Connecticut western news., 1897-06-24

l come back, but that 1 may make them the background of picture in which l van better present the present septuage- marian, so soon to be an octogenarlan, now on the throne of England, her ex- ample so thoroughly on the right side that all the scandal mongers in all the nations in six decades have not Eeen able to manufacture an evil suspicion in regard to her that could be made to stick: Maria of Portugal, Isabella aud Eleanor and Joanna of Spain, Cathe rine of Russia, Mary of Scotland, Maria Theresa of Germany, Marie Antoinette of France and all the queens of Eng land, as Miss Strickland has put them before us in her charming 12 volumes, and while some queen may surpass our modern queen in learning, and another | in attractiveness of feature, and anoth- | CT in gracefulness of form, and another | in romance of history, Victoria surpass-- es them all in nobility and grandeur ! and thoroughness of Christian charac- ] ter. 1 hail her, the Christian daughter, | the Christian wife, the Christian moth CT, the Christian queen, and let the | church of God and all benign and gra- | cious institutions the world over cry | out, as they come with music and ban nered host, and million voiced huzza, J and the benedictions of earth and heav | en, What wilt thou, Queen Esther?' | A Noble Life.
 | Another thing I call to your attention in this illustrious woman's career is that she is a specimen of high life un- | tcl chn fn pp1 | ebrate the sixtieth anniversary of her coronation and the seventy y-eighth ami versary of her birthday, had she not been an example of good principles and | good habits? While there have been bad men and women in exalted station and | hum ble station who have carried their | vices clear on into the seventies and eighties and even the nineties of their | lifetime, such persons are very rare. The majority of the vicious die in their | thiIties and fewer reach the forties, and they are exceedingly scarce in the fifties. | Longevity has not been the character | istic of the most of those who have reached high places ill that or this country. In many cases their wealth leads them into indulgences, or their I u portunities of doing wrong are multi piled into the overwhelming, and it is as true now as when the Bible first pre- sented it, "The wicked live not out half their days" Longevity is not positive proof of goodness, but it. is prima facie evidence in that direction. A loose life has killed hundreds of eminent Ameri- cans. A loose life is now killing hun dreds of eminent Americans and Euro peans. The doctors are very kind and the certificate given after the distin- guished man of dissipation is dead, says, "Died of congestion of the brain, | although it was delirium tremens, or ''Died of cilrhosis of the liver" al- though it was round of libertinism, or "Died of heart failure" although it was the vengeance of outraged law that slew him. Thanks, doctor, for you are right in saving the feelings of the bereft household by not being more specific. Look, all ye who are in high places of the earth, and see one who has been piled by all the temptations which wealth and honor and the secret place of pal aces could produce, and yet next Tues day she will ride along in the presence of 10000 people, if they can get within sight of her chariot in a vigor- ous old age, no more hurt by the splen- dors that have surrounded her for 7S years than is the plain country woman come down from her mountain home in an oxcart to attend the Saturday mar keting.
 The temptations of social life among the successful classes have been so great that every winter is holocaust of hu- man nerves. and the beaches of this tossing sea of high life are constantly strewn with physlcal and mental and moral shipwreok. Beware, all ye suc- cessful ones. Take gcod lock at the venerable queen as she rides through Regent street, and along the Strand, and through Trafalgar square, and by the Nelson monument. What is the use of your dying at 40 when you may just as we'll live to be SC? If you are doing nothing for God CT the race, the sooner you quit the better, but if you are worth anything for the worlds better ment, in the strength of God and through good habits, lay out plan for life that will reach through most of a century. How many people are prac- tically suicides from the fact that their gormandizing or their recklessness or their defiance of dietetics and plain sanitary laws cuts short their days. In- deed, so great is the temptation of those who have bountiful tables and full wine closets that Solomon suggests that in- stead of putting the knife into the meat on their plate they direct the edge of it across their throat Proverbs xxiii, l, "When thou sittest to eat with ruler, consider diligently what Is before thee and put knife to thy throat if thou be man given to appetite. ' I believe more people die of improper eating than die of strong drink. The former causes no delirium or violence and works more gradually, but none the less fatally. Queen Victoria's habits, self denying and almost ascetic, under good Prov
 idence, account for her magnificent lon. gevity. It may be homely lesson for 2 sexagesimal anniversary in British pal
 aces, but it is worth all the millions oi dollars the celebration will cost, an6 the laborious convocation of the repre-
 sentatives from all the zones of the planet, if the nations will learn the san
 itary lesson of good hours, plain food
 outdoor exercise, reasonable abstinence and common sense habits. That which Paul said to the jailer is just as appro
 priate for you and for me-"Do thysel1 no harm" And here let me say no peo
 pie outside of Great Britain ought tt
 be more interested in this queens jubi
 lee than our nation. The cradles o
 most of our ancestors were rocked il
 Great Britain. They played in child
 hood on the banks of the Thames or tn, Clyde or the Shannon. Take from my
 veins the Welsh blood and the Scotcl l hlon6 and tho ctroa,oc If lifa xro,, |,