Connecticut western news., 1897-04-08

namely, 52 days-Jerusalem was rebuilt That W hat l call busy and triumphant sadness
 Faint, Yet Pursuing.
 My friends. the whole temptation is with you when you have trouble to do just the opposite to the behavior of Ne hemiah, and that is to give up. You say, 1T have lost my child and can never smile again" You say, 1T have lost my property, and I never can re- pair my fortunes You say, "I have fallen into sin, and never can start again for new life. :" If satan can make you form that resolution and make you keep it, he has ruined you. Trouble is not sent to crush you, but to arouse you, to animate you, to propel you. The blacksmith does not thrust the iron into the forge and then blow away with the bellows and then bring the hot iron out on the anvil and beat with stroke after stroke to ruin the iron, but to prepare 1t for a better use. Oh. that the Lord God of Nehemiah would rouse up all broken hearted people to rebuild! Whipped, betrayed, shipwreck- ed, imprisoned, Paul went right on. The Italian martyr Algerius sits in his dungeon writing letter, and he dates it, From the delectable orchard of the Leonine prison That is what I call triumphant sadness. I knew a mother who buried her babe on Friday and on Sabbath appeared in the house of God and said: "Give me a class; give me Sabbath school class. I have no child now left me, and would like to have class of little children. Give me real poor children. Give me class of the back street." That, I say, is beautiful. That is triumphant sadness.
 At o'clock every Sabbath after noon, for years, in @ beautiful parlor in Philadelphia-a parlor pictured and statuetted-there were from 10 to 20 destitute children of the street. Those destitute children received religious in- struction, concluding with cakes and sandwiches How do I know that that was going on for 16 years? know it in this way: That was the first home in Philadelphia where I was called to comfort a great sorrow. They had splendid boy, and he had been drowned at Long Branch. The father and mother almost idolize,i the boy, and the sob and shriek of that father and mother as they hung over the coffin resound in my ears today. There seemed to be no use of praying, for when knelt down to pray the outcry in the room drowned out all the prayer. But the Lord comforted that sorrow. They did not forget their trouble. If you should go any afternoon into Laurel Hill, you would find a monument with the word Walter" in- scribed upon it and a wreath of fresh flowers around the name. I think there was not an hour in 90 years, winter or summer, when there was not a wreath of fresh flowers around Walters name. But the Christian mother who sent those flowers there, having no child left, Sabbath afternoons mothered 10 or 90 of the lost ones of the street. That is beautiful. That is what 1 call busy and triumphant sadness Here is man who has lost his property. He does not go to hard drinking. He does not de- stroy his own life. He comes and says: Harness me for Christian work. My moneys gone. have no treasures on earth. I want treasures in heaven. I have voice and a heart to serve God. You say that that man has failed. He has not failed-he has triumphedi
 Never Give Up.
 Oh, wish I could persuade all the people who have any kind of trouble never to give up. I wish they would look at the midnight rider of the text and that the four hoofs of that beast on which Nehemiah rode might cut to pieces all your disoouragements and hardships and trials. Give upl Who is going to give up when on the bosom of God he can have all his troubles hushed? Give up! Never think of giving up. Are you borne down with poverty3 A little child was found holding her dead moth- er's hand in the darkness of a tenement house, and some one coming in the lit tie girl looked up, while holding her dead mothers hand, and said, "Oh, do wish that God had made more light for poor folks" My dear, God will be your light, God will be your shelter, God will be your home. Are you borne down with the bereavements of life? Is the house lonely now that the child is gone? Do not give up. Think of what the old sexton said when the minister asked him why he put so much care on the little graves in the cemetery-so much more care than on the larger graves-and the old sexton said, "Sir, you know that of such is the kingdom of heaven, and I think the Saviour is pleased when he sees so much white clover growing around these little graves. /" But when the minister pressed the old sexton for more satisfactory answer the old sexton said, "Sir, about these larger graves, I don't know who are the Lords saints and who are not, but you know, sir, 1t is clean different with the bairns" Oh, if you have had that keen, tender, indescribable sorrow that comes from the loss of child, do not give up. The old sexton was right It is all we'll with the bairns. Or. if you have sinned, if you have sinned grievously-sinnedu until you have been cast out by the church, sinned until you have been cast out by society-do not give up. Perhaps there may be in this house one that could truthfully utter the lamentation of another:
 Once I was pure as the snow, but fell-
 reu ike a snoWuaKe rom heaven Co he'll
 Fell to be trampled as filth in the street.
 Fell to be scofred at, spit on and beat,
 Praying, cursing. wishing to die,
 Selling my soul to whoever would buy,
 Dealing in shame for a morsel of bread,
 Hating the living and fearing the dead.
 Do not give up! One like unto the Son of God comes to you today, saying, ''Go and sin no more," while he cries out to your assailants, "Let him that is without sin cast the first stone at her." Oh, there is no reason why any one in this house by reason of any trouble or sin should give up, Are you foreigner, and ill strange land? Nehemiah was an exile. Are you penniless? Nehemiah