Connecticut western news., 1898-12-08


 sheep or Berkshire pig than of man? They never had any trouble, or the trouble was never .sanctified. Who are those men who listen with moist eye as you tell them of suffering and who have pathos in their voice and a kindness in their manner and an excuse IT an alleviation for those gone astray? They are the men who have graduated 1t the Royal Academy of Trouble, and they have the diploma written in wrin- kles on their own countenances My, my! What heartaches they had What tears they have wept What injustice they have sufferedl The mightiest in fiuence for purification and salvation IS trouble. No diamond fit for crown until it is cut. No wheat fit for bread till it is ground.
 strength From Sorrow.
 There are only three things that can break off a cbain-a hammer, file or fire-and trouble is all three of them. The greatest writers, orators and re- formers get much of their force from trouble. What gave to Washington IT, VILE tndb OAquIolhO ACbdOhhOEo uho Pa thos which will make his books favorites while the English language continues to be written and spoken? An early heartbreak, that he never once mention ed, and when 30 years after the death of Matilda Hoffman, who was to have been his bride, her father picked up a piece of embroidery and said, "That is q piece of poor Matildas workman ship" Washington Irving sank from hilarity into silence and walked away. Out of that lifetime grief the great author dipped his penis mightiest enforcement. Calvin's Institutes of Religion, than which more won- derful book was never written by hu- man hand, was begun by the author at 25 years of age, because of the persecu- tion by Francis, king of France. Fara- day toiled for all time on salary of ESQ year and candles. As every brick of the wall of Babylon was stamped with the letter N, standing for Nebu- chadnezzar, so every part of the temple of Christian achievement is stamped with the letter T, standing for trouble.
 When in England man is honored with knighthood, he is struck with the flat of the sword. But those who have come to knighthood in the kingdom of God were first struck, not with the flat of the sword, but with the keen edge of the scimeter. To build his magnificence of character Paul could not have spared one lash, one prison, one stoning, one anathema, one poisonous viper from the hand, one sbipwreck. What is true of individuals is true of nations. The hor- TOTS of the American Revolution gave this country this side of the Mississippi river to independence, and the conflict between England and France gave the most of this country west of the Missis- sippi to the United States. France owned it, but Napoleon, fearing that England would take it, practically made present to tha United States for he received only $15, 900, 900 for Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa. Minnesota, Colorado, Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and the h. dian Territory. Out of the fire of the American Revolution came this country east of the Mississippi, out of the Euro pean war came that west of the Missis- sippi river. The British empire rose to it's present overtowering grandeur through gunpowder plot and Guy Hawkes. conspiracy and Northampton insurreotion and Walter Raleigh's be- heading and Bacon's bribery and Crom- wells dissolution of parliament and the battles of Edge Hill and the vioissitudes of centuries.
 Tempered by Fire.
 So the earth itself, before it could be- come an appropriate and beautiful resi- dence for the human family, had, ac- cording to geology, to be washed by universal deluge and soorched and made incandescent by universal fires and pounded by sledge hammer of icebergs and wrenched by earthquakes that split continents and shaken by volcanoes that tossed mountains and passed through the catastrophes of thousands of years before paradise became possible and the groves could shake out their green ban ners and the first garden pour its car mage of color between the Gihon and the Hiddekel. Trouble-a good thing for the rocks, good thing for nations. as well as good thing for individuals. So when you push against me with sharp interrogation point, Why do the good suffer? open the dark saying on harp, and, though can neither play an organ or corner or hautboy or bugle or olar- inet, I have taken some lessons on the gospel harp, and if you would like to hear me l will play you these: All things work together for good to those who love God. "Now no chastening for tho present eeemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaoeable fruit of righteous ness unto them which are exercised thereby" Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." 1" What sweet thing is harp, and I wonder not that in Wales, the country of my ancestors, the harp has become the national instrument, and that they have festivals where great prizes are offered in the competition between harp and harp, or that weird Sebastian Erard was much of his time bent over this ohorded and vibrating triangle, and was not satisfied until he had given it a compass of six ootaves, from E to E with all the semitones, or that when King Saul was demented the son of Jesse came before him and, putting his fingers among the charmed strings of the harp, played the devil out of the orazed monarch, or that in heaven there shall be harpers harping with their harps. So you will not blame me for opening the dark saying on the gospel harp:
 Your harps, ye trembling saints,
 Down from the willows take;
 Loud to the praise of love divine
 Bid every string awakel
 Interrogation third: Why did the good God let sin or trouble come into the world when he might have kept them out? My reply is, He had good reason. He had reasons that he has never given us. He had reasons which he could no more make us understand