Connecticut western news., 1898-12-15

hymn has been sung, and that sermon if preached in faith will do good, but the most effective sermon Is preached by one seated in dressing gown in an arm chair into which the invalid has with much care been lifted, the surrounding shelves filled with medicine bottles, some to produce sleep, some for the re- lief of sudden paroxysm, some for stim- ulant, some for tonic, some for anodyne and some for febrifuge, the pale preach CT quoting promises of the gospel, telling of the glories of a sympathetic Christ, assuring the one or two or three persons who hear it of the mighty re-enforce- ments of religion. You say that to such sermon there are only one or two or three hearers. Ayel But the visitor call ing at that room, then closing the door softly and going away, tells the story, and the whole neighborhood hears 1t, and it will take all eternity to realize the grand and uplifting influence of that sermon about God and the soul, though preached to an audience of only one man or one woman. The Lord has ordained all such invalids for style of usefulness which athletics and men of 200 healthy avoirdupois cannot affect. It was not an enemy that fastened you in that room or sent you on crutches, the longest journey you have made for many weeks being from bed to sofa and from sofa to looking glass, where you are shocked at the pallor of your own cheek and the pinchedness of your fea- lures, then back again from mirror to sofa, and sofa to bed, with a long sigh saying, "How good it feels to get back again to my old place on the pillow" Remember who it is that appointed the day when for the first time in many years you could not go to business, and who has kept record of all the weary days and all the sleepless nights of your exile from the world. Oh, weary man Oh, feeble woman It was the Lord who shut you in. Do you remember that some of the noblest and best of men have been prisoners? Ezekiel prisoner, Jeremiah a prisoner, Paul prisoner, St. John a prisoner, John Bunyan a prisoner. Though human hate seemed to have all to do with them, really the Lord shut them in.
 Noah's Voyage.
 No doubt while on that voyage Noah and his three sons and all the four ladies of the antediluvian world often thought of the bright hillsides and the green fields where they had walked and of the homes wh2re they had lived. They had had many years of experiences. Noah was 600 years old at the time of this convulsion of nature. He had seen 600 springtimes, 600 summers, 800 au- tumns, 600 winters. We are not told how old his wife was at this wreck of earth and sky. The Bible tells the age of great many men, but only once gives woman's age. At one time 1t gives Adams age as 180 years and Iared's age as 162 years and Enoch's age as 365 years, and all up and down the Bible it gives the age of men, but does not give the age of women. Why? Because, l suppose, woman's age is none of our business. But all the men and women that tossed in that oriental craft had lived long enough to remem- Der great many of the mercies and kindnesses of God, and they could not blot out, and think they had no dis position to blot out, the memory of those brightnesses, though now they were shut in. Neither should the shut in of our time forget the blessings of the past. Have you been blind for ten years? Thank God for the time when you saw as clearly as any of us can see and let the pageant of all the radiant landscapes and illumined skies which you ever looked upon kindle your rapturous grati- tude. do not see Raphael's Madonna di San Sisto" in the picture gallery of Dresden, nor Rubens' Descent From the Cross" at Antwerp, nor Michael Angelo's "Last Judgment" on the cell ing of the Vatican nor St. Sophia at Constantinople, nor the Parthenon on the Acropolis, nor the Tai Mahal of In dia, but shall I not thank God that have seen themi Is it possible that such midnight darkness shall eyer blast my vision that cannot call them up again? Perhaps you are so deaf that you cannot hear the chirp of bird or solo of canta- trice or even organ in full diapason, though you feel the foundations tremble under its majestic roll, or even the that makes Mount Wash ington echo. But are you not grateful that once you could hear trill and chant and carol doxology? cannot this hour hear Jenny Lind sing "Comin Through the Rye," or Ole Bulls enchanted viol, or Parepa Rosa's triumphant voice over many thousands of voices and many thousands of instruments in the nation al peace juhilee of Ss years ago, all these sounds accompanied by the ring ing of bells and the guns on Boston Common, but can ever have my ears so silenoed that will not remember that I did hear them? Are you chained to your room now, your powers of loco motion all gone, or if coming to the house of God every step is torturee
 Do you forget when, in childhood, you danced and skipped because you were so full of life you had not patience to walk, and in after years you climbed the mountains of Switzerland, putting your alpenstook high up on glaciers which few others ever dared and jump Bd long reaches in competition and after ] walk of ten miles you came In joound IS the morning? o you shut fms, thank God for vivid memory of the times when you were free as the ohamois on the rocks, as the eagle going straight for the sunl When the rain pounded the roof of the ark, the eight voyagers on that craft did not forget the time when 1t gayly battered in @ summer shower, and when the door of the ark shut to keep out the tempest they did not forget the time when the doer of their home in Armenia was closed to keep out the spring rains which came to fill the cups of lily and honeysuokle and make all the trees of the wood clap their hands.
 Safe From Temptation.
 Again, notice that during that 40 days of storm which rocked that ship on that universal ocean of Noah's time the door which shut the captain of the