Connecticut western news., 1899-11-16

Breeders of Discord.
 Walk on in the cemetery of nations and see the long lines of tombs- Thebes and Tyre and Egypt and Baby lon and Medo- Persian and Macedonian and Roman and Saxon heptarchy, great nations, small nations. nations that lived a year and nations that lived 500 years.
 Our own nation will be judged by the same moral laws by which all oth- CT nations have been judged. The judgment day for individuals will probably come far on in the future. Judgment day for nations Is every day. every day weighed, every day ap- proved or every day condemned. Never before In the history of this country has the American nation been more surely In the balances than 1t Is this minute. Do right, and we go up. Do wrong, and we go down. l am not so anxious to know what this statesman or that warrior thinks we had better do with Cuba and Porto Rico and the Philippines as l am anxious to know what God thinks we had better do The destiny of this nation will not be decided on yonder capitoline hill or at Manila or at the presidential ballot box, for 1t will be settled in heaven.
 Another thing decided in the same high place is that happiness is the re- suit of spiritual condition and not of earthly environment. If we who may have a thousand dollars to invest find 1t such perplexity to know what to do with 1t and soon after find that we invested 1t where principal and interest have gone down roguery or panic, what must lions to invest and whose losses cor respond in magnitude with their re- sources! People who have their three or four dollars a day wages are just as. happy as those who have an income of $50O,O00 a year. Sometimes happi- ness is seated on footstool and some times misery on the throne. All the gold of earth in one chunk cannot pur- chase five minutes of complete satis- phere that breeds the maggots of envy and jealousy and hate. There are those who will never forgive you if you have more emoluments or honor or ease than they have. To take you down Is the dominant wish of most of those who are not as high as you are. They will spend hours and days and years to entrap you. They will hover around offices to get one mean line printed depreciating you. Your. heaven is their he'll
 A dying president of the United States said many years ago in regard to his lifetime of experience, Tt doesn't pay" The leading statesmen of America in letters of advice warn young men to keep out of politics. Many of the most successful have tried n vain to drown their trouble in strong drink. On the other hand, there are millions of people who on departing this life will have nothing to leave but a good name and a life insurance whose illumined faces arv .ndices of H. umined souls. They wish everybody we'll. When the fire bell rings, they do not go to the windows at midnight to see if it is their store that Is on fire, for they never owned a store, and when the September equinox is abroad they 10 not worry lest their ships founder in 3 gale, for they never owned a ship, and when the nominations are made for high political office they are not fearful that their name will be over ooked, for they never applied for of ice. There Is so much heartiness and freedom from care In their laughter that when you hear 1t you are compel ed to laugh in sympathy, although you know not what they are laughing about.
 When the children of that family as ,emble in the sitting room of the old homestead to hear the fathers will -ead, they are not fearful of being cut efr with a million and a half dollars, Tor the old man never owned anything more than the farm of 75 acres, which yielded only enough plainly to support he household. They have more happi- ness in one month than many have in l whole lifetime. Would to God l had the capacity to explain to you on how little man can be happy and on how much he may be wretched! Get your heart right. and all Is right. Keep your heart wrong, and all Is wrong. That is T principle settled in heaven.
 School of Life.
 Another thing decided in that high place Is that this world Is a school house or college for splendid or dis graceful graduation. We begin in the freshman class of good or evil and then pass into the sophomore and then into the junior and then Into the senior, and from that we graduate angels or devils. In many colleges there is an "elective course" where the student selects what he will study--mathematics or the languages or chemistry or philosophy-and 1t Is an elective course we all take in the schoolhouse or university of this world
 We may study sin until we are satu- rated with 1t or righteousness until we are exemplifications of 1t. Graduate we all must, but we decide for our selves the style of graduation. It Is m elective course. We can study gen. erosity until our every word and every act and every contribution of money pr time will make the world better, or we may study meanness until our soul shall shrink up to a smallness un- We may, under God, edu- cate ourselves into a self control that nothing can anger or into an irascibili- ty that will ever and anon keep our face flushed with wrath and every nerve a-quiver. Great old schoolhouse of world in which we are all being educated for glory or perdition!
 Some have wondered why graduation day in college is called commencement day" when 1t Is the last day of college exercises. but graduation days are called commencement day. To all the graduated 1t is the commence ment of active life, and our graduation day from earth will be to us com of our chief life, our larger life. our more tremendous life, our Isx