been described, but who has ever sketched the volcano of suffer ing retching up from its depths the lava and the scoria and pouring them down the sides to whelm the nations? Oh, if could gator all the heartstrings, the broken he. strings, into harp would play on it a dirge such as was never sounded. e..... ......
 Mythologists tell us of Gorgon and Centaur and Titan, and geologists tell us of extinct species of monsters, but great CT than Gordon or megatherium, and not belonging to the realm of fable, and not of an extinct. species, is a monster with iron jaw and iron hoofs walking across the nations, and history and po- etry and sculpture, in their attempt to sketch it and describe it, have seemed to sweat great drops of blood.
 CHRISTIAN FoRTITJDE.
 But, thank God, there are those who can conquer as this woman of the text conquered and say: Ut is well! Though my property be gone, though my chil- -dren be gone, though my home be broken up, though my health be sacrificed, it is well, it is well!" There is no storm on the sea but Christ is ready to rise in the hinder part of the ship and hush 1t. There is no darkness but the constella- tions of Gods eternal love can illumine it, and though the winter comes out of the northern sky you have sometimes seen the northern sky all ablaze with auroras that seem to say: Come up this way. Up this way are thrones of light, and seas of sapphire, and the splendor of an eternal heaven. Come up this way" We may, like the ships, by tempest be tossed On perilous deeps, but cannot be lost.
 Though satan enrage the wind and the tide, The promise assures us the Lord will provide.
 I heard an echo of my text in a very dark hour, when my father lay dying, and the old country minister said to him, "Mr. Talmage, how do you feel now a. you are about to pass the Jordan of death?' He replied-and it was the last thing he ever said-"I feel we'll; feel very well; all is we'll" lifting his hand in benediction, a speeches. benedic- tion, which I pray God may go down through all the generations. It is well! Of course it was we'll
 Again, this woman of my text was great in her application to domestic du- ties. Every picture is 8 home picture, whether she is entertaining an Elisha, or whether she is giving careful attention to her sick boy, or whether she is appeal ing for the restoration of her property every picture in her case is home pic ture. Those are not disciples of this Shunemite woman who, going out to att tend to outside charities, neglect the duty of home-the duty of wife, of mother, of daughter. No faithfulness in public ben efaction can ever atone for domestic neg igence.
 There has been many mother who by indefatigable toll has reared large family of children, equipping them for the duties of life with good manners and large intelligence and Christian princi- pie, starting them out, who has done more for the world than many another woman whose name has sounded through all the lands and through all centuries.
 remember when Kossuth was in this country there were some ladies who got reputation, honorable reputation, by pre- senting him very gracefully with bou- quets of flowers on public occasions, but what was all that compared with the work of the plain Hungarian mother who gave to truth and civilization and the cause of universal liberty Kossuth2