Connecticut western news., 1899-03-30


 bangs of all the nations of all the ages compressed into one sour cup. He took
 the vinegarl
 The Sourness of Poverty.
 There is also the sourness of poverty
 Your income does not meet your out goings, and that always gives an hon. est man anxiety. There is no sign of destitution about you-pleasant ap pearance and a cheerful home for you but God only knows what time you have had to manage syour private finances Just as the bills run up the wages seem to run down. You may say nothing. but life to you is hard push. and when you sit down with your wife and talk over the expenses you both rise up discouraged. You abridge here, and you abridge there, and you get things snug for smooth sailing, and, To, suddenly there is large doctors bill to pay, or you have lost your pocket book, or some debtor has failed, and you are thrown abeam end. We'll, broth CT, you are in glorious company. Christ owned not the house in which he stop ped, or the colt on which he rode, or the boat in which he sailed He lived in borrowed house. He was buried in il borrowed grave. Exposed to all kinds of weather. yet he had only one suit of clothes He breakfasted in the morning, and no one could possibly tell where he could get anything to eat before night He would have been pronounced a finan- cial failure. He had to perform mir acle to get money to pay tax bill. Not a dollar did he own. Privation of do mesticity; privation of nutritious food; privation of comfortable couch on which to sleep; privation of all worldly resourcesl The kings of the earth had chased chalices out of which to drink. but Christ had nothing but a plain cup set before him, and it was very sharp. and it was very sour He took the vim egar.
 There were years that passed along before sour family circle was invaded by death. but the moment the charmed circle was broken everything seemed to dissolve. Hardly have you put the black apparel in the wardrobe before you have again to take it out. Great and rapid changes in your family record You got the house and rejoiced in it. but the charm was gone as soon as the crape hung on the doorbell. The one upon whom you most depended was taken away from you. A cold marble slab lies on your heart today. Once, as the children romped through the house, you put your hand over your aching head and said, "Oh, if l could only have it still' Oh, it is too still now. You lost your patience when the tops and the strings and the shells were left amid floor; but, oh, you would be will ing to have the trinkets scattered all over the floor again if they were scat tered by the same hands
 With what ruthless plowshare be reavement rips up the heart But Jesus knows all about that. You cannot tell him anything now in regard to bereave- ment- He had only few friends. and eyes Lazarus had often entertained him at his house Now Lazarus is dead and buried. and Christ breaks down with emotion, the convulsion of grief through all the ages of be- reavement Christ knows what it is to go through the house missing a familiar inmate Christ knows what it is to see an unoccupied place at the table. Were there not four of them-Mary and Mar tha and Christ and Lazarusf Four of them. But where is Lazarus2 Lonely and afflicted Christ, his great loving eyes filled with tearsl Oh, yes. yesl He knows all about the loneliness and the heartbreak He took the vinegarl
 None Can Escape Death.
 Then there is the sourness of the death hour Whatever else we may es- cape. that acid sponge will be pressed to our lips. l sometimes have a curiosi ty to know how I will behave when l come to die Whether will be calm or excited. whether will be filled with or with anticipation. l cannot say. But come to the point l must and you must. An officer from the future world will knock at the door of onr hearts and serve on us the writ of ejectment, and we will have to surren- der And we will wake up after these autumnal and wintry and vernal and summery glories have vanished from our vision. We will wake up into realm which has only one season. and that the season of everlasting love.
 But you say: .'I don want to break ont from my present associations. It is so chilly and so damp to go down the stairs of that vault I don't want any thing drawn so tightly over my eyes. If there were only some way of break ing through the partition between worlds without tearing this body all to shredsl I wonder if the surgeons and the doctors cannot compound mixture by which this body and soul can all the time be kept together Is there no es- cape from this isseparation '" None, abeo- lutely none. A great many men tumble through the gates of the future, as it were. and we do not know where they have gone. and they only add gloom and mystery to the passage, but Jesus Christ so nightly stormed the gates of that future world that they have never since been closely shut. Christ knows what it is to leave this world, of the beauty of which he was more apprecia- tive than we ever could be. He knows the exquisiteness of the phosphorescence of the sea; he trod it. He knows the glories of the midnight heavens, for they were the spangled canopy of his pillow. He knows about the lilies; he twisted them into his sermon He knows about the fowls of the air; they whirred they way through his dis course. He knows about the sorrows of leaving this beautiful world. Not a taper was kindled in the darkness He died physicianlesa He died in cold sweat and dizziness and hemorrhage and agony, that have put him in sym pathy with all the dying. He goes through Christendom and gathers up the stings out of all the death pillows, and he puts them under his own neck and head He gathers on his own tonoue