Connecticut western news., 1895-09-12
WINDOWS WIDE OPEN
REV. DIR. TAlMAGE'S WORDS OF COM
 FORT AND CHEER.

Not Standing, but Kneeling-The Battl, and the Victory.
 NEW YORK, Sept. 8.-In his sermon for today Rev. Dr. Talmage has chosen theme overf1owing with Christian cheerfulness and encouragement. The subject is "Open Windows and the text selected was Daniel vi, 10, "His windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem.
 The scoundrelly princes of Persia, urged on by political jealousy against Daniel, have succeeded ill getting a law passed that whosoever prays to God shall be put under the paws and teeth of the lions who are flashing themselves in rage and hunger up and down the stone cage or putting their lower jaws on the ground, believing till the earth trembles. But the leon1ne threat did not hinder the devotions of Daniel the Ctpur de Lion of the ages. His enemies might as we'll have law that the sun should not draw water, or that the south wind should not sweep across a garden of magnolias, or that God should be abolished. They could not scare him with the redhot furnaces, and they can not now scare him with the lions. As soon as Daniel hears of this enactment he leaves his office of secretary of state, with it's upholstery of crimson and gold, and comes down the white marble steps and goes to his own house. He opens his window and puts the shutters back and pulls the curtain aside so that he can look toward the sacred city of Jerusalem and then prays.
 A Picture For an Artist.
 I suppose the people in the street gathered under and before his window and said: "Just see that man defying the law. He ought to be arrested. " Aad the constabulary of the city rush to the police headquarters and report that Daniel is on his knees at the wide open window. "You are my prisoner, '" says the officer of the law, dropping heavy hand on the shoulder of the kneel- ing Daniel. As the constables open the door of the cavern to thrust in their prisoner they see the glaring eyes of the monsters. But Daniel becomes the first lion tanner, and they lick his hand and fawn at his feet, and that night he sleeps with the shaggy mane of wild beast for his pillow, while the king that night, sleepless in the palace, has on him tho paw and teeth of lion he can not tame-the lion of a remorseful con- science.
 What picture it would be for some artistl Darius in the early dusk of morning not waiting for footmen or chariot, hastening to the den, all flushed and nervous and in dishabille, and look ing tIEough the crevices of the cage to see wiiat had become of his prime min- ister. "What, no sound !' he says. "Daniel is surely devoured, and the lions are sleeping after their horrid meal, the bones of the poor man scat tered across the floor of the cavern. " With trembling voice Darius calls out, "Daniel!'' No answer, for the prophet is yet in profound slumber. But lion, more easily awakened, advances, and with hot breath blown through the creT ice seems angrily to demand the cause of this interruption, and then another wild beast lifts his mane from under Daniels head, and the prophet, waking up, comes forth to report himself all unhurt and we'll
 But our text stands us at Daniels window, open toward Jerusalem. Why in that direction open? Jerusalem was his native land, and all the pomp of his Baby lonish successes could not make him forget it. He came there from Jerusalem at IS years of age, and ke never visited it, though he lived to bt 85 years. Yet when he wanted to arouse the deepest emotions and grand est aspirations of his heart he lad his window open toward his native Jerusa- lem. There are many of you today who understand that without any exposition. This is getting to be nation of foreign CTS. They have come into all occupa- tions and professions. They sit ill all churches. It may be 20 years ago since you got your naturalization papers, and you may be thoroughly Americanized, but you can't forget the land of your birth, and your warmest sympathies go out toward it. Your windows are open toward Jerusalem. Your father and mother are buried there. It may have been a very humble home in which you were born, but your memory often plays around it, and you hope some day to go and see it-the hill, the tree, the brook. the house, the place so sacred, the door from which you started off with parental blessing to make your own way in the world--and God only knows how some times you have longed to see the famil- far places of your childhood, and how in awful crises of life you would like to hA <v1S 0q NJ1 wrinkled face that bent over you as you lay on the gentle lap 20 or 40 or 50 years ago. You may have on this side of tho sea risen in fortune, and like Daniel have become great and may have come into prosperities which you never could have reached if you had staid there, and you may have many windows to your house-bay windows and skyiight windows and windows of conservatory and windows on all sides but you have at least one window open toward Jerusalem.
 Life's Struggle.
 When the foreign steamer canes to the wharf, you see the long line of sail ors, with shouldered mailbags, coming down the blanks, carrying as many let ters as you might suppose to be enough for years correspondence, and this re- peated again and again during the week Multitudes of them are letters from home, and at all the postoffices of the land people will go to the window and anxiously ask for them, hundreds of thousands of persons finding that win dow of foreign mails the open window toward Jerusalem. Messages that say "When are you coming home to see usi Brother has gone into the army. Sister is dead. Father and mother are getting very feeble. We are having great struggle to get on here. Would you ad- wise us to come to you, or will you come to us? All join in love and hope to meet