Connecticut western news., 1893-06-08
CANAAN, CONN, THURSDAY

despair, that misery told in the one quished Some cannot bear defeat Ahithophel went and hanged himself. Saul fell upon his sword on the mount aims of Gilboa. The line that separates those two states runs across your life. And 1t is pleasure or frenzy in pro- portion to the struggle and the cause. Our feeling of personal qualification is swallowed up. 1t may be, in the great ness of the issue itself. It was so when Lee surrendered; not A cheer was raised when the arms were parked, and the paroles were taken that day. It was all engnlfed in that greater feeling, The war is over, the Union is preserved. What we won" said General Hawley once at Lakeville, i've won for them. y
 Now the greatest of all causes brings with it the deepest of all defeats or the highest of all victories. I need not say that the winning side is the side of tue right.
 "And right is right, sinco God is God,
 And right the day must win:
 To doubt would be disloyalty,
 To falter would be sin." It is one of our innate convictions. Our proverbs all point that way, "Though the mills of the gods grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; The candle of the wicked shall be put cut; The triumphing of the wicked is short '' One after another the world has seen the great evils go. Duelling is mostly gone, piracy, slavery. exposure oe puny children, cruelty to prisoners, tyranny their d iys are numbered It concerns us only to make sure that our lives are enlisted on the side of the coming vic- tory. There are giants yet opposing the King, there are many charges vet to be sounded, there is battle line running out beyond the cancellations, and conflict that may take millenni- ums more before 1t has its.Armageddop. But all the same, the day of defeat IS fixed with more than mathematical cer- tainty; "No weapon that IS formed against Thee shall prosper. 7"
 This being 80, 1t becomes us all to turn away from the side of vanquish- ment and eternal despair. True, we may not think the battle is against us now, we seem to ride upon the crest of success A man may support himself iu the Atlantic for 8 season, may dash the pillows from him, and blow the salt spray from his lips; he dives, he swims, he floats, he treads the water, he re. verses position, he glories in his lungs and arms. but there comes, sooner oI latef, moment when the last puff is spent, the last thrill of muscularity is gone, he is out of his element, and the Atlantic claims him in her own vast cemetery A man may live awhile away from God, may disport himself in his chosen current, may win a short sue. cess and excite applause, but he is all the while ont of his element, and re- mainiug there, will die the death of the ungodly. Not scheme, not book, not business upon this earth, no mat. ter what its brilliaucy or popularity will make one iota's difference against the irresistible and all-conquenng plan of God, Hest haply we be found to fight against God"
 On the other hsnd, it is ours to choose the winning side, to be identified in some small but certain way with the business of the great King. It Is given ms to have part with Him in that final victory, ''that one, far-off, divine event toward which tue whole creation moves Not a soul is here, who may not, if he will. hear some day, amid the plaudits of angelic creatures, and ac com panied by the gift of cities, tho welcome words of the All-Conqueror "Well done, enter thou into the joy o thy Lord. !"