Connecticut western news., 1894-05-24

times enraged, wanting to get back your loved ones as much as David and his men wanted to reconstruct their de- spoiled households. Ziklag in ashes Some of you went off from home. You counted the days of your absence. Every day seemed as long as a week. Oh, how glad you were when the time came for you to go aboard the steamboat or rail car and start for homel You arrived. You went up the street where your dwelling was and in the night you put your hand on the doorbell, and, behold! it was wrapped with the signal of be- reavement, and you found that Amale- kitish death, which has devastated thousand other households, had blasted yours. You go about weeping amid the desolation of your once happy home, thinking of the bright eyes closed, and the noble hearts stopped, and the gentle hands folded, and you weep until you have no more power to weep. Ziklag in ashesl
 A gentleman went to friend of mine in the city of Washington and asked that through him he might get con- sulship to some foreign port. My friend said to him, "What do you want to go away from your beautiful home for into foreign port?" "Oh," he replied, "my home is gone! My six children are dead. I must get away, sir. can't stand it in this country any longer" Ziklag ill ashes!
 Shadows of Bereavement.
 Why these long shadows of bereave ment across this audience? Why is 1t that in almost every assemblage black is the predominant color of the apparelf Is it because you do not like saffron or brown or violet? Oh, no! You say, ''The world is not so bright to us as once 1t was, and there is story of silent voices, and of still feet, and of loved ones gone, and when you look over the hills expecting only beauty and loveli- ness you find only devastation and woe. Ziklag in ashesl
 One day, in Ulster county, N. Y, the village church was decorated until tha fragrance of the flowers was almost be- wildering. The maidens of the village had emptied the place of flowers upon one marriage altar. One of their own number was affianced to minister of Christ, who had come to take her to his own home. With hands joined, amid a congratulatory audience, the VOWS were taken. In three days from that time one of those who stood at the altar ex- changed earth for heaven. The wedding march broke down into the funeral dirge. There were not enough flowers now for the coffin lid, because they had all been taken for the bridal hour. The dead minister of Christ is brought to another village.
 He had gone out from them less than a week before in his strength; now he comes home lifeless. The whole church bewailed him. The solemn procession moved around to look upon the still face that once had beamed the messages of salvation. Little children were lifted up to look at him. And some of those whom he had comforted in days of sor- row, when they passed that silent form, made the place dreadful with their weeping. Another village emptied of its flowers--some of them put in the shape of cross to symbolize his hope, others put in the shape of crown to symbolize his triumph. A hundred lights blown out in one strong gust from the open door of a sepulcher. Ziklag in ashes
 Heaven to Win.
 preach this sermon today because want to rally you, as David rallied his men, for the recovery of the loved and the lost. I want not only to win heav- en, but want all this congregation to go along with me. I feel that somehow have responsibility in your arriving at that great city. Do you really want to join the companionship of your loved ones who have gone? Are you as anxious to join them as David and his men were to join their families? Then am here, in the name of God, to say that you may and to tell you how.
 Iremark, in the first place, if you want to join your loved ones in glory, you must travel the same way they went No sooner had the half dead Egyptian been resuscitated than he pointed the way the captors and the captives had gone, and David and his men followed after So our Christian friends have gone into another country, and if we want to reach their companionship we must take the same road. They repent ed. We must repent. They prayed. We must pray. They trusted in Christ. We must trust in Christ. They lived re- ligious life. We must live religious life. They were in some things like our selves. I know, now they are gone, there is halo around their names, but they had their faults. They said and did I,., &@l done They were sometimes rebellious- sometimes cast down. They were far from being perfect. So I suppose that when we have gone some things in us that are now only tolerable may be al- most resplendent. But as they were like us in deficiencies we ought to be like them in taking supernal Christ to make up for the deficits. Had it not been for Jesus they would have all perished, but Christ confronted them and said, ''I am the way" and they took it.
 The Path of Trouble.
 have also to say to you that the path that these captives trod was a troubled path, and that David and his men had to go over the same difficult way. While these captives were being taken off they said, ~Oh, we are so tired; we are so sick; we are so hungryl'' But the men who had charge of them said: "Stop this crying. Go onl" David and his men also found it a hard way. They had to travel it. Our friends have gone into glory, and it is through much trib- olation that we are to enter into the kingdom. How our loved ones used to have to strugglel How their old hearts achedl How sometimes they had tus- sle for breadl In our childhood we won- dered why there were so many wrin- kles on their faces. We did not know that what were called "crow's feet" on their faces were the marks of the black raven of trouble. Did you never hear the old people, seated by the evening stand, talk over their early trials, their hardships, the accidents, the burials, the disappointments, the empty flour