Connecticut western news., 1901-08-15

together for 10 or 90 years, and one of them is taken away, what desolation! l shall not forget the cry of Dr. De Witt of New York when he stood by the open grave of his beloved wife, and after the obsequies had ended he looked down into the open place and said: Farewell, my honored, faithful and beloved wife. The bond that bound us is severed. Thou art in glory, and am here on earth. We shall meet again. Farewell! Farewell"
 The Gospel Promise.
 To lean on prop for 50 years and then have 1t break under you! There were only two years difference be- tween the death of my father and mother. After my mothers deceaSe my father used to go around as though looking for something. He would often get up from one room without any seeming reason and go to another room. and then he would take his cane and start out, and some one would say, Father. where are you goingT And he would answer, II don't know exact ly where am going" Always looking for something. Though he was ten der hearted man, never saw him cry but once, and that was at the burial of my mother. After 80 years living together 1t was hard to part. And there are aged people today who are feeling just such a pang as that. l want to tell them there Is perfect enchantment in the promises of this gospel, and l come to them and offer them my arm. or take their arm and l bring them to this gospel well. Sit down, father or mother; sit down. See If there Is anything at the well for you. Come. David, the psalmist have you anything encouraging to offer them? Yes" says the psalmist; they shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and fiourishing to show that the Lord Is upright. He is my rock, and there Is no unrighteousness In him." Come, Isaiah, have you anything to say out of your prophecies for these aged people? "Yes," says Isaiah; down to old age am with thee, and to hoary hairs will I carry thee" Well, if the Lord is going to carry you, you ought not to worry much about your ailing eyesight and failing limbs.
 God Never Forgets.
 You get little worried for fear that some time you will come to want, do you? Your children and grandchil- dren sometimes speak little sharp to you because of your ailments. The Lord will not speak sharp. Do you think you will come to want? What do you think the Lord Is? Are his gran aries empty? Will he feed the raven and the rabbit and the lion in the des- ert and forget you? Why, naturalists tell us that the porpoise will not for sake its wounded and sick mate. And do you suppose the Lord of heaven and earth has not as much sympathy as the fish of the sea? But you say, II am so near worn out, and I am of no use to God any more." 1 think the Lord knows whether you are of any more use or not. If you were of no more use, he would have taken you before this. Do you think God has forgotten you because he has taken care of you TO or 80 years? He thinks more of you today than he ever did because you think more of him. May the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Paul the aged be your God forever. But I gather all the promises today in group, and 1 ask the shepherds to drive their fiocks of lambs and sheep up to the sparkling supply. Behold, happy Is the man whom God correct eth" Though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion" Many are the affiictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all" Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning." 1 am de- termined that no one shall go out of this house uncontrolled. Wonder Is a timid and shrinking soul who seems to hide away from the cancellations I am uttering as a child with a sore hand hides away from the physician, lest he touch the wound too roughly, and the mother has to go and compel the little patient to come out and see the physi- clan. So I come to your timid and shrinking soul today and compel you to come out in the presence of the Di- vine Physician. He will not hurt you. He has been healing wounds for many years, and he will give you gentle and omnipotent medicament.
 We'll of Gladness.
 But people, when they have trouble, go anywhere rather than to God. De Quincey took opium to get rid of his troubles, Charles Lamb took to punch, Theodore Hook took to something stronger, Edwin Forrest took to theat- rical dissipation, and men have run all around the earth. hoping in the quick transit to get away from their misfor- tunes. It has been a dead failure. There is only one well that can slake
 the thirst of an afflicted spirit, and that Is the deep and inexhaustible well of the gospel.
 But some one in the audience says, Notwithstanding all you have said this morning, find no alleviation for
 my troubles" We'll am not through yet. 1 have left the most potent con- sideration for the last. l am going to soothe you with the thought of heaven. However talkative we may be, there
 will come time when the stoutest and
 most emphatic Interrogation will evoke from us no answer. As soon as we have closed our lips for the final si-
 lence no power on earth can break that taciturnity. But where, O Christian,
 will be your spirit? In a scene of in- finite gladness; the spring morning of heaven waving its blossoms in the bright air.; victors fresh from battle showing their scars; the rain of earth
 ly sorrow struck through with the rain-
 bow of eternal joy; in one group God and angels and the redeemed - Paul
 and Silas, Latimer and Ridley, Isaiah
 and Jeremiah, Payson and John Mil
 ton, Gabriel and Michael, the archan- gel; long line of choristers reaching
 across the hills; seas of joy dashing to
 the white beach; conquerors marching from gate to gate, you among them. Oh, what great flock God will gather around the celestial we'll! No stone on