Connecticut western news., 1895-09-05

her. The royal rope or DemetfluS was so costly, so beautiful, that after he had put it oft no one ever dared to put | it on, but this robe of Christ, richer than that, the poorest and the weakest, and the worst may wear, Where sin abounded, grace may much more abound.
 "Oh, my sins, my sins I" said Martin Luther to Staupitz, my sins, my sins!' The fact is that the brawny German student had found Latin Bible that made him quake, and noth- ing else ever did make him quake, and when he found how. through Christ, he was pardoned and saved he wrote to friend, saying "Come over and join us great and awful sinners saved by the | grace of God. You seem to be only a slender sinner, and you don't much extol the mercy of God but we that have been such very awful sinners praise his grace the more now that we have been redeemed Can it be that you are so desperately egotistical that you feel yourself in first rate spiritual trim, and that from the root of the hair to the tip of the toe you are scarless and i'm maculate? What you need is a looking glass, and here it is in the Bible. Poor and wretched and miserable and blind and naked from the crown of the head 10 the sole of the foot, full of wounds and putrefying sores. No health in us. i And then take the fact that Christ gath cred up all the notes against us and paid them and then offered us the receipt And how much we need him in our sor- | Ua i,,la,or,Ior,f Of ni stances if we have his grace. Why, he made Paul sing in the dungeon, and un- der that grace St. John from desolate Patmos heard the blast of the apocalyp- tic trumpets. After all other candles have been snuffed out, this is the light that gets brighter and brighter unto the perfect day, and after, under the hard hoofs of calamity, all the pools of worldly enjoyment have been trampled into deep mire at the foot of the eternal rock the Christian, from cups of granite lily trimmed, puts out the thirst of his soul.
 The Alleviation of Death.
 Again, I remark that Christ is chief in dying alleviations. I have not any sympathy with the morbidity abroad about our demise The emperor of Con- stantinople arranged that on the day of his coronation the stonemason should come and consult him about the tomb stone that after awhile he would need. And there are men who are monomani- acal on the subject of departure from this life by death, and the more they think of it the less they are prepared to go This is an unmanliness not worthy of you, not worthy of me.
 Saladin, the greatest conqueror of his day, while dying ordered that the tunic he had on him be carried after his death on his spear at the head of his army, and that then the soldier, ever and anon, should stop and say: "Be- hold all that is left of Saladin, the em- peror and conqueror! Of all the states he conquered, of all the wealth he ac- cumulated, nothing did he retain but this shroud. l have no sympathy with such behavior, or such absurd demon stration. or with much that we hear uttered in regard to departure from this life.to the next. There is common sensical idea on this subject that you ueed to consider-there are only two styles of departure. A thousand feet underground, by light of torch, toiling in. miners shaft, ledge of rock may fall upon us, and we may die miner s death. Far out at sea, falling from the slippery ratlines and broken on the hal lizards, we may die sailors death. On mission of mercy in hospital, amid broken bones and reeking leprosies and raging fevers, we may die a philan- thropist's death On the field of battle, serving God and our country, slugs trough the heart, the gun carriage may roll over us, and we may die pa triot's death. But, after all, there are only two styles of departure-the death of the righteous and the death of the wicked-and we all want to die the former.
 Sod grant that when that hour comes you may be at home. You want the hand of your kindred in your hand. You want your children to surround you. You want the light on your pillow from eyes that have long reflected your love. You want your room still. You do not want any curious strangers standing around watching you. You want your kindred from afar to hear your last prayer. l think that is the wish of all of us. But is that all? Can earthly friends hold us up when the bill lows of death come up to the girdle? Gan human voice charm open heaven s gate? Can human hand pilot us through the narrows of death into heavens har- bor? Can any earthly friendship shield us from the arrows of death and in the hour when satan shall practice upon us his internal archery? No, no, no, no Alas, poor soul, if that is all Better die in the wilderness far from tree shadow and from fountain, alone, vul- lures circling through the air waiting for our body, unknown to men, and to have no burial, if only Christ could say through the solitudes, ''I will never leave thee, will never forsake thee. J From that pillow of stone ladder would soar heayenward, angels coming and going, and across the solitude and the barrenness would come the sweet notes of heavenly minstrelsy.
 Dying Words.
 Gordon Hall, far from home, dying in door of heathen temple, said , "Glory to thee, o God" What did dy } ing Wilberforce say to his wife? "Come ) and sit beside me, and let us talk o1 } heaven. never knew what happiness was until I found Christ" What dit : dying Hannah More say? "To go tt 7 heaven, think what that is! To go tt Christ, who died that might livel Oh glorious grave! Oh, what a glorious , thing it is to die Oh, the love of Christ , the love of Christp' What did MT ) Toplady, the great hymn maker, say in his last hour? "Who can measur, , the depths of the third heaven? Oh, th' r sunshine that fills my soul! I shall sool ) be gone, for surely no one can live il