Connecticut western news., 1895-08-15
WIDE LIVES OR LONG.
THE WISDOM WHICH SHOWS WHAT
 TO AVOID.


 TO AVOID.
 Spiritual Laws and Statute Laws-Lord
 Chesterfield on the Worlds Pleasures. ! The Uses of Faith-A Sermon Preached by Rev. Myron w. Reed at Denver.
 TRxT.-The queen of the south came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.-Matthew xii, 42.
 Some lives are long and some are wide. The life of Solomon was wide. A life that spends itself on what is local and temporary may be of immense pow CT, but there is nothing eternal in it. The life of the politician may be wider than that of the statesman, but the life of the statesman grows. Every year seems to add to his stature. In 1858 Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Doug las were about equal But now one grows and the other stands still and shrinks The little children are ac- Guainted with Lincoln, but the name of Douglas suggests nothing to men under 40. Many men are as short lived as speech made in defense of American slavery It once had power in it, but now it has become a curiosity, thing for the museum, like the thumbscrew or the witch pins on exhibition in old Salem. The speech had brains in it, in vention, rhetoric, but 1t was against the current, against the trade wind. Slav- cry is not with God, but against his thought and purpose. Things that live must live by God, with mercy, love and justice. In order that name may live in honor it must be associated with things that are true, honest, lovely and so eternal "The name of the wicked shall rot. ''
 Useful to Know What to Avoid.
 Napoleon's life was as wide as all Europe, but it was short. His power tumbled into the grave before he did. The effort to bring him to has failed. The book of EccIesiastes, in which it is supposed are set down the meditations of Solomon, has great deal of Novem- Der in it. Nothing blossoms in it but the almond tree. It is a record of the riper life of Solomon, a book of experi- ence, an essay on the "vanity of hu- man wishes. ' It is useful for the tray eler to know what roads not to take. Solomon lived and then set down his experiments and results and conclusions. But Christ begins with Solomon's con clusions. He does not wait to feel his way. He does not say like Solomon: "That is bad road; I have walked it. The mud of it is on me now. lam foot sore with the hardness of it. '
 Jesus intuitively states the truth. Solomon had experience. Jesus had in- sight. It takes Solomon about 50 years to state the conclusion of the whole matter, "Fear God and keep his com mandments, for this is the whole duty of man." But Jesus in the very begin ming says, "Seek first the kingdom of God. '' The methods of science and of faith arrive at the same statement One goes as with wings and the other plods. It is for my interest to love my neigh bor. We will either take Christ's word for it or find it out for ourselves. We shall save much time and avoid much sorrow to take Christ s word for it.
 It is for my interest to rest one day ill seven. doubt not that by and by man who does not strive to keep the golden rule will be counted imprudent, perhaps a fool There will be an asylum for those who think to help themselves by injuring their neighbors. The world is not safe until it is all safe. You cannot lift society by pulling at the. top of it. A Krupp gun costs more than school house. American slavery never paid. Indian wars have not paid. see that our neighbors are trying to get up one. Men who are good at figuring reckon the cost in cash and other things of any kind of i'll will and are beginning to say that they cannot afford to hate any body. To be angry an hour tires one more than a weeks hard work. The people who introduced slavery into our country had no proper thought of the expense. There was little money in it, but look at the graves, the blood and the treasure and the problem of the ne- gro still as difficult as ever. There seems to be no end to the question. Time proves what the Bible states. St. Paul says, "The things that are seen are temporal" and they are. The cities that he saw that looked so solid have gone out. Where are Corinth and Ephe- sus? Boys bathing in the Mediterranean lately found an old drowned city with their feet. Paul states that men are of one blood. That has been disputed for long time. Louis, the magnificent king of France, never believed that he was related to his gatekeeper, but he was. He took the continent smallpox from him and in due time died like the com monest kind of a Frenchman. Cholera and typhus prove the brotherhood of man.
 Blessed Are the Mercifai.
 Science slowly comes to the same statement as the sermon on the mount, Blessed are the merciful '' That is so We hardly remember the name of a man in the Crimean war, in either ar my. The most of us can call up the name of hospital nurse of that war. Science is too slow. Solomon had very thoroughly spoiled his life in finding out at last what not to do. He demon strated, as some river boats do, where the channel is by proving where it is not Stuck fast on bar, even wreck serves some good. The information Sol omon gives us as how to live is valua- ble to us but expensive to him. "Better is poor and wise child than an old and foolish king" If he had read the Psalms of his father and believed them and lived them, he could as child have be- gun where David left off, and so saved 50 years of time and himself much dam- age. Here is the melancholy thing that the children do not realize, that the Bi- ble and life teach the same thing.
 "The way of the transgressor is hard, :" the way right now. It is hard way to a hard place. This is not the voice of .j,e pulpit only; it is the voice of the sidewalk "The nations that forget God shall be turned into hell.'' The Bible says so and Gibbon says so.