Connecticut western news., 1894-07-19

People cannot understand this spasmod- 10 revulsion. Some said it was a sudden turn in Erie railway stock, or in Vest ern Union. or ill Illinois Central; some said one thing and some another. They all guessed wrong l will tell you what it was. "He that sitteth i'll the heavens laughed !" A man in New York said he would be the richest man in the oity. He left his honest work as a mechanic and got into the city councils some way and in 10 years stole $15, 900, 900 from the city government. Fifteen million state of New York ill the grip of his right hand. Suspicious were aroused The grand jury presented indictments. The whole land stood aghast. The man who expected to put half the city in his vest pocket goes to BlacSwell's island, goes to Ludlow street jail, breaks prison and goes across the sea, is rearrested and brought back and again remanded to jail. Why? He that sitteth in the heavens laughed. '
 Rome was great empire. She had Horace and Virgil among her poets; she had Augustus and Constantine among her emperors, But what mean the defaced Pantheon. and the Forum turned into a cattle market, and the broken walled Coliseum, and the architectural skeleton of her great aqueducts: What was that thunder? .Oh, you say, that was the roar of the battering rams against her walls. No. What was that quiver? "Oh, you say, 'that was the tramp sof hostile legions. No. The quiver and the roar were the outburst of omnipotent laugh. ter from the defed and insulted heav- ems Rome defied God, and he laughed her down. Thebes defed God, and he laughed her down. Nineveh defied God, and he laughed her down. Babylon de fled God, and he laughed her down There is a great difference between Gods laugh and his smile. His smile is eter- nal beatitude. He smiled when David sang, and Miriam clapped the cymbals, and Hannah made garments for her son, and Paul preached, and John kin. dled with apocalyptic vision, and when any man has anything to do and does it we'll His smile! Why, it is the 18th of May, the apple orchards in full bloom; it is morning breaking on rippling sea- it is heaven at high noon, all the bells beating the marriage peal. But his laughter-may it never fall on usl It is a condemnation for our sin; it is a wasting away.
 The Scoffers at Truth.
 We may let the satirist laugh at us, and all our companions may laugh at us, and we may be made the target for the merriment of earth and hell, but God forbid that we should ever come to the fulfillment of the prophecy against the rejectors of the truth, II will laugh at your calamity.' But, my friends, all of us who reject Christ and the pardon of the gospel must come under that tre- mendous bombardment. God wants us all to repent. He counsels, he coaxes, he importunes, and he dies for us. He comes down out of heaven. He puts all the worlds sin on one shoulder, he puts all the worlds sorrow on the other shoulder, and then with that Alp on one side and that Himalaya on the other he starts up the hill back of Jeru- salem to achieve our salvation. He puts the palm of his right foot on one long spike, and he puts the palm of his left foot on another long spike, and then, with his hands spotted with his own blood, he gesticulates saying: Hook, look and live. With the crimson veil of my sacrifice will cover up all your sins; with my dying groan will swal- low up all your groans Lookl LiveP' But thousand of you turn your back on that. and then this voice of invitation turns to tone divinely ominons, that sobs like simoom through the first chapter of Proverbs, Because II have called and ye refused, have stretched out my right hand, and no man regard ed, but ye have set at 'ilaught all my counsel and would none of my reproof, I, also will laugh at your calamity Oh, what laugh that is--a'deep laugh, long, reverberating laugh: an over whelming laugh. God grant we may never hear it. But in this day of merci ful visitation yield your heart to Christ, that you may spend all your life on earth under his smile and escape forever the thunder of the laugh of God s indig- nation
 The Laugh of Triumph.
 The other laughter mentioned in the Bible, the only one 1 shall speak of, is heavens laughter, or the expression of eternal triumph. Christ said to his dis ciples, Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh. " That makes me know positively that we are not to spend our days in heaven singing long meter psalms The formalistic and stiff no- tions of heaven that some people have would make me miserable I am glad to know that the heaven of the Bible is not only place of holy wor- ship. but of magnificent sociality What, say you, will the ringing laugh go around the circles of the saved?" I say yes-pure laughter, cheering laughter, holy laughter It will be laugh of congratulation- When we meet a friend who has suddenly come to fortune or who has got over some dire sickness, do we not shake hands, do we not laugh with him? And when we get to heaven and see our friends there, some of them having come up out of great tribulation, why, we will say to one of them, "The last time I saw you you had been suffering for six weeks under low intermittent fever," or to another we willsay: ''You for 10 years were imping with the rheumatism, and you were full of com plaints when we saw you last. I con- gratulate you on this eternal recovery ' We shall laugh. Yes, we shall congrat- ulate all those who have come out of l great financial endorsements in this world because they have become mil ionaires in heaven. Ye shall laugh. It shall be a laugh of reassociation. It is just as natural for us to laugh when we meet a friend we have not seen for 10 years as anything is possible to be nat ural.
 When we meet our friends from whom we have been parted 10 or 90 or 30 | years, will it not be with infinite con- graduation? Our perception quickened. our knowledge improved. we will know