Connecticut western news. [volume] (Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Conn.) 1871-1970, 1901-04-25

with their glory, they are the sweetest
thought for the poet, and they are the
most thrilling Illustration for the ora
tor. and they offer the most intense
scene for the artist, and they are to the
ambassador of the sky all enthusiasm.
Complete pardon for direst guilt
Sweetest comfort for ghastliest agony.
Brightest hope for grimmeSt death
Grandest resurrection for darkest sep
ulcher. Oh, what Il gospel to preach!
Christ over all i'll 1t. His birth, his
suffering, his miracles, his parallels,
his sweat. his tears, his blood, his
atonement, his intercession-what glo-
rious themes. Do we exercise faith?
Christ is its object. Do we have love?
1t fastens on Jesus. Have we a fond
ness for the church? 1t is because
Christ died for it. Have we a hope of
heaven? 1t is because Jesus went
ahead, the herald and the forerunner.
Saved Through Christ.
The royal robe Of Demetrius was so
costly, so beautiful, that after he had
put it off no one ever dared put it on.
But this robe of Christ, richer than
that, the poorest and the wannest and
the worst may wear. "Where sin
abounded grace may much more
abound
'Oh, my sins, my SINS" said Martin
Luther to Staupitz; my sins, my sins"
The fact is that the brawny German
student had found Latin Bible that
had made him quake, and nothing else
ever did make him quake, and when he
found how, through Christ, he was
pardoned and saved he wrote to a
friend, saying: Come over and join US,
great and awful sinners saved by the
grace of God. You seem to be only a
slender sinner, and you don't much ex-
toll the mercy of God, but we who have
been such very awful sinners praise
his grace the more now that we have
been redeemed" Can it be that you
are so desperately egotistical that you
feel yourself in first rate spiritual trim
and that from the root of the hair to
the tip of the toe you are scarless and
immaculate? What you need is look
ing glass, and here it is in the Bible.
| Poor and wretched and miserable and
blind and naked from the crown of the
head to the sole of the foot, full of
wounds and putrefying sores. No
| health in us. And then take the fact
that Christ gathered up all the notes
| against us and paid them and then Of
| fered us the receipt.
And how much we need him in our
sorrows. We are independent of cir
cumstances If we have his grace. Why,
L ho do Do inc in no n a n
under that grace st. John from desolate
| Patmos heard the blast of the apoca-
| lyptic trumpets. After all other can
| dies have been snuffed out this is the
| light that gets brighter and brighter
| unto the perfect day, and after, under
| the hard hoofs of calamity, all the
pools of worldly enjoyment have been
| trampled into deep mire, at the foot of
| the eternal rock, the Christian, from
cups of granite, lily trimmed and vine
covered, puts out the thirst of his SOUL
The Final Hour.
Again I remark that Christ is above
| all in dying alleviations. 1 have not
| any sympathy with the morbidity
| abroad about our demise. The emperor
| of Constantinople arranged that on the
| day of his coronation the stonemason
should come and consult him about his
| tombstone that after awhile he would
need, and there are men who are mon
| omanical on the subject of departure
from this life by death, and the more
they think of it the less prepared are
| they tc go. This is an unmanliness not
worthy of you, not worthy of me.
| Saladin, the greatest conqueror of his
day, while dying ordered the tunic he
/ had on him to be carried after his
| death ON a spear at the head of his
army, and then the soldier ever and
anon should stop and say: Behold all
that is left of Saladin, the emperor and
conqueror! OF all the states he con-
/ quered, of all the wealth he accumu-
lated, nothing did he retain but this
ahroudw l have no sympathy with
| such behavior or such absurd demon
| stration, or with much that we hear
| uttered in regard to departure from
| this life to the next. There is a COM
mon-sensical idea on this subject that
you and l need to consider-that there
| are only two styles of departure.
1
light of torch toiling in miners shaft
ledge of rock may fall upon us and
we many die a miners death. Far out
at sea, falling from the slippery rat
lines and broken on the halyards, we
may die a sailors death. On mission
of mercy In hospital, amid broken
bones and reeking leprosies and rag
ing fevers, we may die philanthro
pist's death. On the field of battle
serving God and our country, slug:
through the heart, the gun carriage
may roll over us, and we may die ;
patriots death. But, after all, there
are only two styles of departure-th'
death of the righteous and of tn,
wicked, and we all want to die tn,
| former.
God grant that when that hour come
| you may be at home! You want thu
hand of your kindred in your hand
You want your children to surroun(
you. You want the light on your pill
low from eyes that have long reflected
| your love. You want the room still
You do not want any curious stranger
standing around watching you. Yol
want your kindred from afar to hea
| your last prayer. l think that is tn
wish of all of us. But is that all? Cal
earthly friends hold us when the bill
lows of death come up to the girdle
Can human voice charm open heaven
gate? Can human hands pilot u
through the narrows of death int
heavens harbor? Can an earthl
friendship shield us from the arrow
of death and In the hour when satal
shall practice upon us his inferno
archery? No, no! Alas, poor soul,
that is all. Better die in the wilder
ness, far from tree shadow and ia
from fountain, alone, vultures circlin
through the air waiting for our body
unknown to men and to have no buria
If only Christ would say through tn