Connecticut western news., 1896-11-19

seph ever graduated. The hurricane that upset the tent and killed Jobs chill dren prepared the man of Uz to be the subject of the magnificent poem that has astounded the ages. There is no way to get the wheat out of the straw but to thrash it. There is no way to purify the gold but to burn it. Look at the people who have always had it their own way. They are proud, discontent- ed, useless and unhappy. If you want to find cheerful folk, go among those who have been purified by the fire. After Rossini had rendered William Tell' the five hundredth time a company of musicians came under his window ip Paris and serenaded him. They put up- on his brow a golden crown of laurel leaves. But amid all the applause and enthusiasm Rossini turned to a friend and said, "I would give all this bril- liant scene for few days of youth and love" Contrast the melancholy feeling of Rossini, who had everything that his world could give him. with the joy ful experience of Isaac Watts, whose sorrows were great, when he says:
 The hill of Zion yields
 thousand sacred sweets
 Before we reach the heavenly fields
 Or walk the golden streets.
 Then let our songs abound
 And every tear be dry.
 We're marching through Immanuel's ground
 To fairer worlds on high
 It is prosperity that kills and trouble that saves While the Israelites were on the march, amid great privations and hardships, they behaved well. After awhile they prayed for meat, and the sky darkened with great flock of quails, and these quails fell in great multitudes all about them, and the Is- raelites ate and ate and stuffed them selves until they died. Oh, my friends, it is not hardship or trial or starvation that injures the soul, but abundant sup ply. It is not the vulture of trouble that eats up the Christians life. It is the quails, it is the quails. You will yet find out that your midnight wrestle by the brook Jabbok is with an angel of God come down to bless and to save.
 The Mark of the Struggle.
 Learn again that while our wrestling with trouble might be triumphant we must expect that it will leave its mark upon us Jacob prevailed, but the angel touched him, and his thigh bone sprung from it's socket, and the good man went limping on his way. We must carry through this world the mark of the combat. What plowed these premature wrinkles in your face? What whitened your hair before it was time for frost? yvhat e; ;la,cod foroyor on ,npnh of tho hilarity of your household? An, it is because the angel of trouble hath touch cd you that you go limping on your way. You need not be surprised that those who have passed through the fire do not feel as gay as once they did. Do not be out of patience with those who come not out of their despondency. They may triumph over their loss, and yet their gait shall tell you that they have been trouble touched. Are we sto- ios that we can unmoved see our cradle rif1ed of the bright eyes and the sweet lips? Can we stand unmoved and see our gardens of earthly delight uprooted? Will Jesus, who wept himself, be an- gry with us if we po'ir our tears into the graves that open to swallow down what we loved best? Was Lazarus more dear to him than our beloved dead to us? No. We have right to weep. Our tears must come. You shall not drive them back to scald the heart. They fall | into Gods bottle. Afflicted ones have | died because they could not weep. l Thank God for the sweet, the mysteri- | ous relief that comes to us in tears. Un- | dor Ia bp If 1 put forth their bloom. God pity that dry, withered, parched, all consuming | grief that wrings its hands and grinds ! its teeth and bites its nails into the | quick, but cannot weep. We may have found the comfort of the cross and yet | ever after show that in the dark night and by the brook Jabbok we were trou. ble touched.
 The Welcome Dawn.
 Again we may take the idea of the text and announce the approach of the day dawn. No one was ever more glad to see the morning than was Jacob after that night of struggle. It is appropri. ate for philanthropists and Chrlst1ani to cry out with this angel of the text ."The day breaketh." The worlds pros | poets are brightening. Superstition has had it's strongest props knocked out The tyrants of earth are falling flat il the dust. The church of Christ is rising up in it's strength to go forth, flair a the morn. clear as the sun and terrible as an army with banners. Clap you hands, all ye people, "the day break eth. !"
 As I look around about me I se many who have passed through wave of trouble that came up higher thai their girdle. In Gods name proclaim cessation of hostilities You shall no always go saddened and heartbroken God will lift your burden. God vii bring your dead to life. God will stancl the hearts bleeding. I know he will Like as a father pitieth his children, S the Lord pities you. The pains of cart will end. The tomb will burst. Tn dead will rise. The morning star trem bles on 8 brightening sky. The gates o the east begin to swing open. ''The da breaketh. '
 Luther and Melanchthon were talkin together gloomily about the prospects c the church. They could see no hope c deliveranoe. After awhile Luther go up and said to Melanchthon, "Come Philip, let us sing the Forty -sixt Psalm, God is our refuge and strengt in every time of trouble. "
 The Last wrestIe.
 Death to many, nay, to all, is
 struggle and wrestle. We have man friends whom it would be hard to leave I care not how bright our future hop is. It is bitter thing to look upon thi fair world and know that we shall ney CT again see it's blossoming spring, ii autumnal fruits, it's sparkling stream and to say farewell to those with whol we played in childhood or counseled i manhood. In that night, like Jacob, W may have to wrestle, but God will nc