Connecticut western news., 1894-01-04

LOGS uOb our scl5S tcdk1l uS
 that it is better to be at the center than to be clear out on the rim of the wheel,
 holding nervously fast to the tire lest we be suddenly hurled into light and eter- nal felicity? Through all kinds of optic al instruments trying to peer in through the cracks and the keyholes of heaven
 afraid that both doors of the celestial
 mansion will be swung wide open before
 our entranced vision-rushing about
 among the apothecary shops of this
 world, wondering if this is good for rheu-
 matism, and that is good for neuralgia
 and something else is good for 8 bad
 cough, lest we be suddenly ushered into
 a land of everlasting health, where the
 inhabitant never says, "I am sick"
 What fools we all are to prefer the cir conference to the center! What dread ful thing it would be if we should be suddenly ushered from this wintry world into the Maytime orchards of heaven, and if our pauperism of sin and sorrow should be suddenly broken up by a pres entation of an emperor's castle, sur rounded by parks with springing foun- , tains and paths up and down which an- | gels of God walk two and two!
 We stick to the world as though we preferred cold drizzle to warm habita- l tion, discord to cantata, sackcloth to royal purple-as though we preferred 8 | piano with four or five keys out of tune | to an instrument fully attuned as l though earth and heaven had exchanged apparel and earth had taken on bridal | array and heaven had gone into deep mourning, all it's waters stagnant, all its | harps broken, all chalices cracked at the dry wells, all the lawns sloping to the river plowed with graves, with dead angels under the furrow. Oh, want to break up my own infatuation, and l want to break mp your infatuation for this world tell you if we are ready, and if our work is done, the sooner we | 20 the better, and if there are blessings | in longevity, want you to know right we'll there are also blessings in an abbre- viated earthly existence.
 A FORTUNATE ESCAPE.
 If the spirit of this sermon is true. how | consoled you ought to feel about mem I bers of your families that went early.
 "Taken from the evil to come" this book says. What fortunate escape they hadl ! How glad we ought to feel that they will never have to go through the struggles ! which we have had to go through. They had just time enough to get out of the cradle and run up the springtime hills of ! this world and see how it looked, and l then they started for a better stopping l place. They were like ships that put in | at St. Helena, staying there long enough | to let passengers go up and see the bar racks of Napoleon's captivity and then | hoist sail for the port of their own native land. They only took this world ''in | transitu." It is hard for us, but it is blessed for them.
 And if the spirit of this sermon is true, then we ought not to go around signing | and grooming because another year has gone. But we ought to go down on one
 knee by the milestone and see the letters \ and thank God that we are 385 miles | nearer home. We ought not to go around with morbid feelings about our health l T about anticipated demise. We ought ! to be living, not according to that old
 maxim which used to hear in my boy l hood, that you must live as though every day were the last; you must live as though you were to live forever, for you | will. Do not be nervous lest you have ! to move out of shanty into an Alham- bra.
 One Christmas morning one of my | neighbors, an old sea captain, died. Aft | CT life had departed, his face was illu- minated as though he were just going in- to harbor. The fact was, he had already | got through the "Narrows." In the ad- \ s~s> -s.4,, ents waiting for his distribution. Long | ago, one night, when he had narrowly escaped with his ship from being run l down by great ocean steamer, he had made his peace with God, and kinder
 neighbor or better man you would not
 find this side of heaven. Without mo-
 ment's warning the pilot of the heavenly
 harbor had met him just off the elightship. | The captain often talked to me of the | goodness of God, and especially of a time when he was about to go in New York harbor with his ship from Liver | pool, and he was suddenly impressed
 that he ought to put back to sea. Under the protest of the crew and under their
 very threat, he put back to sea, fearing at the same time he was losing his mind, | ! when they could get into harbor that
 night they should put back to sea. But | they put back to sea, and the captain
 said to his mate, "You will call me at
 10 o'clock at night"
 \ At 12 o'clock at night the captain was
 aroused and said: "Whas does this mean2
 thought I told you to call me at 10 | o'clock, and hereit is 12." Why" said
 the mate, "I did call you at 10 o'clock,
 and you got up, looked around and told me to keep right on this same course for two hours, and then to call you at 12 | o'clock" Said the captain: "Is it pos
 sible? I have no remembrance of that" | At 12 o'clock the captain went on deck, and through the rift of the cloud the moonlight fell upon the sea and showed
 him shipwreck with 100 struggling
 passengers. He helped them off. Had
 he been any earlier or any later at that point of the sea he would have been of no
 service to those drowning people. On
 board the captains vessel they began to
 band together as to what they should pay for the rescue and what they should pay | for the provisions. "Ah," says the captain,
 "my lads, you can't pay me anything. | All have on board is yours. I feel too | greatly honored of God in having saved | you to take any pay" Just like him.
 He never got any pay except that of his
 own applauding conscience.
 Oh, that the old sea captains God
 might be my God and yours Amid the
 stormy seas of this life may we have al-
 ways some one as tenderly to take care of us as the captain took care of the
 drowning crew and the passengers. And
 may we come into the harbor with as
 little physical pain and with as bright 8
 hope as he had, and if it should happen
 to be & Christmas morning when the | presents are being distributed and we