Connecticut western news., 1894-05-10

they saw! How much they discovered. {. How much they feltl Within that time have been performed the miracles ot the telephone and the phonograph. From the observatories other worlds have been seen to heave in sight Six presidents of the United States have been inaugurated. Transatlantic voyage abbreviated from 10 days to E. Chi cago and New York, once three days apart, now only 24 hours by the yesti- bule limited. Two additional railroads have been built to the Pacific France has passed from monarchy to republic anism. Many of the cities have nearly doubled their populations During that generation the chief surviving heroes of the civil war have gone into the en- campment of the grave The chief phy sicians, attorneys, orators, merchants, have passed off the earth or are in re- tirement waiting for transition. Other men in editorial chairs, in pulpits, in governors mansions, in legislative, sen- atorial and congressional halls.
 There are not 10 men or women on earth now prominent who were promi- nent 20 years ago. The crew of this old ship of world is all changed. Others at the helm, others on the lookout, " others climbing the ratlines. Time is doctor who, with potent anodyne, has put an entire generation into sound sleep. Time, like another Cromwell, has roughly prorogued parliament and with iconoclasm driven nearly all the rulers fl l,a,,- Afrxl, ,N1o So far as I observed that generation, for the most part they did their best. Ghastly exceptions but so far as knew them they did quite we'll, and many of them gloriously we'll. They were born at the right time, and they died at the right time. They left the world better than they found it. We are indebted to them for the fact that they prepared the way for our coming. Eighteen hundred and ninety-four reverently and grate- fully salntes 1869. "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh. '"
 There arc fathers and mothers here whom I baptized in their infancy. There is not one person in this church's board of session or trustees who was here when came Here and there in this vast assembly is one person who heard my opening sermon in Brooklyn, but not more than one person in every 800 now present Of the IF persons who gave me a unanimous call when I came, only three, believe, are living.
 The Major Key.
 But this sermon is not dirge It is rTvl- Al -ll priate as a temporary stay, as an eter- nal residence it would be a dead fail ure. It would be dreadful sentence if our race were doomed to remain here a thousand winters and a thousand sum- mers. God keeps us here just long enough to give us an appetite for heav en. Had we been born in celestial realms we would not have been able to appre- ciate the bliss. It needs a good many rough blasts in this world to qualify us to properly estimate the superb climate of that good land where it is never too cold or too hot, too cloudy or too glar- ing. Heaven will be more to us than to those supernal beings who were never tempted or sick or bereaved or tried or disappointed. So you may we'll take my text out of the minor key and set it to some tune in the major key. "One gen. eration passeth away, and another gen eration cometh.
 Nothing can rob us of the satisfaction that uncounted thousands of the gener- ation just past were converted, comfort ed and harvested for heaven by this church, whether in the present building or the three preceding buildings in which they worshiped. The two great organs of the previous churches went down in the memorable fires, but the multitudinous songs they led year aft CT year were not recalled or injured There is no power in earth or hell to kill halleluiah. It is impossible to ar rest hosanna. What satisfaction to know that there are many thousands in glory on whose eternal welfare this church wrought nightly! Nothing can undo that work. They have ascended, the multitudes who served God in that generation. That chapter is gloriously ended. But that generation has left its impression upon this generation.
 A sailor was dying on shipboard, and he said to his mates: My lads, can only think of one passage of Scripture, The soul that sinneth, it shall die, and that keeps ringing in my ears. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Can't you think of something else in the Bible to cheer me up?" We'll, sailors are kind, and they tried to think of some other passage of Scripture with which to con- sole their dying comrade, but they could not. One of them said: Let us call up the cabin boy His mother was a Chris tian, and I guess he has Bible. The cabin boy was called up, and the dying sailor asked him if he had Bible He said Yes" but he could not exactly find it, and the dying sailor scolded him and said, "Ain't you ashamed of your self not toread your Bible?" So the boy explored the bottom of his trunk and brought out the Bible, and his mother had marked a passage that just fitted the dying sailors case, "The blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth from all sin" That helped the sailor to die in peace. So one generation helps another, and good things written or said or done are reproduced long afterward.
 Tn. World For an Audience.
 During the passing of the last gener ation some peculiar events have unfold ed. One day while resting at Sharon Springs, N. Y., think it was in 1870, the year after my settlement in Brook lyn, and while walking in the park of that place, found myself asking the question:: 1T wonder if there is any spe- cial mission for me to execute in this world? If there is, may God show it to men' There soon came upon me a great desire to preach the gospel through the secular prilsting press. realized that the vast majority of people, even in Christian lands, never enter church, and that it would be an opportunity of usefulness infinite if that door of pub lication were opened.
 And so I recorded that prayer in a blank book and offered the prayer day in and day out until the answer came, though in way different from that which l had expected, for it came