Connecticut western news., 1902-03-27

Iull OI DluuSeOuS nSluS udpndEdEu Oh, no; they are thrashing instruments that God just suits to your case. There is not a dollar of bad debts on your ledger or a disappointment about goods that you expected to go up, but that have gone down, or Swindle of your business partner or trick on the part of those who are in the same kind of merchandise that you are, but God in- tended to overrule for your immortal help. "Oh," you say, there is no need talking that way to me. I don't like to be cheated and outraged" Neither does the corn like the corn thrasher, but after it has been thrashed and winnowed it has a great deal better opinion of winnowing mills and corn thrashers.
 Well" you say, If I could choose my troubles, would be willing to be troubled" An, my brother, then 1t would not be trouble. You would choose something that would not hurt, and unless 1t hurt it does not get sane tified. Your trial perhaps may be child lessness. You are fond of children. You say, "Why does God send children to that other household, where they are unwelcome and are beaten and banged about when I would have taken them in the arms of my affectiopF" You say, Any other trial but this" Your trial perhaps may be dishgured counte- nance or face that is easily caricatur- ed, and you say, 'I could endure any thing if only was good looking" And your trial perhaps Is violent temper. and you have to drive 1t like six un' broken horses amid the gunpowder ex plosions of a great holiday, and ever and anon it runs away with you. Your trial is the asthma. You say, "If it were rheumatism or neuralgia or cry sipelas, but it is this asthma, and 1t is such an exhausting thing to breathe" Your trouble is a husband, sharp, snap py and cross about the house and rais- ing a small riot because button is of. How could you know the button is off? Your trial is wife ever in contest with the servants, and she is a sloven. Though she was very careful about her appearance in your presence once, now she is careless, because, she says, her fortune is made! Your trial is hard school lesson you cannot learn, and you have bitten your finger nails until they are sight to behold.
 Complaining Against God.
 Everybody has some veXation or an- noyance or trial, and he or she thinks it is the one least adapted. Anything but this," all say; anything but this" My nearer, are you not ashamed to be complaining all this time against \ God? Who manages the affairs of this world anyhow? Is 1t an infinite Mo- \ doc or q Sitting Bull savage or an om- ! nipotent Mama Sahib? No; 1t is the most merciful and glorious and wise | being in all the universe. You cannot Y teach omnipotence anything. You have fretted and worried almost enough. 1 Do you not think so? Some of you are | making yourselves ridiculous in the | sight of the angels. Here is naval | architect, and he draws out the plan of | a ship of many thousand tons. Many | workmen are engaged on it for long while. The ship is done, and some day, with the flags up and the air gorgeous with bunting, that vessel Is launched l for Southampton. At that time lad | six years of age comes running down | the dock with toy boat which he has made with his own jackknife, and he says: Here, my boat is better than yours. Just look at this jibboom and these weather crossjack braces" And | he drops his little boat beside the great | ship, and there is a roar of laughter on the decks! An, my friends, that great ship is your life as God planned it vast, million tonned, ocean destined, | eternity bound! That little boat is your life as you were trying to hew it out and fashion it and launch it. Do not | try to be a rival of the great Jehovah. God is always right, and in nine cases out of ten you are wrong. He sends just the hardships, just the bankrupt cies, just the cross that it is best for | you to have. He knows what kind of | grain you are, and he sends the right kind of thrashing machine. It will be rod or staff or iron wheel just accord ing as you are fitches or cummin or corn.
 Again, my subject teaches that God keeps trial on us until we let go. The
 farmer shouts "Whoap' to his horses as soon as the grain Is dropped from the stalk. The farmer comes with his
 fork and losses up the straw, and he sees that the straw has let go the grain
 and the grain is thoroughly thrashed.
 So God. Shifting rod and turning
 wheel both cease as soon as we let go.
 We hold on to this world, with its
 pleasures and riches and emoluments,
 and our knuckles are so firmly set that
 it seems as If we could hold on for
 ever. God comes along with some
 thrashing trouble and beats us loose.
 We started under the delusion that this
 was a great world. We learned out of
 our geography that 1t was so many
 thousand miles in diameter and so
 many miles in circumference, and we
 said, "Oh, my, what worldv' Trou-
 ble came in after life, and this trouble
 sliced off one part of the world, and 1t
 has got to be smaller world and In
 some estimations a very insignificant
 world, and it Is depreciating all the
 time as a spiritual property. Ten per
 cent off, 50 per cent off, and there are
 those who would not give 10 cents for
 this world-the entire world-as a soul ! possession.
 The Friendship That Endures.
 We thought that friendship was a
 grand thing. In school we used to
 write compositions about friendship
 and perhaps we made our graduating
 speech on commencement day on
 friendship. Oh, 1t was a charming
 thing! But does 1t mean as much tc
 you as it used to? You have gone on ir
 life, and one friend has betrayed you
 and another friend has misinterpreted
 you, and another friend has neglected
 you, and friendship comes now some
 times to mean to you merely another
 ax to grind! So with money. w
 thought If a man had a competency ht
 was safe for all the future but W.
 have learned that a mortgage may bt
 defeated by an unknown previous in
 Gumbrance; that signing your name or
 the back of a note may be your busi
 ness death warrant; that a new tariff
 ,,INo Al,a <~f% l,.