Connecticut western news., 1902-01-23

the vast fortunes that now overshadow the land were matched out of a bor- rowed dollar.
 If in any assembly it were requested that those who had never borrowed hold up their hands, none would be lifted, or if here and there a hand were lifted we would know that it was a case of inveracity. Borrow! Why, we are borrowing all the time. We borrow from the Lord the sunlight that shows us our way. the water that stakes our thirst, the food that re- freshes us three times day, the pill low on which we slumber. We borrow gladness from our friends; we borrow all elevated surroundings. The church borrows all it's beauty from the Christ who founded it. In our songs and ser mons we borrow from the raptures of heaven.
 We borrow time; we will borrow eternity, and that constant borrowing implies return. For what we borrow from God we must pay back in hearty thanks and Christian service, in i'm provement of ourselves and helpful ness for others. For what we borrow in the shape of protection from good government we must pay back in pa triotic devotion. For what we borrow from our parents in their good exam pie and their hard work wrought for us in our journey from cradle to man. hood or womanhood for all the ages to come we ought to be paying back. The halleluiahs of heaven will be re- turned for cruciflxion agony.
 Debt a Calamity.
 Haydon the painter said his ruin be- gan the day he began to borrow mon ey, and he wrote in his diary, Here began debt and obligation, out of which I have never been and never shall be extricated as long as I live" Dr. Johnson said: Do not accustom your self to consider debt only as an in convenience. You will find it a calam- ity." We have a right to borrow for the absolute necessities, expecting to pay back again, but we ought never to borrow for the luxuries. According to the Laws of Amasis," in Egypt if man died without paying that which he had borrowed he was deprived of all obsequies. If that law were in vogue in our times, how many postponed and impossible funeralsi
 Furthermore, let us admire these young men of Elisha's theological sem mary for the fact that they were earn ing their own way. The most of those today who are successful in the pro fessions, medicating the sick or advo- eating the law or preaching the gospel, fought their own way on and Ap. Those are the kind of men who know what education Is worth and know how to use 1t. Many of us remember that in college days the sons of affluent fathers, with plenty of money to spend and horses to drive and libraries crowded with books never read and wardrobes that kept them in perplexity as to which of many garments was appropriate for the weather that day, were worth to the world nothing then and have been worth to the world noth- ing since, while the young men in col lege who had to economize three months in order to get some book they needed and who could hardly raise money for their diploma have since wrought nightly for God and the truth, turning the world upside down because it was wrong side up.
 In the summer watering places north, south, east and west, in the great ho- tels, serving at table and in baggage room, are theological students who are In preparation for the ministry, earn- ing in July and August the means by which they may study the other months I bless them. They will be the Her schels in the observatories, the Dr. Motts in your medical colleges, the Rufus Choates in your courtrooms, the Bishop McIlvaines in your pulpits. Let them not now be ashamed of the ax with which they hew the beam for Elisha's seminary.
 Superiority of God.
 Those students in the valley of palms by the Jordan had physical strength and hardihood that would help them in their mental and spirit ual achievements. We who are toiling for the worlds betterment need brawn as well as brain, strong bodies as well as illumined minds and consecrated souls. Many of those who are now do- ing the best work in church and state got muscle and power of endurance from the fact that In early life they were compelled to use ax or blow Sr fail or hammer, while many who Eere brought up in the luxuries of life give out before the battle is won. They are keen and sharp of mind, but have no physical endurance. They have the ax head, but no handle. The body is the handle of the soul.
 Let all those who toll for their edu- cation remember they are especially and the ax head should fiy the heEe that very indictment may some time turn out advantageously, as the acci- dent by the river Jordan, which seem ed to finish the young students capac- ity to help build the new seminary, resulted in splendid demonstration of the power of Elisha's God to help any one who helps himself. No ax that was ever wielded has wrought so well as that ax, the handle and head of which parted.
 Notice, also, how God is superior to every law that he has made, even the strongest law of nature, the law of gravitation. The stick that Elisha threw into the Jordan fioated, but the ax head sank. By memorable law it must go down into the depths of the Jordan, yet without so much as a touch the hard, heavy metal sought the surface. There 1t is, the floating ax head. What a rebuke to those who reject miracles on the ground that they are contrary to nature, as though the law were stronger than the God who made the law! Again and again in Bible times was that law revoked! Witness the scene on the banks of the same Jor- dan where in after time the ax head