Connecticut western news., 1896-04-16


 Result of Persecution.
 We learn also from this story ot Joseph that the result of persecution is elevation. Had it not been for his being sold into Egyptian bondage by his ma Iicious brothers and his false imprison- ment Joseph never would have become a governor. Everybody accepts the Blessed are they that are per secuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" but they do not realize the fact that this principle applies to worldly as well as spiritual success. It is true i'll all de- partments. Men rise to high official po- sitions through misrepresentation. Pub lie abuse Is all that some of our public men have had to rely upon for their ele- yation It has brought to them what talent and executive force could not have achieved Many of those who are making great effort for place and power will never succeed inst because they are not of enough importance to be abused. It is the nature of men-that is of all generous and reasonable men-to gather about those who are persecuted and defend them, and they are apt to forget the fault of those who are the subjects of attack while attempting to drive back the slanderers. Persecution is elevation. Helen Stirk, the Scotch martyr, standing with her husband at the place of execution, said: Husband, let us rejoice today. We have lived to- gether many happy years, This is the z oil . % we are to be happy together forever. Be brave now. be brave. I will not say Good night to you, for we shall soon be in the kingdom of our Father togeth- err Persecution shows the heroes and heroines- go into another department, and find that those great denomina- tions of Christians which have been most abused have spread the most rapidly.
 No good man was ever more violently than John Wesley-belied and caricatured and slandered until one day he stood in 8 pulpit in London, and a man arose in the audience and said, "You were drunk last night" and John Wesley said: Thank God, the whole catalogue is now complete. I have been charged with everything but thatp His followers were hooted at and maligned and called by every detestable name that internal ingenuity could invent. but the hotter the persecution the more rapidly they spread until you know what great host they have become and what a tremendous force for God and the truth they are yielding all the world over. 1t was persecution that gave Scotland to Presbyterianism. It was persecution that gave our land first to civil liberty and afterward to religious freedom. Yea, I might go farther back and say it was persecution that gave the world the great salvation of the gospel The ribald mockery, the hungering and thirsting, the unjust charge, the ignominious death, when all the force of hell's fury was hurled against the cross, was the introduction of that religion which is yet to be the earth s deliverance and our eternal salvation. The state sometimes said to the church, Come, take my hand, and will help you" What was the result2 The church went back, and it lost its estate of holiness, and it be- C<AlkC luChSNtAfC at ohANA thC state said to the church, ''I will crush you" What has been the result? After the storms have spent their fury the church, so far from having lost any of it's force, has increased and is worth in- fnitely more after the assault than be- fore Read all history and you will find that true The church is far more in- debted to the opposition of civil govern ment than to its approval. The fires of the Christ held in his hand, by the light of which the church has marched to her present glorious position. In the sound of racks and implements of torture I hear the rumbling of the gospel chariot. The scaffolds of martyrdom have been the stairs by which the church mounted
 A Thousand Tongues.
 Learn also from our subject that sin will come to exposure. Long. long ago had those brothers sold Joseph into Egypt They had made the old father believe that his favorite child was dead They had suppressed the crime. and it was profound secret well kept by the brothers. But suddenly the secret is out The old father hears that his son is in Egypt, having been sold there by the malice of his own brothers. How their cheeks must have burned and their hearts sunk at the flaming out of this long sup pressed crime. The smallest iniquity has thousand tongues, and they will blab out exposure Saul was sent to de- stroy the Canaanites, their sheep and their oxen, but when he got down there among the pastures he saw some fine sheep and oxen too fat to kill, so he thought he would steal them. Nobody would know it. He drove these stolen sheep and oxen toward home, but stop ped to report to the prophet how he had executed his mission, when in the dis tance the sheep began to bleat and the oxen to below. The secret was out, and Samuel said to the blushing and con- fused Saul, What meaneth the bleating of the sheep that I hear and the below ing of the cattle?" An, my nearer, you cannot keep an iniquity still. At just the wrong time the sheep will bleat and the oxen will below. Achan cannot steal the Babylonish garment without being stoned to death, nor Arnold betray his country without having his neck stretched Look over the police arrests. These thieves, these burglars, these counterfeiters, these highwaymen, these assassins, they all thought they could bury their iniquity so deep down it would never come to resurrection, but there was some shoe that answered to the print in the soil, some false keys found in their possession, some bloody knife that whispered of the death, and the public indignation and the anathema of outraged law hurled them into the dungeon or hoisted them on the gallows
 Francis | king of France, stood coun selling with his officers how he could take his army into Italy, when Ameril, the fool of the court, leaped out from a corner of the room and said, You had better be consulting how you will get