Connecticut western news., 1899-03-16

more of the grace of God.
 The Overshadowing Tree.
 In the dooryard of my brother John, once missionary in Annoy, China, there was tree called the emperor tree, the two characteristics of which are that it always grows higher than it's surround ings, and its leaves take the form of a crown. If this emperor tree be planted beside rosebush, it grows a little higher than the bush and spreads out above it crown. If it be planted by the side of another tree, it grows lit tie higher than that tree and spreads above it crown. Would God that this religion of Christ, a more wonderful emperor tree, might overshadow all your livesl Are you lowly in ambition or circumstance, putting over you its crown; are you high in talent and posi- ton, putting over you its crown2 Oh, for more of the saccharin in our lives and less of the wormwoodi
 What is true of individuals is true of nations. God sets them up to revolve as stars, but they may fall wormwood. Tyre-the atmosphere of the desert, fragrant with spices coming in cara vans to her fairs; all seas cleft into foam by the keels of her laden merchant men; her markets rich with horses and camels from Togarmah; the bazaar filled with upholstery from Dedan, with emerald and coral and agate from Syria. with mines from Helbon, with embroid- cred work from Ashur and Chilmad. Where now the gleam of her towers, where the roar of her chariots, where the masts of her shipsf Let the fisher men who dry their nets where once she stood, let the sea that rushes upon the barrenness where once she challenged the admiration of all nations, let the where once her palaces glittered. an swer the questions. She was star, but by her own sin turned to wormwood and has fallen.
 Hundred gated Thebes-for all time to be the study of antiquarian and hieroglyphist. Her stupendous ruins spread over 27 miles, her sculptures presenting in figure of warrior and chariot the victories with which the now forgotten kings of Egypt shook the nations; her obelisks and columns; Kar- nak and Luxor. the stupendous temples of her pride Who can imagine the greatness of Thebes in those days, when the hippodrome rang with her sports and foreign royalty bowed at her shrines, and her avenues roared with the wheels of processions in the wake of returning conquerorsf What dashed down the vision of chariots and temples and thrones2 What hands pulled upon the columns of her gloryf What ruth lessness defaced her sculptured wall and broke obelisks and left her indescribable temples great skeletons of granite What spirit of destruction spread the lair of wild beasts in her royal sepul- chers and taught the miserable cottag- CTS of today to build huts in the courts of her temples and sent desolation and ruin skulking behind the obelisks, and dodeing among the sarcophagi. and leaning against the columns, and stoop- ing under the arches, and weeping in the waters which go mournfully by, as though they were carrying the tears of all ages2 Let the mummies break their long silence and come up to shiver in the desolation and point to fallen gates and shattered statues and defaced sculp- ture, responding: "Thebes built not one temple to God. Thebes hated righteous ness and loved sin. Thebes was star. but she turned to wormwood and has fallen.
 The Lesson of Babylon's Fall.
 Babylon, with her 250 towers and her brazan gates and her embattled walls, the splendor of the earth gathered with in her gates, her hanging gardens built by Nebuchadnezzar to please his bride, Amytis, who had been brought up in a mountainous country and could not en- dure the flat country around Babylon. These hanging gardens built terrace above terrace, till at the height of 400 feet there were woods waving and foun- tains playing, the verdure. the foliage, the glory, looking as if mountain were on the wing. On the tiptop a king walk ing with his queen among the statues, snowy white. looking up at birds brought from distant lands and drink ing out of tankards of solid gold or lock ing off over rivers and lakes upon na- tions subdued and tributary, crying, ''Is not this great Babylon which have built2''
 What battering ram smote the walls What plowshars upturned the gardensf What army shattered the brazen gates What long, fierce blast of storm put out this light which illuminated the worldf What crash of discord drove down the music that poured from pal ace window and garden grove and called the banqueters to their revel and the dancers to their feetf I walk upon the scene of desolation to find an answer and pick up pieces of bitumen and brick and broken pottery, the remains of Babylon. I hear the wild waves say ing: Babylon was proud. Babylon was impure. Babylon was star, but by sin she turned to wormwood and has fallen.
 From the prosecutions of the pilgrim fathers and the Huguenots in other lands God set upon these shores a na- tion. The council fires of the aborigines went out in the greater light of free government. The sound of the war whoop was exchanged for the thousand wheels of enterprise and progress. The mild winters, the fruitful summers, the healthful skies, charmed from other lands race of hardy men, who loved God and wanted to be free. Before the woodlands ax forests fell and rose again into ships masts and churches pillars Cities on the banks of lakes be- gan to rival cities by the sea. The land quakes with the rush of the rail car, and the waters are churned white with the steamers wheel Fabulous bushels of western wheat meet on the way fab ulous tons of eastern coal Furs from the north pass on the rivers fruits from the south. And trading in the same market are Maine lumberman and South Carolina rice merchant and Ohio farmer and Alaska fur dealer. And churches and schools and asylums scat