Connecticut western news., 1894-10-11

laboring under these blighting disadvan- tages? My subject is full of encourage ment Vast responsibilities rest upon you.
 He the One Good Man.
 Be faithful, though you stand as much alone as did Lot in Sodom, or Jeremiah in Jerusalem, or Jonah in Nineveh, or Hadassah in the court of Ahasuerus. There are trees which grow the best when their roots clutch among the jagged rocks, and you verify have but poor soil in which to develop, but grace is a thorough husbandman and can raise crop anywhere. Glassware is nodded over the fire, and in the same way you are to be fitted as vessel of mercy. The best timber must have on 1t saw and gouge and beetle. The founda- tion stone of yours and every other house came out only under crowbar and blast. Files and wrenches and hammers belong to the church. The Christian vic tory will be bright just in proportion as the battle is hot. Never despair being thorough Christian ill any household which is not worse than the court of Ahasuerus.
 Finally our subject illustrates what religion may be in high worldly posi- tion. Tho last we see in the Bible ot Hadassah is that she has become the queen of Persia. Prepare now to see the departure of her humility and self sac- riflce and religious principle. As she goes up you may expect grace to go down. It is easier to be humble in the obecure house of her adopted father than on throne of dominion. But you mis- judge this noble woman. What she was before she is now-the myrtle. Ap- plauded for her bear y and her crown, she forgets not the cause of her suffer ing people, and with all simplicity of heart still remains worshiper of the God of heaven.
 Dangers In Prosperity.
 Noble example followed only by a very few. I address some who, through the goodness of God, have risen to posi- tions of influence in the community where you live in law, in merchandise, in medicine, in mechanics and in other useful occupations and professions. You hold an influence for good or for evil. Let us see whether, like Hadassah, you can stand elevation. Have you as much simplicity of character as once you evi- denced? Doyou feel as much dependence upon God, as much your own weakness, as much your accountability for talents intrusted, or are you proud and overde- manding and ungrateful and unsympa- thetic and worldly and sensual and dev- 1scho haxy n6 hx your success, and you shall not sit on this throne with the heroine of my text. In the day when Hadassah shall come to the grander coronation, ill the pres ence of Christ and the hammered hosts of the redeemed, you will be poor in- deed. Oh, there are thousands of men who can easily endure to be knocked down of misfortune who are utterly destroyed if lifted up of success. Satan takes them to the top of the pinnacle of the temple and shoves them off. Their head begins to whirl, and they lose their balance and down they go.
 While last autumn all through the forests there were luxuriant trees, with moderate out branch and moderate height pretending but little, there were foliage shafts that shot far up, looking down with contempt on the whole for est, olapping their hands in the breeze and shouting, Aha. do you not wish you were as high up as we are?" But last week blast let loose from the north came rushing along, and graphing the boasting oaks hurled them to the ground, and as they went down an old tree that had been singing psalms with the thun- der hundred summers cried out, Pride goeth before distinction and naughty sptsit before fall D And humble nick ory and pine and chestnut that had never said their prayers before bowed their heads as much as to say, "Amenw
 My friends, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to humble " Take from my subject encouragement. Attempt the service of God whatever your dis advantages, and whatever our lot let us seek that grace which. outshone all the splendors of the palaces of Shushan.