Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1912-01-23
REV. H. J. WYCKoFF ON
The MASTER KEY.
Seventh Shop Talk Given at Crescent
Fire Arms Company.


The seventh in the series of shop
talks under the Y NJ. c. A auspices
was given on Monday at the noon hour
by Rev. II. j. Wyckoff of the Second
Congregational church. speaking at
the Crescent Fire Arms company upon
the topic The Master Key. The music
in connection with the talk was two
solos nicely rendered by Mrs. W. G.
Haselden. Miss Elizabeth Grove play
ing the Accomplishments
Rev. Mr. Wyckoff said in part:
The security of 4 lock depends less
upon the strength Of its bolt than up
on the character of him who is in tenn
porary possession Of its KEYS The
strongest bolt ever drawn across treas
, Ure is of no avail if the key which
controls it is in the hands Of a. thief
And so the mighty energy of the lock
makers. who used TO forge great in
gots Of steel to bar the way to treasure
vaults, has deveIOped into the ingenuity
which devises safeguards in locks so
peculiar and dissimilar in details that
! by no chance can the key of one fit and
/ open another
But the cunning of the locksmith
/ has gone beyond this and. after pro-
/ ducing a hundred locks so dissimilar
| that each is proof against another's
I key has made a single KEY that will
! fit all With this one key, instead Of
! a rafting bunch Of Eve score bits Of
( metal, the ianitor may enter at will
! any room of the building; every lock
/ turning freely at the touch Of this
! magic piece of steel; every door yield
| ing to the gentle bidding of the mas
( ter key.
Human life is a house with many
/ rsC b II
| i'll temporary possession Of an office
| wherein we transact our business. or a
| floor on which to earn our daily bread.
| To these rooms we hold the keys: per
| haps to another room or two beside.
| where we eat and sleep. Sometimes
| we get the use of the keys that admit
| US to the rooms in which are kept the
! books and pictures and pleasures OF
| life; but these keys are not ours t.
| keep-they are only loaned for an
hour now and then. And the most of
! the doors in this great house of life
/ are shut against US with locks that our
! little handful Of keys will not fit
The master key of the house of life
is religion; the life of God in the soul
| of man. There is no door in this world
| or the next behind which wait the
treasures of confidence and courage, of
JOY and opportunity and life that will
not open wide at the bidding Of re-
| Hg1on. Do you say that the door of
doubt bars your way to confidence
! Against that lock press your own re-
| lgious experience of God, of his lead
| ing your life, of his knowledge of what
you are and what demands are made
upon you, and If these facts have any
sold reality for you your doubts must
| dissolve. Are you afraid or anxious
1 ia .koI-
walks with God, or what danger prove
greater than his mightiness? Is Joy
| smut away from you by the door OF
trouble? The happiest people in the
world are not those who are free from
pain and sorrow and difficulties, but
those who apply the master KEY, re-
1gion, to all these apparent barriers
and swing them wide open so that ioy
stands revealed in the room that trou.
Die screened, but could not hold secure
against God and his friends Have
you grieved or rebelled because vol
had no chance at the best things Of
life? Because you could not gratff,
your noblest aspira tons and truest
ambitions? Stop a moment to realiz,
That he who goes along with God viii
nave more ado to keep up than con.
seriousness than he is held back an{
you Will assent to the proposition tina
the only key that can hope to unlocl
the door behind which human oppor.
tunity waits is religion.
This is the master key to the house
Of life-religion. It may not mee1
the same thing to you and to me. it 4
not always expressed in identica
words by different people: btlt for sub
stance 1t is the sweet strong. stimu
lating influence of God our Fathe
shaping our lives into likeness to hi
own. Your own relgion-not that q
some other man, but your own-wil
prove. If YOU accept and use # to h,
the master key that viii set wide be
fore you every door in the house of life