Connecticut western news., 1899-01-05

ter, London, his enemy sat growing at it in the stage box. While Bishop Coop tr was surrounded by the favor of learned men his wife took his lexicon manuscript, the result of long life of anxiety and toil, and threw 1t into the fire. Misfortune, trial, vexation for al most every one! Pope, applauded of all the world, has a stoop in the shoulder that annoys him so much that he has a tunnel dug, so that he may go unob- served from garden to grotto and from grotto to garden. Cano, the famous Spanish artist, is disgusted with the crucifix that the priest holds before him because it is such a poor specimen of sculpture, and so, sometimes through taste, and sometimes through learned menace, and sometimes through phys ical distresses-aye in 10, 900 ways troubles come to harass and annoy.
 And yet it is unfair to measure a mans life by his misfortunes, because where there is one stalk of nightshade there are 50 marigolds and harebells; where there is one cloud thunder charged there are hundreds that stray across the heavens the glory of land and sky, asleep in their bosom, Because death came and took your child away did you immediately forget all the five years, or the ten years, or the 10 years in which she came every night for kiss, all the tones of your heart pealing forth at the sound of her voice or the soft touch of her hand? Because in some nI into the breakers did you forget all those years in which the luxuries and extravagances of life showered on your pathway? Alas. that is an unwise man, an ungrateful man, an unfair man, an unphilosophic man, and, most of all, an un-Christian man, who measures his life on earth by groans and tears and dyspeptic fiji and abuse and scorn and terror and neuralgia thrust
 Again, I remark that there are many people who estimate their life on earth by the amount of money they have ao- cumulated. They say, "The year 1866 or 1870 or 1898 was wasted" Why? Made no money" Now, it is all cant and insincerity to talk against money, as though it had no value. It may rep resent refinement and education and ten thousand blessed surroundings. It is the spreading of the table that feeds the children's hunger. It is the spreading of the table that feeds the children's hunger. It is the lighting of the fur mace that keeps you warm. It is the making of the bed on which you rest from care and anxiety. It is the carry ing of you out at last to decent sepulcher, and the putting up of the slab on which is chiseled the story of your Christian hope. It is simply hypocrisy, this tirade in pulpit and lecture hall against money.
 The Curse of Money.
 But while all this is so, he who uses money or thinks of money as anything but a means to an end, will find out his mistake when the glittering treasures slip out of his nerveless grasp, and he goes out of this world without a shilling of money or a certificate of stock. He might better have been the Christian porter that opened his gate or the be- grimed workman who last night heaved the coal into his cellar. Bonds and mortgages and leases have their use, but they make a poor yardstick with which to measure life. "They that boast themselves in their wealth and trust in the multitude of their riches, none of them can, by any means, re- deem his brother or give to God ran som for him that be should not see cor ruption."
 But I remark, there are many-I wish there were more-who estimate their life by their moral and spiritrSl development.
 It is not sinful egotism for a Chris tian man to say: "I am purer than l used to be- I am more consecrated to Christ than 1 used to be. I have got over great many of the bad habits in which I used to indulge. am great deal better man than I used to be- '' There is no sinful egotism in that. It is not base egotism for soldier to say. T know more about military tactSs that used to before took musket in my hand and learned to present arms and when was a pest to the drill off, cer. It is not base egotism for sailor to say, ''I know better how to clew down the mizzen topsail than I used to before l had ever seen ship" And there is no sinful egotism when Chris tian man. fighting the battles of the Lord, or if you will have it, voyaging toward haven of eternal rest, says, II know more about spiritual tactics and about voyaging toward heaven than used to-.
 Why, there are those in this presence who have measured lances with many a foe and unhorsed it There are Christian men here who have become swarthy by hanmering at the forge of calamity. They stand OF an entirely different plane of character from that which they once occupied. They are measuring their life on earth by golden gated Sab- baths, by pentecostal prayer meeting, by communion tables, by baptismal fonts, by halleluiahs in the temple. They have stood on Sinai and heard it thunder. They have stood on Pisgah and looked over into the promised land. They have stood on Calvary and seen the cross bleed. They can, like Paul the apostle, write on their heaviest trou- bles Flight" and "but for a moment" The darkest night their soul is irradiat- sd, as was the night over Bethlehem, by the faces of those who have como to proclaim glory and good cheer. They are only waiting for the gate to open and the chains to fall off and the glory 10 begin.
 l remark again, there are many-and 1 wish there were more-who are esti- mating life by the good they can do.
 John Bradford said he counted that day nothing at all in which he had not by pen or tongue done some good. If man begin right, cannot tell how many tears he may wipe away, how many burdens he may lift, how many orphans he may comfort, how many outcasts he may reclaim. There have been men who have given their whole life in the right direction, concentrat- ,Il kka.