Connecticut western news., 1897-12-30

fully aceumulative is grace in the heart You sometimes get discouraged because the upbuilding by the soul does not go on more rapidly. Why, you have all eternity to build in. The little annoy anees of life are zoophyte builders, and there will be small layer on top of small layer and fossilized grief on the top of fossilized grief. Grace does not go up rapidly in your soul, but, blessed be God, it goes up. Ten thousand mil lion ages will not finish you. You will never be finished On forever. Up for ever. Out of the sea of earthly disquis- tude will gradually rise the reefs, the islands, the continents, the hemispheres of grandeur and glory. Men talk as though in this life we only had time to build, but what we build in this life, as compared with what we shall build in the next life. is as striped shell to Australia.
 You go into an architects study and there you see the sketch of temple the cornerstone of which has not yet been laid. Oh, that could have an ar chitectural sketch of what you will be after eternity has wrought upon youl What pillars of strength What altars of supernal worshipl What pinnaoles thrusting their glittering spikes into the sun that never sets You do not scold the corallines because they cannot build an island in q day. Why should you scold yourself because you cannot com plete temple of holiness for the heart in this short lifetime? You tell me we do not amount to much now, but try us after 1000, 900, 900 ages of halleluiab. Let us hear the angels chant for 1000, ,000 centuries Give us an eternity with God, and then see if we do not amount to something. More slowly and marvelously accumulative is the grace in the soul than anything I can think of "No mention shall be made of coral {"
 A Prime Virtue.
 Lord, help us to learn that which most of us are deficient in-patience. If thou canst take through the sea anem- ones millions of years to build one bank of coral, ought we not to be willing to uO WOlh LhIOush iO ySdA5 OA oO JCai Q without complaint, without restlessness, without chafing of spiritf Patience with the erring; patience that we cannot have the millennium in few weeks; patience with assault of antagonists patience at what seems slow fulfllment of Bible promises; patience with phys ical ailments; patience under delays of Providence; grand, gloriods, all endur- ing, all conquering patiencel Patience like that which my lately asoended friend. Dr. Abel Stevens, describes when writing of one of Wesley 8 preach CTS, John Nelson, who, when 0 man had him put in prison by false charges and being for long time tormented by his enemy, said, "The Lord lifted up a standard when the anger was coming on like 8 flood, else 1 should have wrung his neck to the ground and set my foot upon 1t.
 Patience like that of Pericles, the Athenian statesman who, when man pursued him to his own door, hurling at him epithets and arriving there when 1t had become dark, sent his servant with torch to light his enemy back to his home. Patience like that eulogized by the Spanish proverb when it says, Fl have lost the rings, but here are the fingers still." Patiencei The sweetest sugar for the sourest cup, the balance wheel for all mental and moral ma chinery. the foot that treads into placid ity stormiest lake, the bridle for other wise rash tongues, the sublime silence that conquers the boisterous and blatant Patience like that of the most illustri- ous example of all the ages. Jesus Christ patient under betrayal. patient under the treatment of Pilates oyer and ter miner. patient under the approximation of his assailants, patient under tiagella tions. patient under the charging spears of the Roman cavalry. patient unto death. Under all corporations employ it. Whatever comes, stand it. Hold on, wait, bear up.
 Take my hand again, and we will go a little farther into this garden of the sea. and we shall find that in proportion as the climate is hot the coral is wealthy Draw two isothermal lines at so degrees north and south of the equator, and you find the favorite home of the coral. Go to the hottest part of the Pacific seas, and you find the finest specimens of coral Coral Is child of the fire, but more wonderfully do the heats and fires of trouble bring out the jewels of the Christian soul Those are not the stalwart men who are asleep on the shaded lawn, but those who are pound ing amid the furnaces. do not know of any other way of getting thorough Christian character. l will show you a picture Here are father and a mother 80 or 85 years of age, their family around them. It is Sabbath morning. They have prayera They hear the children's s catechism. They have prayers every day of the week. They are in humble cir. cumstances, but after awhile the wheel of fortune turns up, and the man gets his S20, 900. Now he has prayers on Sabbath and every day of the week, but he has dropped the oatechism- The wheel of fortune turns up again. and he gets his $80,000. Now he has pray ers on Sabbath morning alone. The wheel of fortune keeps turning up, and he has e200. 900, and now he has prayers on Sabbath morning when he feels like 1t and there is no company. The wheel of fortune keeps on turning up, and he has his $500, 900 and no prayers at all. Four leaf clover in @ pasture field Is not so rare as family prayers in the Houses of people who have more than $500, 900.
 But now the wheel of fortune turns down, and the man loses $20O, 900 out of the $500, 900. Now on Sabbath morp- ing he is on stepladder looking for a Bible under the old newspapers on the bookcase. He is going to have prayers. His affairs are more and more compI- cated, and after awhile crash goes his last dollar. Now he has prayers every morning, and he hears his grandchil- dren the catechism. Prosperity took him away from God; diversity drove him back to God. Hot climate to make the coral; hot and scalding trouble to make the jewels of grace in the soul.