Connecticut western news., 1898-05-26

says: II want to make something very useful ont of you. You shall be some thing to hew with and something to build with. It is practical process through which am putting you" Yes, my Christian friends, we want more tools ill the church of God, not more wedges to split with. We have enough of these Not more bores with which to drill. We have too many bores. What we really want is keen, sharp, we'll tenn pered axes, and if there be any other way of making them than ill the hot furnace, and on the hard anvil, and un- der the heavy hammer, l do not know what 1t is. Remember that if God brings any kind of chastisement upon you it is only to make you useful. Do not sit down discouraged and say: II have no more reason for living. I wish I were dead" Oh, there never was so much reason for your living as now. By this ordeal you have been consecrat- ed priest of the most high God. Go out and do your whole work for the Master.
 The Rebelliaps Heart.
 Again, there is comfort in the thought ! that all our troubles are a revelation. Have you ever thought of it ill that con nection? The man who has never been through chastisement is ignorant about | thousand things in his soul he ought to know. For instance, here is man who brides himself on his cheerfulness of character. He has no patience with anybody who is depressed in spirits. Oh, it is easy for him to be cheerful, with his fine house, his filled wardrobe and well strung instruments of music and tapestried parlor and plenty of money i'll the bank waiting for some permanent investment! It is easy for him to be cheerful. But suppose his fortune goes to pieces, and his house goes down under the sheriff's hammer, and the banks will not have anything to do with his paper. Suppose those people who were once elegantly enter tained at his table get so shortsighted that they cannot recognize him upon the street. How then? Is it so easy to be cheerful? It is easy to be cheerful in the home, after the days work is done, and the gas is turned on, and the house is full of roruping little ones. But sup pose the piano is shut because the fin gers that played on it will no more touch the keys, and the childish voice that asked so many questions will ask no more. Then is 1t so easy? When a man wakes up and finds that his re- sources are all gone, he begins to rebel, and he says: God is hard; God is out rageous. He had no business to do this to me-" My friends, those of us who have been through trouble know what sinful and rebellious heart we have and how much God has to put up with and how much we need pardon. It is only in the light of flaming furnace that we can learn our own weakness and our own lack of moral resource.
 Family Meetings.
 There is also a great deal of comfort in the fact that there will be family reconstruction i'll better place. From Scotland or England or Ireland child emigrates to America It Is very hard parting, but he comes, after awhile writing home as to what good land it is. Another brother comes, a sister comes, and another, and after awhile the mother comes, and after awhile the father comes, and now they are all here. and they have time of great congrat- ulation and a very pleasant reunion.
 We'll, it is just so with our families. They are enigrating toward better land Now one goes out. Oh, how hard it is to part with him. Another goes. Oh, how hard 1t is to part with her. And another and another, and we our selves will after awhile go over, and then we will be together. Oh, what a reunion! Do you believe that? "Yes, !" you say. Oh, you do not. You do not believe it as you believe other things. If you do, and with the same emphasis, why it would take nine-tenths of your trouble off your heart. The fact is heaven to many of us is great fog. It is away off somewhere, filled with an uncertain and indefinite population. That is the kind of heaven that many of us dream about, but it is the most tremendous fact in all this universe this heaven of the gospel. Our departed friends are not afloat. The residence in which you live is not so real as the res idence in which they stay. You are ahoat-you who do not know in the morning what will happen before night. They are housed and safe forever. Do not therefore, pity your departed friends who have died in Christ. They do not need any of your pity. You might as we'll send letter of condo lence to Queen Victoria on her obscurity tN f1a AfI l, as to pity those who have won the palm. Do not say of those who are departed : "Poor child dr' Poor fatherr' "Poor mother" They are not poor. You are poor-you whose homes have been shat tered, not they. You dp not dwell much with your families in this world. All day long you are off to business. Will 1t not be pleasant when you can be to- gether all the while? If you have had four children and one is gone, and any body asks how many children you have, do not be so infidel as to say three. Say four-one in heaven. Do not think that the grave is uhfriendly. You go into your room and dress for some grand en- tertainment, and you come forth beau tifully appareled, and the grave Is only the place where we go to dress for the glorious resurrection, and we will come out radiant, mortality having become immortality. Oh, how much coincidence there is in this thought. expect to see my kindred ill heaven. expect to see them just as certainly as I expect to go home today. Aye, shall more certain ly see them. Eight or ten will come up from the graveyard back of Somerville, and one will come from the mountains back of Annoy, China, and another will come up from the sea off Cape Hatteras, and 80 will come up from Greenwood, and I shall know them better than ev- CT knew them here
 Morning of the Resurrection.
 And your friends-they may be across the sea, but the trumpet that sounds here will sound there. You will come @l~