Connecticut western news., 1902-02-06

,I uuulu-eu lltr.ieC.s winch follow. Amid the iIr.li,s.. < GeEentia of the woI Id let us appreciate the goodness of fol 10 us if our mental faculties are in quipoise. Eoyaging from New Zea-
 and to Australia, storm swooped
 upon us, and We saw all around us
 fra agments of ships that had been caught in the same tempest. And how
 thankful we were, sailing into Sydney
 barb, r, that we had escaped! So that man and that woman whose intellect
 goes safely through the storms of this life, in which so many have foundered, ought every day and every night em- ploy one of the ten strings in gratitude
 for that particular mercy.
 The Blessing of Frtendahip. Another string of this instrument l now wtouch-friendships, deep and abid-
 ing, by which l refer 10 those people | who, when good or bad motive may be ascribed to you, ascribe the good; those concerning whom you do not wonder which side they will take when you are under discussion; those who would more gladly serve you than serve them selves; those to whom you can tell ev- erything without reserve; those who are first in your home by person or by telegram when you have trouble. Oh, what a blessing to have plenty of friends! Aye, if you have only one good friend, you are blessed in that glad possession. With one such friend you can defy the world. But he must be tried friend. You cannot tell who are your real friends till disasters come AS long as you collect vast dividends and have health jocund and popularity unbounded you will have crowds of seeming friends, but let bankruptcy and invalidism and defamation come, and the number of your friends will
 be % per cent of. If you have been
 through some great crisis and you have one friend left, thank God and cele- brate 1t on the sweetest harpstring. While all this Is so," says some one, there are so many things that others
 have which have not" reply, it is not what we get, but what we are, that
 decides our happiness. With the bare
 necessities of life many are unspeaka-
 bly happy, while others with all the luxuries are impersonations of misery. In the Roman empire there was no
 man more wretched than the Nero who
 ruled 1t. The porticoes of his palace were a mile long. A statue of him in silver and gold 120 feet high stood in the vestibule. The walls of his palace
 were mother of pearl and ivory. The
 ceiling was arranged to shower flowers
 and pour perfumes upon the guests. His wardrobe was so large that he nev-
 CT wore a garment twice. His mules were shod in silver. He fished with
 hooks of gald. A thousand carriages
 accompanied him when he travelled
 His crown was worth $500,000. He had
 everything but happiness. That never
 came. Your heart right, all is right;
 your heart wrong, all is wrong.
 The Gospel of Good Morals.
 But we must tighten the cords of our
 harp and retune 1t while we celebrate
 gospel advantages. The highest style
 of civilization the world has ever seen
 is American civilization, and it is built
 out of the gospel of pardon and good
 morals. That gospel rocked our cradle,
 and 1t will epitaph our grave. 1t soothes
 our sorrows, brightens our hopes, in-
 spires our courage, forgives our sins and saves our souls. It takes a man
 who is all wrong and makes him all
 right. What that gospel has done for you and me is a story that we can
 never fully tell. What it has done for
 the world and will yet do for the na- tions it will take the thousand years of
 the millennium to celebrate. The grand
 est churches are yet to be built. The
 mightiest anthems are yet to be hoist
 ed. The greatest victories are yet to
 be gained. The most beautiful Ma donnas are yet to be painted. The
 most triumphant processions are yet to
 march. Oh, what world this will be
 when it rotates in its orbit a redeemed
 planet, girdled with spontaneous har- vests and enriched by orchards whose
 fruits are speckless and redundant, and
 he last pain will have been banished
 md the last tear wept and the last 1oan uttered, and there shall be noth- Ing to hurt or destroy in all Gods holy
 mountain! All that and more will come to pass, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."
 So far I have mentioned nine of the ten strings of the instrument of grati-
 tude. I now come to the tenth and the last. I mention 1t last that it may be
 the more emorable-heavenly antici-
 patton. By the grace of God we are going to move into a place so much better than this that on arriving we will wonder that we were for so many years so loath 10 make the transfer. After we have seen Christ face to face
 and rejoieed over our departed kindred there are some mighty spirits we will want to meet soon after we pass
 through the gates. We want to see and will see David, a mightier king in heaven than he ever was on earth, and
 we will talk with him about psalmody and get from him exactly what he l meant when he talked about the instru-
 ment of ten strings. We will confront ] Moses, who will tell of the law giving | on rocking Sinai and of his mysterious burial, with no one but God present. We will see Joshua, and he will tell us of the coming down of the walls of Jericho at the blast of the rams horn | and explain to us that miracle-how the sun and moon could stand still without demolition of the planetary system. We will see Ruth and have
 her tell of the harvest field of Boaz, in which she gleaned for afflicted Naomi. We will see Vashti and hear from her own lips the story of her banishment
 from the Persian palace by infamous Ahasuerus.
 Delights of the Future.
 We will see and talk with Daniel, | and he will tell us how he saw Bel
 shazzar's banqueting hall turned into a slaughter house and how the lions
 greeted him with loving fawn instead
 of stroke of cruel paw. We will see | and talk with Solomon, whose palaces