Connecticut western news., 1897-09-16
A Life Worth Living.

grave OpGus on I0ls slu6 huu grave opens on that side. He falls, but he rises again. He gets into hard battle, but he gets the victory. The main course of his life is in the right direo- tion. He blesses everybody he comes in contact with. God forgives his mis- takes and makes everlasting record of his holy endeavors, and at the close of it God says to him: Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of thy Lord" My brother. my sister, do not care whether that man dies at 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 or 80 years of age; you can ohisel right under his name on the tombstone these words, ''His life was worth Hving.'
 Amid the hills of New Hampshire, in olden times, there sits mother. There are six children in the usehold-four boys and two girls. Small farm. Very rough, hard work to coax living out of 1t. Mighty tug to make the two ends of the year meet. The boys go to school in winter and work the farm in sum- mer. Mother is the chief presiding spirit. With her hands she knits all the stockings for the little feet, and she is the mantua maker for the boys, and she is the milliner for the girls. There is only one musical instrument in the house, the spinning wheel. The food is very plain, but it is always we'll pro- vided. The winters are very cold, but are kept out by the blankets she quilt ed. On Sunday, when she appears in the village church, her children around her, the minister looks down and is re- minded of the Bible description of good housewife, "Her children arise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her..
 Some years go by, and the two oldest boys want collegiate education, and the household economies are severer, and the calculations are closer, and un til those two boys get their education there is hard battle for bread. One of these boys enters the university, stands in a pulpit widely influential and breaches righteousness. judgment and temperance, and thousands during his ministry are blessed. The other lad who got the collegiate education goes into the law, and thence into legisla- tive halls, and after awhile he com mands listening senates as he makes a plea for the downtrodden and the out cast. One of the younger boys becomes merchant, starting at the foot of the ladder, but climbing on up until his success and his philanthropies are rec ognized all over the land. The other son stays at home because he prefers farming life, and then he thinks he will be able to take care of father and mother when they get old.
 Of the two daughters, when the war broke out, one went through the hospi- tals of Pittsburg Landing and Fortress Monroe. cheering up the dying and the homesick and taking the last message to kindred far away, so that every time Christ thought of her he said, as of old, "The same is my sister and mother. :" The other daughter has 8 bright home of her own, and in the afternoon-the forenoon having been devoted to her household-she goes forth to hunt up the sick and to encourage the discouraged, leaving smiles and benediction all along the way.
 But one day there start five telegrams from the village for these five absent ones, saying, "Oome, mother is danger ously ill" ]" But before they can be ready to start they receive another telegram, saying, "Come, mother is dead" The old neighbors gather in the old farm house to do the last offices of respect. But as that farming son, and the cler- gyman, and the senator, and the mer- chant, and the two daughters stand by | the casket of the dead mother taking the last look, or lifting their little chil- dren to see once more the face of dear | old grandma, want to ask that group | around the casket one question, ''Do you really think her life was worth liv- ing?' A life for God, life for others, life of unselfishness, useful life, a Christian life, is always worth living. Right Living.
 I would not find it hard to persuade you that the poor lad, Peter Cooper, making glue for living, and then | amassing great fortune until he could build philanthropy which has had it's | echo in 10,000 pbilanthropies all over I the country-I would not find 1t hard | to persuade you that his life was worth | living. Neither would find it hard to persuade you that the life of Susannah Wesley was worth living. She sent out one son to organize Methodism and the other son to ring his anthems all | through the ages. I would not find it
 hard work to persuade you that the life | of Frances Leere was worth living, as she established in England school for the scientific nursing of the sick, and then when the war broke out between France and Germany went to the front and with her own hands scraped the mud off the bodies of the soldiers dying in the trenches and with her weak arm standing one night in the hospital | pushing back German soldier to his couch, as, all frenzied with his wounds,
 he rushed to the door and said, "Let ! me go, let me go to my liebe mutter, " major generals standing back to let | pass this angel of mercy.
 | Neither would I have hard work to persuade you that Grace Darling lived
 life worth living-the heroine of the
 lifeboat. You are not wondering that
 the Duchess of Northumberland came
 to see her and that people of all lands
 asked fer her lighthouse and that the
 proprietor of the Adelphi theater in
 London offered her $100 night just to
 sit in the lifeboat while some shipwreck
 scene was being enacted.
 But know the thought in the minds
 of hundreds of you today. You say,
 While I know all these lived lives
 worth living, I don't think my life
 amounts to much" An, my friends,
 whether you live life conspicuous or
 inconspicuous, it is worth living, if you live alright. And I want my next
 sentence to go down into the depths of l all your souls. You are to be rewarded
 not according to the greatness of your
 work, but according to the holy indus
 tries with which you employed the tai
 ents you really possessed. The majority
 of the crowns of heaven will not be
 given to people with ten talents, for