Connecticut western news., 1894-07-26


 grave opens on this side, and grave opens on that side. He falls, but he rises again. He gets into hard battle, but he gets the victory. The main course of his life is in the right direction. He blesses everybody he comes in contact with. God forgives his mistakes and makes everlasting record of his holy endeavors. and at the close of it God says to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joys of thy Lord" My brother, my sister, do not care whether that man dies at 30, 40, 50, 60, TO or 80 years of age. You can chisel right under his name on the tombstone these words: His life was worth living"
 Amid the hills of New Hampshire in olden times there sits Q mother. There arc six children in the household-four boys and two girls. Small farm. Very rough; hard work to coax 0 living out of it. Mighty tug to make the two ends of the year meet The boys go to school in winter and work the farm in sum- mer. Mother is the chief presiding spirit. With her hands she knits all the stockings for the little feet, and she is the mantua maker for the boys, and she is the milhner for the girls There is only one musical instrument in the house-the spinning wheel The food is very plain, but it is always we'll provid- ed The winters are very cold. but are kept out by the blankets she quilted. On Sunday, when she appears in the village church, her children around her, the minister looks down and is reminded of the Bible description of a good house. wife: Her children arise up and call her blessed Her husband also, and he praiseth her.
 A Mothers Blessed Life.
 Some years go by, and the two eldest boys want a collegiate education, and the household economies are severer, and the calculations are closer, and until those two boys get their education there is hard battle for bread. One of these boys enters the university, stands in a pulpit widely influential and breaches righteousness, judgment and temper ance, and thousands during his ministry are blessed. The other lad who got the collegiate education goes into the law, and thence into legislative halls, and after awhile he commands listening senates as he makes plea for the down trodden and the outcast One of the younger boys becomes merchant, start ing at the foot of the ladder, but climb ing on up until his success and his phi lanthropies are recognized all over the land. The other son stays at home be- cause he prefers farming life, and then he thinks he will be able to take care of father and mother when they get old.
 Of the two daughters, when the war broke out one, went through the hospi- tals of Pittsburg Landing and Fortress Monroe, cheering mp the dying and homesick, and taking the last message to kindred far away, so that every time Christ thought of her he said, as of old, .'The same is my sister and moth er." The other daughter has a bright home of her own, and in the afternoon of the forenoon when she has been de- voted to her household she goes forth to hunt up the sick and to encourage the discouraged, leaving smiles and benediction all along the way.
 But one day there start five telegrams from the village for these five absent ones, saying, Come; mother is danger ously ill " But before they can be ready saying, Come; mother is dead" !" The old neighbors gather in the old farm house to do the last offices of respect. But as that farming son, and the cler- gyman, and tho senator, and the mer- chant, and the two daughters stand by the casket of the dead mother, taking the last look or lifting their little chil- dren to see once more the face of dear old grandma, I want to ask that group around the casket one question, Do you really think her life was worth living?" A life for God, life for oth- CTS, a life of unselfishness, useful life,
 Examples of Success
 I would not find it hard to persuade you that the poor lad, Peter Cooper, making glue for living and then amass- ing great fortune until he could build philanthropy which has had its echo in 10, 900 philanthropies all over tho country-I would not find it hard to persuade you that his life was worth living. Neither would find it hard to persuade you that the life of Susannah Wesley was worth living. She sent out one son to organize Methodism and the other son to ring his anthems all through the ages. 1 would not find it hard to persuade you that the life of Frances Leere was worth living, as she establish ed in England school for the scientific nursing of the sick, and then when the war broke out between France and Ger many went to the front, and with hel own hands scraped the mud of the bod ies of the soldiers dying in the trenches with her weak arm, standing one night in the hospital, pushing hack German soldier to his couch as, all frenzied with his wounds, he rushed toward the door and said: Let me gol Let me go to my 'liebe mutter. !" Major generals stand ing back to let pass this angel of mercy
 Neither would l have hard work to persuade you that Grace Darling lived a life worth living-the heroine of the hfeboat You are not wondering that the Duchess of Northumberland came to see her, and that people of all lands asked for her lighthouse, and that the proprietor of the Adelphi theater in Lon- don offered her $10O night just to sit in the lifeboat while some shipwrecked scene was being enacted Reward of Effort.
 But know the thought in the minds of hundreds who read this You say, While l know all these lived lives worth living, l don't think my life amounts to much" ," An, my friends, whether you live life conspicuous or inconspicuous, it is worth living, if you live aright And want my next sen- tence to go down into the depths of all your souls You are to be rewarded not according to the greatness of your work, but according to the holy industries with which you employed the talents you really possessed. The majority of the crowns of heaven will not be given to people with 10 talents. for most of them