Connecticut western news., 1902-05-01


 We have respect, too, for national ties, X traveller in foreign lands always speaks to and greets n fellow country man. The farther away from home the warmer is his salutation. We have family ties. When brother or sister goes wrong, if we are sincere in our affections we try in every way to bring the wanderer home to our earthly fa- ther's house.
 A Lesson For Christians
 As grow older I am the more disposed to judge the spiritual condi- tion of truly religious church mem Der by the way he treats those who have gone astray. He is more apt to condemn himself than he Is to accuse his unfortunate brother. When a Sun day school pupil goes astray, the truly good Sunday school teacher says: "Ah, that is too bad! I wonder if did my full duty? Perhaps, if only had call ed on the lad and invited him to my home and had seen where he spent his evenings, this awful sin would not have happened. I must not be too hard upon the lad. Yes, I, too, am to blame"
 When a minister goes astray, the truly good elder does not upbraid him. An, mol He knows too much about the weakness of human nature to do that. The old member of session will sit by the fire, with tears streaming down his furrowed cheeks, representing him. self when he says: Here I have been a professed follower of the Lord for forty years. I ought to have looked after the young man; ought to have been his guide and protector" When Peter played the coward and denied did not call a meeting of the apostles for a heresy trial and make Peter de init the ministry. By his treatment of Peter's sinful act Christ taught the lesson of forgiveness and mercy for the penitent wrongdoer. He reordained Peter to go forth and feed his lambs. Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ" is especial ly an appropriate lesson for Christians to learn who take no interest in the welfare of fellow Christians who are the members of the household of faith.
 It isn't the thing you do. friend,
 It's the thing you leave undone
 Which gives you bit of heartache
 At the setting of the sun.
 The tender word forgotten,
 The letter you didn't write,
 The flower you might have sent, friend,
 Are your haunting ghosts at night.
 Accept the Lords Promise.
 But my text clearly means also that every one should try in manful, wo- manly. Christian fashion to bear his own burdens. We are very apt to think that our own troubles are heavier to bear than any other persons troubles. But if we were allowed, as in the old legend, to go to the plain of affliction and deposit there our own sorrows, and were compelled instead to take up the sorrows of some one else, in all probability we would carry away from the mountain of difficulty the bur den pack which our backs have been accustomed to carry. Now, we cannot help our brother to bear his burdens by trying to pile upon his stalwart shoul- ders our own burdens in addition.
 No man ever becomes healthy man, mentally or spiritually, who Is a men, dicant by choice, crawling from door to door, begging and whining. Yet there are some burdens that are abso- lutely impossible for us to bear in our own strength. Some of us have had so much trouble-such an awful, awful lot of troublei We have suffered again and again We have had to go to the family plot, as went two weeks ago, and to leave there a loved one. The grave did look so big, and the black hole was dug so deep. But there is a way we can all carry our own burdens. That way is to cast them upon the Lord, and he will sustain us. He has promised. and he will do, it. If we will only cast our burdens upon him. our own hands will be free. Then we can go forth like athletes stripped for the fray. We can go forth to help our brothers and sisters, our parents and children and all our friends, carry their burdens.
 Help One Another.
 Let us return to the good old coun- try times when every one helped every other person in the community. In those good old times every one was ready to halve friends sorrows as we'll as double friends joys. When the we'd ding bells began to ring, the young come from the village and decorate the church altar with the wild flowers which they had picked Friends would sew the wedding garments; friends would serve the wedding cake; friends would help the young people furnish the new home; friends would bear the burdens, the happy burdens of joy. Then, when trouble came, the same friends would come in and help the invalid; they would pour out the medicine; they would close the eye lids in the last sleep; they would sit up all night long with the dead; they would sew the shroud and carry the casket and dig the grave. The same friends would throw into the grave the sods which would fall upon the coffin lid. The same friends would raise the headstone. Friends. the same friends who once plucked the orange blossoms, would plant the cypress.
 Let us be to each other friends of that kind. Together let us help one another over whatever difficulties may beset. We have a share to bear, and as we bear it we fulfill the law of the gospel, which, in the language of my text, says, Bear ye one another's bur dens and so fulfill tlte law of Christ" |" There lies the merit, In bearing not merely our own, but another's; in lift ing up from the bowed and stepping shoulders the heavy load under which the bearer Is ready to sink. Reach out your strong hand of helpfulness and with stout heart give mighty heave, and the added burden will seem light in your grasp. Do it, and the sunshine of heaven will irradiate many a dark ened home. Do it, and countless mul- titudes will be led into the kingdom. Do 1t, and the angels will rejoice; the celestial portals will open to your vi- sion, and the Saviour's smile will en- courage the work that shall hastan fha