Connecticut western news., 1901-10-03


 ture, but inwrought Into its every fiber and energy. Will the storms of win ter wash out the story of what yoi have wrought upon that spiritual struc ture2 No. There are no storms h that land and there Is no winter. VII time wear out the inscription whicl shows your fidelity? No. Time is past, and 1t is an everlasting now Built into the foundation of that i'm perishable structure, built into its pil lars, built into its capstone Is you name, either the name you have oI earth or the name by which celestials
 shall call you. know the Bible says in one place that God is jealous God but that refers to the work of thos, who worship some other god.
 Noble Deeds Everlasting.
 A true father Is not jealous of his cbild. With what glee you show tl' picture your child penciled or a to, ship your child hewed out or recit, the noble deed your child accomplish ed! And God never was jealous of d
 Joshua, never was Jealous of a Paul never was jealous of Frances Haver gal, never was jealous of a man O.
 woman who tried to heal wounds and wipe away tears and lift burdens anc save souls, and while all is of grace | and your self abnegating utterapce will be. Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name, O Lord, give gloryw you | shall always feel heavenly satisfac | ton in every good thing you did on | earth, and If iconoclasm, borne from beneath should break through the gates | of heaven and efface one record Of your earthly fidelity methinks Christ | would take one of the nails of his own | cross and write somewhere on the | crystal or the amethyst or the jacintb or the chrysoprasus your name and | just under 1t the inscription of my text, "The righteous shall be held in everlasting remembrance" Oh, this character building! You and are ev- cry moment busy in that tremendous occupation. You are making me bet | ter or worse, and I am making you bet | ter or worse, and we shall, through all l eternity, bear the mark of thls benc- l diction or blasting. Let others have | the thrones of heaven, those who have
 
 | the truth, but 1t will be heaven enough | for you and me if ever and anon we meet some radiant soul on the boule- | wards of the great city who shall say. You helped me once. You encouraged me when I was in earthly struggle. l do not know that would have reached this shining place had 1t not been for | you," and we will laugh with heavenly | glee and say: "Ha, ha! Do you really remember that talk? Do you remem- Der that warning? Do you remember that Christian invitation? What memory you have! Why, that must have been down there in Washington
 or New Orleans at least ten thousand million years ago. And the answer will be, "Yes, 1t was as long as that, | but I remember 1t as we'll as though It were yesterday"
 Oh, this character building! The 1 structure lasting independent of pass | ing centuries, independent of crumbling
 mausoleums, independent of the whole | planetary system. Aye, if the material
 universe, which seems all bound to- sether like one piece of machinery, | should some day meet with an accident i that should send worlds crashing into
 each other like telescoped railway | trains, and all the wheels of constella- | tions and ga1axies should stop, and | down into one chasm of immensity all | the suns and moons and stars should | tumble like the midnight express at l Ashtabula that would not touch us and
 would not hurt God, for God Is spirit, and character and memory are immor- | tai, and over that grave of wrecked | material universe might truthfully be written, 'The righteous shall be held | in everlasting remembrance" o Time.
 we defy thee! o Death, we stamp thee
 in the dust of thine own sepulchers! O
 Eternity, roll on till the last star has stopped rotating and the last sun Is ex- ringuished on the sapphire pathway,
 and the last moon has illumined the
 last night, and as many years have | passed as all the scribes that ever took | pen could describe by as many figures as they could write In all the centuries | of all time, but thou shalt have no pow
 CT to efface from any soul In glory the
 memory of anything we have done to
 bring 1t to God and heaven!
 Craven on Gods Hands.
 There Is another and a more com i plete defeat for oblivion, and that Is
 in the heart of God himself. You have i seen a sailor roll up his sleeve and
 show you his arm tattooed with the | figure of favorite ship, perhaps the first one In which he ever sailed. You
 have seen a soldier roll up his sleeve
 and show you his arm tattooed with ] the figure of fortress where he was
 Sarrisoned or the face of a great gen
 eral under whom he fought. You have ! seen many a hand tattooed with the | face of loved one before or after ] marriage. This custom of tattooing Is
 almost as old as the world. 1t is some
 colored liquid punctured into the flesh
 so indelibly that nothing can wash 1t
 out. It may have been there fifty
 years, but when the man goes into his
 coffin that picture will go with him
 on hand or arm. Now, God says that
 he has tattooed us upon his hands.
 There can be no other meaning in the
 forty ninth chapter of Isaiah, where
 God says, Behold, have graven thee
 on the palms of my hands," 1t was as
 much as to say: "I carrot open my
 hand to help but think of you. can
 not spread abroad my hands to bless
 but I think of you. Wherever I go up
 and down the heavens take these two
 pictures of you with me. They are so
 inwrought into my being that I cannot
 lose them. AS long as my hands last
 the memory of you will last. Not on
 the back of my hands, as though to an-
 nounce you to others, but on the palms
 of my hands for myself to look at and
 study and love. Though I hold the
 winds in my fist, no cyclone shall up-
 root the inscription of your name and
 your face, and though hold the ocean
 in the hollow of my hand It's billowing
 shall not wash out the record of my
 remembrance. Behold, have graven
 thee on the palms of my hands,"