Norwich bulletin., 1912-05-21
RlCHESoN PREACHED
 SERMON IN DEATH CELL
Impressive Exposition of 23d Psalm to
 Congregation of Four.

Boston, May 2O.-Rev. Clarence V. T. Richeson's last Sunday on earth will be memorable one to four persons, at | least.
 Richeson had requested that Sunday being his last Sunday on earth he be allowed to conduct the service at the prison chapel He was told that this would be against the rules of the pris- on, Then he asked that he might hold a brief service within his cell. The two clerSymcn readily assented. They have encouraged him to talk and thus take his mind from tahe ordeal Then Richeson opened his Bible, read from the Book of Revelation and turned to his favorite Psalm, the 29d, and read again. As he spoke. the fa- tigue which has followed his hysterical attack seemed to leave him. His voice seemed more strong. He repeated the | passage: Yea, though I walk through | the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil" | And then he took examples of his own life, when he was on a sheen | ranch in the south but through it all ran a strain of sadness. It was in the morning, but the bells that called those | of the world without to divine wor- ship did not penetrate the confines of | the death house.
 l Never before has the death house of the grim old state prison served as the | setting for such a scene. Propped up on the pillows of his cot, the condemned clergyman surveyed his | congregation before entering on his | topic.
 | Seated close together on the other | side of the bars of his cage were the Rev. Dr. Herbert s. Johnson, the Rev. ] tTa-rf i CTS, and the two guards. There came a break in the young | clergyman's voice when he announced | that he wished to speak from the 23d ! Psalm.
 Until that time he had been listen | ing to readings by his spiritual ad- | visers, or had been quoting sections from the Bible.
 "sinned, But Deeply Repented."
 The two guards strengthened up and | removed their hats in reverence when Richeson in quavering tones announc-
 ed:
 This is Sunday, and my last on | earth If I had lived a righteous life l should today be delivering a sermon from the pulpit of my Cambridge | church Instead of being caged here, awaiting a felons death. But although l have sinned grave | ly, God is with me. For I have deep | ly repented.
 q feel that it is fitting, indeed. | feel that it is my duty to offer up | sermon before I die. And this, my last
 Sunday, is the proper day" Then with his voice sounding hoi- | low and strange in the cavernous still | ness of the death chamber, Richeson | slowly read the lines of the 23d Psalm. Then he entered on what Dr. Her | bert s. Johnson afterward declared was "a most beautiful exposition of the 23d Psalm"
 Word pictures that dealt with his | life in tLc sheeplands of the south | were used to emphasize the lesson that he found in the lines of the Psalm.
 Tells of Scenes of Childhood.
 Tho old well on his fathers farm, | the brooks where he and boyhOod chums bathed in the days when sor- row was unknown and the grass-cov- | cred hillsides where he romped in l childhood days. all were mentioned in | his last discourse.
 The Twenty third Psalm tells us l about the superabundance which God provides for man. said Richeson. He maketh me 10 lie down in green pastures is a passage that brings to my hand the bounty that | God has placed cn the green hills of | my dear south. ! can see them now just as I did in my boyhood days. glo- | riousiy yerdant and heavily laden with products that help man sustain life
 ''VeriIy. there is evidence that the ! Lord is my Shepherd a passage that should imprint itself on the heart ot every man.
 "Superabundance is given by God to man By His Grace man gets more than he needs to sustain life. Reside the Still Waters"
 He leadeth me beside the still waters calls to my mind the blessings that we have in the babbling brooks and the shelteriug pines. ] T again see the silvery brook that | flows through the meadow near my | dear old fathers house. | And just beyond in the mental pie | ture now before me loom up the state 1 ly pines whose whispers lulled me to sleep when l was enjoying blissful | childhood.
 1 ''On the hot summer day I and my l playmates would cool ourselves in the | brook. Then we would lie under the l pines and shielded from the suns too | torrid rays, would reyel in the cool breezes.
 ] Al of this signifies the rest which | God gives to man when He leadeth me beside the still waters.
 The one passage in the Twenty
 third Psalm that impresses me above
 all others is that which says, Yea, i though l walk in the valley of the | shadow of death. I will fear no evil;
 for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me-
 Death But a Shadow"
 "Thus l know that death is but shadow, for l have repented fully.
 Ny mind again goes back to the l south when l ponder on the line My ! cup runneth over l see the old well on my fathers farm
 The cool, clear water gushes forth for the tired and thirsty. There is
 more than plenty for all
 Again is there evidence of the su- pora bundauce which God in his boun- ty gives 10 men.
 And this same message is spoken
 in the sheepiands of tht south, where | l her1cd the droves many times.
 The grass. the water, the shade
 which the shepherd finds for hts sheep
 is only a picture of the way in which