Connecticut western news., 1900-01-04

That Is not the only instance where a man has made fortune by punctuali- ty. The poets verse reads:
 Time flies away fast,
 The while remember.
 How soon our life here
 Grows old with the year
 That dies with the next December.
 X third reading of my text reminds me that life Is not only q story told, but story listened to. There Is noth- ing more vexatious to any one than to tell story when people are not attend ing. They may be whispering on some other subject, or they are preoecupied. One cannot tell a story effectually un- less there are good listeners. Well, that which in my text is called the 'tale that is told' has plenty of lis teners. There is no such thing as soli- tude, no such thing as being alone. God listens, and the air is full of spir- itual intelligences, all listening, and the world listens to the story of our life, some hoping 1t will be successful, oth- CTS hoping 1t will be a failure.
 We talk about public life and private life, but there is no private life. The story of our life, however insignificant it may seem to be, will win the ap plause or hiss of great multitude that no man can number. As tale that is told' among admirers or antagonists, celestials or pandemoniacs, the uni verse Is full of listening ears as we'll as of gleaming eyes. If we say or do the right thing, that is known. If we say or do the wrong thing, that is known. suppose the population of the intelligences in the air is more nu- merous than the population of intelli- gences on the earth. Oh, that the story of our life might be fit for such an audience in such an auditorium God grant that wisdom and fidelity and ear nestness and truth may characterize the ''tale that is told"
 Tale That Is Told.
 Aye, all the world will yet listen to and be redeemed by a ''tale that Is told" We are all telling it, each in his own way-some by voice, some by pen, some by artists pencil, some by harp and some by song; mother telling 1t to child, teacher telling 1t to Sab bath class, reformer telling it to out cast, preacher telling it to assemblage. The story of the Loveliest of heaven coming down to this scared and blast ed island of a world. He was ordered back from its shores and struck through with lanceS of human hate as soon as he landed. Shepherds dog baying on the hills that Christmas night was better treated than this Res cuer of race, yet keeping right on, Drambles on brow, feet on spikes, flagellated with whips that had Jumps of lead fastened to them, through mid nights without lanterns, through storms without a shelter, through years that got blacker until they ended in a monday with the sun plotted out. Mightiest tale ever told, and keep on telling 1t until the last sorrow is as- suaged, and the last animosity is quenched, and the last desert is white with the lily, and golden with the cow slip, and blue with the gentian, and crimson with the rose.
 While reading my text the fourth time I bethink myself that the story of life will end when the group breaks up. The "tale that is told" stops when the listeners depart. Sometimes we have been in groups interestedly lis tening to some story told when other engagements or the hour of the night demanded the going of the guests. That stopped the story. By this exit of another year I am reminded that these earthly groups will break up. No family group, or social group, or re- ligious group, or political group stays long together. Suppose some one should take from the national archives the roll of wonder United States senate chamber or the roll of yonder house of representatives as 1t was made up 20 years ago and then call the roll. The silence would be mightier than the voices that would hear and respond.
 The family group breaks up. Did you ever know a household that for 25 years remained intact? Not one. Was there ever church record the same after the passage of 9 years or 15 years or 10 years? The fact is that the story of our life will soon end, because the group of listeners will be gone. So you see If we are going to give the right trend and emphasis we must give 1t right away. If there are old people in the group of our influence, all we can do for them will be in five or ten years. If there are children around us, in 10 or 15 years they will no longer be children, and they will be fashion ing the story of their own life. What thy hand findeth to do, do 1t with all thy might" Passing all, passing ev- erything, as tale that is told.'
 My text, in referring to the years, re- minds me that in F hours this year will forever have gone away. Ninety nine out of the hundred years of this century will have disappeared. We have only one year of the century left. There ought to be something especial ly suggestive in the last year of a cen tury. It ought to be a year of un- paralleled industries, of unheard of conservation. Not person in any of our audiences this day can remember the first years of this century. Not a person In any of our audiences today will ever again see the last year of century.
 End of the Century.
 Through medical science the worlds longevity may be greatly improved in the future, as it has been in the past, but it would not be well for the people to live too long. Some of them would, through their skill at acquisitiveness, gather too much, and some multimil- lionaires would become billionaires and trillionaireS, and some would after awhile pocket a hemisphere. No. Death Is useful In its financial limita- ions, and then all have enough sor- rows and annoyances and sufferings by the time they become nonagenari- ans or eentenarians to make 1t desira- ble to quit. Besides that, 1t would not be fair so long to keep so many good old npnnla ont nf hnnrnn Sn if is well