Connecticut western news., 1897-04-29

| learned the uses of copper and iron, but | that rude foundry of ancient days has it's echo in the rattle of Birmingham
 achinery and the roar and bang of fac tories on the Merrimac.
 It seemed to be matter of no impor- tance that Luther found Bible in a | monastery, but as he opened that Bible
 and the brass bound lids fell back they | jared every thing, and the rustling of 1 the wormed leaves was the sound of the | wings of the angel of the reformation. | 1t seemed to be matter of no impor- | tance that a woman whose name has
 been forgotten dropped a tract in the way of very bad man of the name of
 Richard Baxter. He picked up the tract 1 and read it, and it was the means of
 his salvation. In after days that man | wrote a book called "The Call to the Unconverted, that was the means of | bringing multitude to God, among
 others Philip Doddridge. Philip Dod- dridge wrote book called "The Rise | and Progress of Religion, !" which has | brought thousands and tens of thousands | into the kingdom of God and among | others the great Wilberforce. Wilber- | force wrote book called "A Practical View of Christianity, which was the
 means of bringing great multitude to | Christ, among others Legh Richmond. Legh Richmond wrote tract called
 '"The Dairyman's Daughter, which
 has been the means of the salvation of | unconverted multitudes And that tide of influence started from the fact that | one Christian woman dropped Chris | tian tract in the way of Richard Bax- | ter, the tide of influence rolling on | through Richard Baxter, through Phil | ip Doddridge, through the great Wilber- force, through Legh Richmond, on, on, on, forever, forever. So the insignifi- | cant events of this world seem, after | all, to be most momentous.
 Female Toilers.
 Again, see in my subject an illus | tration of the beauty of female industry. Behold Ruth toiling in the harvest | field under the hot sun or at noon talk | ing plain bread with the reapers or eat | ing the parched corn which Boaz handed | to her The customs of society, of
 course, have changed, and without the hardships and exposure to which Ruth was subjected every intelligent woman ! will find something to do. . I know there is sickly sentimental | ity on this subject. In some families
 there are persons of no practical service | to the household or community, and, | though there are so many woes all
 around about them in the world, they
 spend their time languishing over new \ pattern or bursting into tears at midnight over the story of some lover who shot ! himself. They would not deign to look at Ruth carrying back the barley on her way home to her mother in law. Naomi | All this fastidiousness may seem to do very we'll while they are under the shel- | ter of their fathers house, but when the sharp winter of misfortune comes what | of these butterflies? Persons under in- | dulgent parentage may get upon them | selves habits of incidence, but when they come out into practical life their soul will recoil with disgust and cha grin. They will feel in their hearts
 what the poet so severely satirized when | be said: | Folks are so awkward, things so impolite, They're elegantly pained from morning until night. Through that gate of indolence how many men and women have marched.
 useless on earth, to destroyed eternityi | Spinola said to Sir Horace We're, "Of I what did your brother die2" "Of hay ing nothing to do," was the answer.
 sAh," said Spinola, "that's enough to 1 kill any general of us!' Oh, can it be | possible in this world, where there is 30
 much suffering to be alleviated, so much
 darkness to be enlightened and so many | burdens to be carried, that there is any person who cannot find anything to doP Mme de Stael did world of work in
 her time, and one day, while she was | seated amid instruments of music, all | of which she had mastered, and amid | manuscript books which she had writ
 ten, some one said to her, "How do you find time to attend to all these thingsY"
 "Oh," she replied, "these are not the
 things 1 am proud of. My chief boast is
 in the fact that have IF trades, by any
 one of which could make livelihood
 if necessary" And, if in secular spheres
 there is so much to be done, in spirit
 ual work how vast the feldl How many l dying all around about us without one | gails, more Hannahs, more Rebeccas,
 more Marys, more Deborahs, consecrat-
 ed, body, mind, soul, to the Lord who
 bought them.
 | Cleaning.
 | Once more I learn from my subject the value of gleaning.
 | Ruth going into that harvest field
 might have said: "There is a straw,
 and there is a straw, but what is a
 strawf I can't get any barley for my self or my mother-in-law out of these
 separate straws." Not so said beautiful Ruth. She gathered two straws, and
 she put them together, and more
 straws, until she got enough to make a
 sheaf. Putting that down, she went
 and gathered more straws, until she had
 another sheaf, and another, and anoth.
 CT, and another, and then she brought
 them together, and she threshed them
 out, and she had an ephah of barley,
 nigh bushel. Oh, that we might all be | gleanersl .....
 Elihu Burritt learned many things
 while toiling in 8 blacksmith's s shop.
 Abercrombie, the world renowned phil
 osopher, was philosopher in Scotland,
 and he got his philosophy, or the chief
 part of it, while as a physician he was
 waiting for the door of the sickroom to
 open. Yet how many there are in this
 day who say they are so busy they have
 no time for mental or spiritual improve
 ment. The great duties of life cross the
 field like strong reapers and carry of
 all the hours, and there is only here and LA Al
 gleaning. An, my friends, you could go
 into the busiest day and busiest week
 of your life and find golden opportuni-
 ties, which, gathered, might at last
 make a whole sheaf for the Lord s gar