Connecticut western news., 1905-02-09


 harvest must be gathered.
 His Power Lim;ticss.
 Let me remind you, too, how limit
 less are the energies which God has il, his control. Everywhere are pow ar and force, but man must patiently study and discover for himself how ta apply them to his purposes. Very slowly has he learned the secrets Of the world in which he is placed. Goo might have revealed the whole to him at the outset, but he wished him to ind 1t out for himself, and as each source of power was discovered he must learn how to harness it alright that it may do his bidding and relieve him of toll. Go to Niagara falls and take your stand on the ledge of rock called Observation point and watch that rush of water descending from the heights. What power is there to light our cities, to bear our burdens. to H. illuminate our habitations! Yet for countless ages it has been running to waste because man did not know how to harness it alright. Stand on the SCdoIolC anu SSS tllC pON CI III thC lu- coming tide. Quietly and resistlessly wave succeeds wave, breaking impo- tently on the rocks, yet there is power there that might be turned to account. The little streamlet that turns the wheel of the village mill, grinding the corn and wheat for whole valley, Is feeble beside the pillows of the sea. This, too, man may yet learn to har- ness that 1t may work for him. The secret is with the Lord. Man must plan and contrive and design before he can master 1t. So long as he sits at ease and makes no effort 1t Is useless to him. Why should not God have given man this knowledge at the be- ginning? Because he wished him to develop his intellect He wished to teach him that there was a reward for must gain his bread.
 An, my friends, this problem that perplexes us, this distressing question of why God permits us to struggle along in poverty and hardship, finds it's solution In the Bible. It was not In yindictiveness or for his own sake that he cursed the ground. The sen tence was beneficial and remedial, Cursed Is the ground for thy sake" God is allowing the thorns and the thistles to grow wild instead of the wheat and the barley. Why? By the bayonet thrusts of those tlrorns God is driving us closer and closer to him self. By putting us In the treadmill of unceasing daily toll God Is teaching us to turn our eyes away from tempta- ton. He is also teaching us to turn them toward himself. Work serves a useful purpose. Our toll and difficulty and sorrow are intended to draw us nearer to himself. When trust In God and love of him have filled the hearts of men, when the knowledge of God covers the earth as the waters cover the sea, then poverty will have fulfilled it's mission and will be eliminated from this weary world, for then, says Isai- ah, Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree. and it shall be to the Lord for name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off" Oh, sinner, thank God today that he makes your callous hand stick to the blow of daily toll in order that your feet shall follow the narrow and straight groove of virtue and truth and purity and gospel consecration and right.
 God could easily take out of this world ell phFSieel ailments if he would. He could change the invalid chairs of the homes, the operating tables of the hospitals, the medicine bottles of the drug stores, the ear trumpets of the deaf, the ambulance wagons and the and the splints and the bandages of military surgeons outfit and make them as unsuitable and anti quated articles for modern use as the of the Chinese would be for the Caucasian race or the sandals of an Arab chief would be for the short leggel Eskimo of the arctic. He could at mere word stl aighten the crooked limbs and loosen the dumb lips and the weak lungs. God did it in the past; he can do it now. God is the same yesterday, today and forev- But God does not take all out of this world because he does not wish physical pain and suffer ing to cease to perform their spiritual mission in the world.
 Must Perform Their Mission.
 A beneficent influence for pain and physical ailments" "Oh," says some one, "I do not believe that can be true. Can any good come from a flushed. fevered cheek or from hacking cough or from a sleepless night? God Is good God is love. Therefore good and a loving God does not wish his children to suffer any more than an earthly parent would want his children that mother as she gets up in the mid dle of the night to put cool bandages upon the hot brow of her child if she sees any blessing in sickness. Ask that father who takes his lovely daugll- ter down to southern climes to burn out with the hot rays of the sun the microbes of diseased lung if he can ocC DIcoSlllS Olit Ol HIS uGdE Clill- dren slowly fading away as beautiful flower will fade and wither before the chilling breath of the autumnal frosts. Ask that child if she sees any blessing in pain when night after night she must hear her mother groan under the gnawing advancement of a fatal can cer. When Christ was upon earth he never heard the supplianf cry of a leper but his hands cleansed away the scales. He, never saw one possessed with the devils of disease mental or physical unless he cast them forth, even though they were legion. How can there now be any blessing in phys ical pain when Christ's mission on earth was to heal the sick and be q divine physician to the body as well as to the soul?''
 Yes, my brother. blessings can come and do come from physical pain in two ways. First, in the influence of sick ness upon those who are sick. You can read this truth in the looks of those