Connecticut western news., 1895-08-22


 we like to execute them. 1t looks big. God comes and takes us down. AS Pro- metheus was assaulted by fsa enemy, when the lance struck him it opened 8 great swelling that had threatened his death, and he got we'll So it is the ar row of trouble that lets out great swell ings of pride. We enever feel our depend ence upon God until we get trouble. I was riding with my little child along the road, and she asked if she might drive. I said, Certainly. handed over the reins to her, and had to ad- mire the glee with which she drove. But after awhile we met team and we had to turn out. The road was narrow, and it was sheer down on both sides. She handed the reins over to me and said, "I think you had better take charge of the horse" So we are all children, and on this road of life we like to drive It gives one such an appear ance of superiority and power. It looks big. But after awhile we meet some obstacle and we have to turn out, and the road is narrow, and it is sheer down. on both sides; and then we are willing that God should take the reins and drive. An, my friends, we get upset so often because we do not hand over the reins soon enough.
 After a man has had trouble, prayer is with him taking hold of the arm of God and crying out for help. I have heard earnest prayers on two or three occasions that I remember. Once, on the Cincinnati express train, going at 40 miles the hour, the train jumped the track, and we were near chasm 80 feet deep, and the men who, few minutes before, had been swearing and blas- pheming God, began to pull and jerk at the bell rope and got up on the backs of the seats, and cried out, 70 God, save usl
 There was another time, about 800 miles out at sea, on laundering steam CT, after the last lifeboat had been split finer than kindling wood They prayed then. Why is it you so often hear peo- pie, in reciting the last experience of some friend, say, "He made the most beautiful prayer ever heard?" What makes it beautiful? It is the earnestness of it. Oh! tell you, man is in ear nest when his stripped and naked soul wades out in the soundless, shoreless, bottomless ocean of eternity.
 A Helpful Father.
 It is trouble, my friends, that makes us feel our dependence upon God We do not know our own weakness or Gods strength until the last plank breaks. It is contemptible i'll us when there is noth- ing else to take hold of that we catch hold of God only. Why, you do not know who the Lord is He is not an au tocrat seated far mp in palace, from which he emerges once year, preceded by heralds swinging swords to clear the way. No. But Father willing, at our call, to stand by us in every crisis and predicament of life. I tell you what some of you business men make me think of. A young man goes off from home to earn his fortune. He goes with his mothers consent and benediction. She has large wealth, but he wants to make his own fortune. He goes far away, fails sick, gets out of m oney. He sends for the hotel keeper where he Is l staying, asking for lenience, and tie answer he gets is, If you don't pay up Saturday night, you'll be removed to inc hospital.
 The young man sends to comrade in | the same building. No help. He writes | to a banker who was friend of his ce ceased father. No relief. He writes to an old schoolmate. but gets no help Saturday night comes, and he is moved to the hospital.
 Getting there, he is frenzied with grief, and he borrows sheet of paper and postage stamp. and he sits down, and he writes home, saying; Dear mother, am sick unto death. Come. !" | It is ten minutes of 10 o'clock when she gets the letter. At 10 o'clock the train starts. She is five minutes from the de- | pot. She gets there in time to have five minutes to spare. She wonders why Q train that can go 30 miles an hour can- ! not go 60 miles an hour She rushes in- to the hospital. She says: My sen, what does all this mean? Why didn' t you send for me? You sent to every body but me. You knew l could and would help you. Is this the reward get for my kindness to you always?'' She bundles him up, takes him home and gets him we'll very soon. Now, some of you treat God just as that young man treated his mother. When you get into financial perplexity, you call on the banker, you call on the bro ker, you call on your creditors, you call on your lawyer for legal counsel; you call upon everybody, and when you can not get any help, then you go to God. You say: 70, Lord, come to thee. Help me now out of my perplexity. '' And the Lord comes, though it is the eleventh hour He says; Why did you not send for mo before? As one whom his mother comforteth, so will comfort you" It is to throw us back upon God that we have this ministry of tears.
 The Omce of Sympathy.
 Again, it is the use of trouble to ca pacitate us for the office of sympathy. The priests, under the old dispensation were set apart by having water sprin
 kled upon their hands, feet and head and by the sprinkling of tears people are now set apart to the office of sympa thy. When we are i'll prosperity we hk' to have a great many young people around us, and we laugh when they
 laugh, and we romp when they romp
 and we sing when they sing; but whe1
 we have trouble we like plenty of olt
 folks around. Why? They know how
 to talk.
 Take an aged mother, 70 years of age
 and she is almost omnipotent in com
 fort. Why? She has been through it all
 At z o'clock ill the morning she zoe
 over to comfort young mother wh
 has just lost her babe. Grandmothe
 knows all about that trouble. Eft,
 years ago she felt it. At 12 o'clock o
 that day she goes over to comfort wid
 owed soul. She knows all about that
 She has been walking in that dark val
 ley 20 years. At o'clock in the after
 noon some one knocks at the door, want