Connecticut western news., 1901-06-27

or ms soul 1T nc hau lOuScu II tIeFe through careful preparation! No. He allowed that opportunity, which could never return, to pass into eternity un- improved. He observed by the way the rain dashed against the windows of the parsonage and the windows of the church that the wind was from the east or the northeast, and he did not sow or sowed that which was not worth sowing.
 Hindered by Public Opinion.
 In all departments of life there are those hindered by the wind of public opinion. It has become an aphoriSm in politics and in all great movements, He is waiting to see which way the wind blows" And 1t is no easy thing to defy public opinion, to be run upon by newspapers, to be overhauled in so- cial circles, to be mathematical by those who heretofore were your friends and admirers. It requires a heroism which few possess. Yet no great re- formatory or elevating movement has ever been accomplished until some one was willing to defy what the world should think or say or do. But there have been men and women of that kind. They stand all up and down the corridors of history, examples for us to follow. Charles Sumner in the United States senate. Alexander H. Stephens i'll Georgia convention. Sayonarola stalking his life in time of persecution. Martin Luther fighting the battle for religious freedom against the mightieSt anathemas that were ever hurled. VII liam Carey leading the missionary movement to save a heather world while churches denounced him as a fanatic and with attempting an impos- Sibiiity. Jenner, the hero of medicine, caricatured for his attempt by vac cination to beat back the worst dis ease that smote the nations. They who watch the wind of public opinion will not SOW. 1t is an uncertain indication and is apt to blow the wrong way.
 Let us have war with England, if
 leeds be-" said the most of the people # our. northern states in 1861, when Mason and Slidell. the distinguished southerners, had been taken by our navy from the British steamer Trent and the English government resented the act of our government in stopping jne of their ships. "Give up those prisoners" said Great Britain. "No,' said the almost unanimous opinion of the north, do not give them up. Let us have war with England rather than surrender them" Then William H.. Seward, secretary of state. faced one If the fiercest storms of public opinion ever seen in this or any other country. Seeing that the retention of these two men was of 10 importance to our coun- try and that their retention would put Great Britain and the United States in- to immediate conflict, said, We give them up." They were given up, and through the resistance of popular clam pr by that one man a worldwide ca lamity was ayerted.
 Some of us remember as boys huzza- ing when Kossuth, the great Hun- sarian, rode up Broadway. New York. Most Americans were in favor of talk
 ng some decided steps for Hungary. The only result of such interference would have been the sacrifice of all good precedent and war with European nations. Then Daniel Webster, in his
 immortal 'Hulsemann letter." braved | whirlwind of popular opinion and saved this nation from useless foreign antanglement. Webster did not ob- serve the wind when he wrote that let ter So in state and church there have llways been men at the rigEt time I,- fN faIn ion, frIn n world full-of opposition.
 Watching the Weather yane.
 How many there are who give too much time to watching the weather vane and studying the barometer. Make up your mind what you are going to do and then go ahead and do it. There always will be hindrances. It is | moral disaster if you allow prudence to overmaster all the other graces. The Bible makes more of courage and faith and perseverance than it does of eau tion. It is not once year that the great ocean steamers fail to sail at the appointed time because of the storm
 signals. Let the weather bureau proph- asy what hurricane or cyclone 1t may, next Wednesday. next Thursday, next Saturday the steamers will put out
 from New York and Philadelphia and
 Boston harbors and will reach Liver.
 pool and Southampton and Glasgow
 and Bremen. their arrival as certain as their authorization. They cannot afford to consult the wind, nor can you ir your life voyage.
 The graIdest and best things ever ac complished have been in the teeth ot hostility. Consider the arandest enter
 prise of the eternities-the salvation oi a world. Did the Roman empire send up invitation to the heavens inviting the Lord to descend amid vociferations of welcome, to come and take posses sion of the most capacious and ornate of the palaces and sail Galilee witl richest imperial fotilla and walk over flowers of Solomon's gardens, whicl were still in the outskirts of Jerusa | lem? No. It struck him with insult a! soon as 1t could reach him. Let tho | camel drivers in the Bethlehem cara vansary testify. See the vilest hat' pursue him to the borders of the Nile | " dlcu HIS dTTdlSlllleul uS CElllllui | in the courts. See how they belle hi | every action, misinterpret his bes words, howl at him with worst mobs | wear him out with sleepless nights ol | cold mountainsi See him hoisted int q martyrdom at which the noonda. | cowlcd itself with midnight shadows | and the rocks shook into cataclysm | and the dead started out of their sep | ulcher, feeling 1t was no time to sleel | when such horrors were being enacted | The winds of stormiest opposition
 blew on his cradle, blew on his noun
 tain pulpit, blew upon the homestead that dared to give him shelter, bley
 upon his grave, but he went right ol
 and sowed the earth with sympatheti
 tears and redecming blood and consC
 lation and helpfulness and redemption
 and victory. It was an awful time t
 SOW. But behold the harvest of church
 es, asylums. worldwide charities, civil | Zations, millenniums!
 Just call over the names of the me