Connecticut western news. [volume] (Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Conn.) 1871-1970, 1901-02-07
-. -. -. ...so,Ia, al Inc mead or the uni
verse but Father

verse, out Father.
Leave thy low ysultsd past!
Let each temple. nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with dome more vast
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine oltgrown shell by lifes unresting
Do any of us fully realize the fact
that God gives us three things in un-
limited supply, although no formula of
prayer that l ever heard recognizes
them-water, air and sunlight? Water
by the riverful. Water by the lakeful
Water by the oceanful. Some for alb
luton, some Cor shaking of thirst, some
for baptistery, some for fountains and
aQuariums. / never appreciated what
a wonderful thing water is until last
summer l stood by the fountains be-
fore and around the emperors palace
at Peterhof, Russia.
1 have been familiar with this won
derful element of nature from child
hood, having been born on the banks of
the beautiful Raritan and as bare
footed boy dabbled in the brook near
my fathers house. But l never real
lied until last summer what water
could do In play or in strange caprice,
or Identification, or when climbing the
ladder of the light, or when skillful
workmen took hold of 1t to toss 1t or
whirl it, or shape 1t into crowns, or
| hoist 1t into columns, or spring 1t into
arches, or lift it into stars, or turn 1t
into crescents, or build 1t into temples.
You forget you ever saw the less glori-
Gus waters at Chatsworth, England, or
Versailles, France, as you stand in the
balcony of the palace overlooking the
Finland gulf, bewildered and trans
| ported as you look at the one display
called the Golden Stairway fountain.
| The water rolls down over "a steps /
foot high and 20 feet long. All of these
| "a steps are covered with sheets of
FURNISHED gold. Silver step Of the wa
ter on stairs Of gold! What q giee of
liquids! Rolling, dashing, foaming, en-
rapturing splendors! Chorus Of foodsi
Poetry of waters! Doxology Of tor
rents. But that which most impressed
me there and elsewhere Is the abun-
dance of water, the fact that there are
so many waters that the continents can
afford to throw them away into the
sea, Hudsons and Ohios, Oregons and
Volgas, and so abundant that the earth
| can afford to have it's oceans evaporate
into the heavens, Mediterraneans and
| Atlantics and Pacifcs. How rich the
| earth Is with waters! Best beverage of
| all the nations for after the richest ban
quet with the richest beverages every
one wants at least sip of it-water,
| cool water, God descended water!
Trust the Lord.
With still more abundance is the air
| distributed. An earth full of 1t; a sky
full Of it. Swiftest and strongest eagle
| cannot fly so high as not to have 1t In
| the nostril or under the wing. And
what aff1uence of sunlight! No one but
| the infinite God could dispense so much
| of it. The golden candlestick set on
| the blue mantel of the heavens! So
| great that the Almighty is compared
| to 1t, the psafmist crying out, THE
| Lord God is a sum- 1t Is high time
| that we recognize In our liturgies and
| In our formulas of prayer the three
most abundant blessings of the uni
verse which come to all.
Now, IL 1t not time that we all began
more thoroughly to trust the Lord? We
| trust him with our souls; why not trust
| him with our bodies? We trust him
with our spiritual interests; why not
trust him with our temporal interests
We believe what is said to US by an or
dinarily honest man. could not anger
you so much or make your cheeks so
burn with indignation as to doubt your
trlrf hfrJ do
the Lord of heaven and earth feels
when you doubt him as he declares in
the text, Say We to the righteous that
it shell be well with himY' Such a
promise as that ought to calm your
pulses and irradiate your countenance
and halo all the future with rapture,
for, after all, 1t makes but little differ
ence what becomes of US here II we
come out at the right place, amid the
right surroundings and In the right
| companionship. What are the 20 or 40
| or 80 years of terrestrial stay compared
with the centuries, the millenniums,
| the cons of our chief lifetime, which
we are to begin when we quit this in
| significant planet, insignificant as com
/ pared with the size of other worldsf
This world Is only a schoolhouse for
heaven. We learn here only the A B G
| of higher literature or the simple ad-
| dition and subtraction of an infinite
mathematics and are practicing the
eight notes of an eternal harmony.
| The most important question that
| any man ever asks is, "What will be
my destiny" whittier am 1 boundy'
Where shall landT what is the
terminus of this short journey" Now,
| child of God, do not worry about that.
| 1t shall be well with you In your next
state of existence. We know but little
| about heaven. There is but little con-
corning 1t in the Bible, and that is on
the last few pages and is mostly fgu-
| rative. Do you know the reason whyf
| suppose 1t is because IL we knew the
| full attractiveness of that place we
would be untitled for our duties here.
| We would feel that we were standing
| in the vestibule of a great Luxembourg
and would want to go right in and see
the glories; or standing In the portico
| Of temple and would want to get in
side among the worshipers. So we
| are allowed to hear only one bar of the
| music and to see one fold of its up
holstery and catch one glimpse of its
| towers. l can make only a rough
draft of your celestial residence, but
l can authoritatively state that the
world to which you are destined is a
big world, brilliant world, sinless
| world, a joyful world, an endless world,
and world in touch with other worlds
1t Shall BE Well.
Some scientists are now discussing
the opening of communication between
our earth and the planet Mars. Ex-
| periments are being made, but they
| will not succeed. We cannot build a
fire large enough to attract the atten-
ton OF that world, or lift lens power
full enough to see any response inter
stellar. We do not positively know
that that world is occupied by living
| beings or that II II Ia occIDied COM