Connecticut western news., 1895-09-12


 An Open Porthole.
 No wonder that the son of the Swiss, when far away from home, hearing the national air of his country sung, the malady of homesickness comes on him so powerfully as to cause his death. You have the example of heroic Daniel of my text for keeping early memories fresh. Forget not the old folks at home. Write often, and if you have surplus of means and they are poor make practical contribution, and rejoice that America is bound to all the world by ties of sanguinity as ill no other nation. Who can doubt but it is appointed for the evangelization Of other lands? What stirring, melting, gospelizing theory that all the doors of other nations are open toward us, while OUT windows are open toward them!
 But Daniel in the text kept this port hole of his domestic fortress unclosed because Jerusalem was the capital of sacred influences. There had smoked the sacrifice. There was the holy of holies There was the ark of the GOV enant. There stood the temple. We are all tempted to keep our windows open on the opposite side, toward the world, that we may see and hear and appro- priate its advantages. What does the world say? What does the world think? What does the world do? Worshipers of the world instead of worshipers of God. Windows open toward Bablyon. Windows open toward Corinth. Win dows open toward Athens. Windows open toward Sodom. Windows open to- ward the flats instead of windows open toward the hills Sad mistake, for this world as god is like something l saw in the museum of Strasburg, Germany the figure of virgin in wood and iron The victim in olden time was brought there, and this figure would open its arms to receive him, and once enfolded the figure closed with hun dred knives and lances upon him, and then let him drop 160 feet sheer down. So the world first embraces its idolaters, then closes upon them with many tor lures, and then lets them drop forever down. The highest honor the world could confer was to make man Roman emperor, but out of 63 emperors it al lowed only six to die peacefully in their beds
 The dominion of this world over null titudes is illustrated by the names of coins of many countries They have their pieces of money which they call sovereigns, crowns and half crowns, Napoleons and half Napoleons, Freder- icks and double Fredericks and ducats and Isabellinos, all of which names mean not so much usefulness as domin ion. The most of our windows open toward the exchange, toward the salon of fashion, toward the god of this world In olden times the length of tho English yard was fixed by the length of the arm of King Henry I, and we are apt 10 measure things by a variable standard and by the human arm that in the great crises of life can give us no heip. We need, like Daniel, to open our windows toward God and religion.
 Necessity For Prayer.
 But, mark you, that good lion tanner is not standing at the window, but kneeling while he looks out. Most pho- tographs arc taken of those in standing or sitting posture l now remember but one picture of man kneeling, and that was David Livingstone, who ill the cause of God and civilization sacrificed himself, and ill the heart of Africa his servant, Majwara, found him in the tent by the light of @ candle stuck on the top of box, his head in his hands upon the pillow and dead on his knees. But here is great lion tanner living under af tha 1ioh hai disheveled by the breeze, praying. The fact is that a man can see farther on his knees than standing on tiptoe. Jerusalem was about $50 statute miles from Babylon, and the vast Arabian desert shifted it's sands between them. Yet through that open window Daniel saw Jerusalem, saw all between 1t, saw beyond saw time, saw eternity, saw earth and saw heaven.
 Would you like to see the way through your sins to pardon, through your troubles to comfort, through temp tation to rescue, through dire sickness to immortal health, through night to day, through things terrestrial to things celestial-you will not see them till you take Daniels posture. No cap of bone to the joints of the fingers, no cap of bone to the joints of the elbow, but cap of bone to the knees, made so because the God of the body was the God of the soul, and espe- cial provision for those who want to pray and physiological structure joins with spiritual necessity in bidding us pray and pray and pray.
 In olden time the Earl of Westmore- kmd said he had no need to pray because Ire had enough pious tenants on his es- tate to pray for him, but all the prayers of the church universal amount to noth- ing unless, like Daniel, we pray for ourselves O men and women, bound ed on one side by Shadrach's redhot furnace and tho other side by de- vourfhg lions, learn the secret of cour- age and deliverance by looking at that Babylonish window open toward the southwest. "Oh,'' you say, "that is the direction of the Arabian desert. !" Yes, but on the other side of the desert is God, is Christ, is Jerusalem, is heaven.
 The Brussels lace is superior to all other lace, so beautiful, so multiform, so expensive-400 francs a pound. All the world seeks it. Do you know how 1t is made? The spinning is done in a dark room, the only light admitted through small aperture, and that light falling directly on the pattern. And the finest specimens of Christian character l have-ever seen or ever expect to see are those to be found in lives all of whose windows have been darkened by bereavement and misfortune save one, but under that one window of prayer the interlacing of divine workmanship went on until it was fit to deck a throne, a celestial embroidery which angels admired and God approved
 Think of Heaven.
 But it is another Jerusalem toward which we now need to open our win dows. The exiled evangelist of Ephesus