Connecticut western news., 1897-12-30

sermon he ever preached All the tears
 cried at his funeral could not express
 my affection for that man, who was
 willing to help me out of tight corner
 An, my friends that is what we all
 want-somebody to help us out of tight corner. You are in one now. How do know it? l am used to judging of
 human countenances, and see beyond the smile and beyond the courageous
 look with which you hide your feelings from others. know you are i'll tight corner. What to do? Do as l did when sent for old Dr. Scott. Do better than did-send for the Lord God of Daniel and of Joshua and of every other man who got into tight corner. "Oh, says some one, "why cannot God develop
 me through prosperity instead of through adversity?" Twill answer your question by asking another. Why does not God dye our northern and temper
 ate seas with coral? You say, 1.-The wa ter is not hot enough" Therei In an- swering my question you have answered your own. Hot climate for richest spec imens of coral, hot trouble for the jew els of the soul The coral fishers going out from Torre del Greece never brought ashore such fine specimens as arc brought
 out of the scalding surges of misfortune. look down into the tropical sea, and there is something that looks like blood,
 and say, Has there been great bat tie down there?' Seeming blood scat tered all up and down the reefs It is the blood Of the coral, and it makes me think of those who come out of great tribulation and have their robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb But these gems of earth are nothing to the gems of heaven No mention shall be made of coral "
 Again, take your hand, and we walk on through this garden of the sea and look more particularly than we did at the beauty of the coral. The poets have all been fascinated with it One of them wrote:
 There. with a broad and easy motion.
 The fan coral sweeps through the clear deep And the yellow and scarlet tufts of the ocean Are bent like corn on the upland lea.
 One specimen of coral is called the dendrophilia, because it is like tree; another Is called the astrara, because 1t is like a star; another is called the brain coral, because it is like the convo- lutions of the human brain; another is called fan coral because it is like the instrument with which you cool your self on hot day; another specimen is called the organ pipe coral, because 1t resembles tho king of musical instru- ments, All the flowers and all the shrubs in the gardens of the land have their correspohdencies in this garden of the sea. Corallumi It is a synonym for beauty. And yet there is no beauty in the coral compared with our religion 1t gives physiognomic beauty. It does not change the features; 1t does not give features with which the person was not originally endowed, but it sets behind the features of the homeliest person a heaven that shines clear through. So that often, on first &C., quaintance, you said of man, He is the homeliest person eyer saw, " when, after yon came to understand him and his nobility of soul shining through his countenance, you said, "He is the love- Hest person ever saw" No one eyer had Q homely Christian mother. What ever the world may have thought of her there were two who thought well-your father, who had admired her for 50 years, and you, over whom she bent with SO many tender ministrations. When you shink of the angels of God, and your mother among them, she out shines them all. Oh, that our young peo- pie could understand that there is noth- ing that so much beautifies the human countenance as the religion of Jesus Christi It makes everything beautiful. Trouble beautiful. Sickness beautiful, Disappointment beautiful. Everything beautiful
 Near my early home there was place ralled the Two Bridges. These bridges leaped the two streams. We'll, my friends, the religion of Jesus Christ is
 two bridges It bridges all the past It | arches and overspans all the future. It
 makes the dying pillow the landing place of angels fresh from glory. It turns the sepuloher into 8 Maytime or
 ohard It catches up the dying into full orchestra. Coralluml And yet that does not express the beauty. "No mention shall be made Of coral.
 Work That EBdgres.
 l take your hand again and walk little farther on in this garden of the sea, and 1 notice the durability of the work of the coral Montgomery speaks of it. He says, Trail were their forms, ephemeral their lives their masonry imperishable " RhizopoIs are insects so crr1o hox ioi1 n4 built the Apennines and they planted for their own monument the cordilleras It takes l87, 900, 900 of them to make
 one grain. Corals are changing the navi-
 gation of the sea, saying to the com.
 merce of the world, "Take this chan nel, "Take that channel, ""Avoid the
 other channel" Animalcules beating back the Atlantic and Pacific seas If the insects of the ocean have built reef 1000 miles long, who knows but that they may yet build a reef 5000 miles
 long. and thus, that by one stone bridge Europe shall be united with this conti- nent on one side and by another stone
 bridge Asia will be united with this
 continent on the other side, and the
 tourist of the world. without the turn
 of steamers wheel or the spread of
 ships sail, may go all around the world,
 and thus be fulfilled the prophecy.
 "There shall be no more sea. D
 But the durability of the coral work
 is not at all to be compared with the
 durability of our work for God. The
 coral is going to crumble in the fires of
 the last day, but our work for God will
 endure forever. No more discouraged
 man ever lived than Beethoven, the
 great musical composer Unmercifully
 criticised by brother artists and his mu-
 sic sometimes rejected. Deaf for 25
 years and forced on his way to Vienna
 to beg food and lodging at very plain
 house by the roadside. In the evening