Connecticut western news., 1901-12-19

nave up there! Can you not almost hear their quick feet on the ivory stairs? What rounds of gladness! What laughter of eternal glee! Follow the ark, and it will lead you to the crossing into the reunions of the home where you will never part.
 As our sorrows are new, our joys are new and all our experiences are new. Our life Is one long discovery of things that we did not know and could not know, because we have not passed this way before. We have found, for instance, that gratitude Is the rarest of virtues. You used to suppose that if you do a kindness 1t will be fully ap- preciated and reciprocated. You have found out by experience, as you could have found out in no other way, that gratitude is apt to be only another ax to grind While there Is possibility that you may return still more service you are thanked, but when you can re- turn no more advantage you are drop ped. Here Is man whom you have helped In political elevation. When the time comes for the compliment to be returned, you are not only refused help, but you receive positive opposi ton. You have found out that you should do the right thing not with re- spect to reward or gratitude, but be- cause 1t Is the right thing to do. Many are miserable because they are all the way looking for gratitude which they cannot find. You might as well go down Pennsylvania avenue, Washing ton, or Broadway, New York, or Ire mont street, Boston, your eyes scruti- nizing the pavements looking for tur- Quoises and emeralds and rubies. Per haps you might find them, but there Is not much probability that in fifty years you would find one of them.
 Surprising Discoveries.
 No one has come to midfife who has not been stung of ingratitude. On the battlefield of Alma in 1854 a wounded Russian was crying in anguish of thirst for water. Captain Eddington of the English army ran to him and gave him drink. As the captain was running by to join his regiment the wounded sol dier shot him. Almost all languages have proverbs setting forth this per versity. English proverb, Bring up raven, and 1t will pick out your eyes," Arabic proverb, Flat the present and break the dish." Italian proverb, 'The | ass, after having drunk, gives a kick to the bucket" An old proverb says, 'If God were to be so complacent as to carry us on his back to Rome, we would not thank him for his pains if he did not also set us down in an easy chair" You will never be happy in this world if you do not do all the good you can and look for no responsive grati- tude. All the damage did man who is my enemy was to take him from | position where he received $70O a year salary into position where he has ever since received $2,500 a year. He never forgave me, but has pursued me | with pen vitriolic ever since. The l worst enemy you ever had is the man you introduced and favored and help ed. But be not disturbed or even irri- | tated. You are no better than your Lord. If the world had had any thank full appreciation of his coming 1t would have filled that Bethlehem caravansary \ with flowers, which bloom there clear | on into the December month, and Her cd, instead of attempting his death, would have sent chariot to fetch the infant to the palace. and the oyer and | terminer of Pilates courtroom would | have pronounced him not guilty, and instead of a cross and a crown of 1 lhorns 1t would have been a corona lion, with all the mighty ones of the earth kneeling at the foot of his throne.
 Another discovery that surprises us because we had not passed this way before Is the fact that if two be in quarrel or in war with each other the one who is the most wrong is the hard wrote them know not, but cut these two lines out and pasted them in my scrapbook twenty years ago, for the words are so strikingly true:
 | Forgiveness to the injured does belong,
 But they ne'sr pardon who have done the wrong | We talk about the great discoveries of the age, the electric power, the steam power, the telescopic and micro scopic power, but do not say anything about the discoveries we all make year by year and day by day. There are surprises all the time. It is a new road we are travelling. "Ye have not passed this way before"
 Our Only Opportunity.
 But closely allied Is the other fact which we hinted at in the opening that we will not pass this way again. This is our only opportunity for doing certain things that ought to be done. On all sides there are griefs we ought to solace, hunger we ought to feed, cold that we ought to warm, kind words that we ought to speak, generous deeds we ought to perform. All that you and I do~toward making this world better and happier we must do very soon or never do at all Joshua and his troops never came back over the way they were marching toward the crossing of the Jordan. The impress of the sandal or the bare feet of each soldier showed in what direction he was going, but never did the impress of the sandal of any one of them show that he had re- turned. We are all facing eternity to
 come. There is no retreat. Alertness
 and fidelity would not be so important
 If we could truthfully say: q will be
 back here again. The things I neglect
 now I will do the next time come.
 will be reincarnated, and will resume
 my earthly obligations. Having then
 more knowledge than have now,
 will discharge my earthly duties better
 than I can now discharge them. I do
 not give solemn farewell to these obli.
 gations and opportunities, but smil.
 ing and cheery goodby until see them
 again." No, we cannot say that. There
 will be no new and corrected edition of
 the volume of our earthly life. After
 we make exit from the stage at the
 close of the fifth act we cannot re-en
 ter. How many millions of people have
 lived and died know not, but of all
 the human race who have gone only
 seven persons that now think of have
 returned, the son of the widow al
 Zarephath, the young man of Main, thu