Norwich bulletin., 1915-09-25
Sunday Moving Talk
STARS INVISIBLE BY DAY.

For age is opportunity. no less ...
Than youth itself, though in another
dress.
The sky is filed with stars invisible
by day. - ---
So sings Longfellow in memorable
music. Age has sometimes been given
a Grabbed reputation by the poets, but
the indictment is not justifiable. II
has its own compensations, and some.
l'enjoyments that youth knows nothing
of. No one need be pitied who is grow
ing old in the right way. The gathering
! shadows are illumined by many kindly
| lights.
1t is one of the glories Of night that
it brings out the stars. If the sun shone
all the time we should never see them
/ Prosperity doubtless reveals some vir-
| tues, but it certainly conceals some
| others. Not always is man at his
| best in the heyday of his fortunes.
| Sometimes he is at his best when his
| fortunes lie in wreck. There are good
gifts of God that are possible only in
| times of trial and suffering and spe-
| cial need. 1855
IL is a remarkable fact that great
/ poetry has generally been the fruit of
/ sorrow and suffering. The sky-blue
optimism of most modern versifers
1
it's spirit of good cheer, is often little
better than dogerel. The great poets
have known that life is tinged with
tragedy and have themselves tasted
| the bitter cup.
Homer and Milton were blind: Ovid
and Dante were exiles; Hood and
Heine were invalids: Poe was slave
to liquor, and Coleridge to opium.
| Tennyson had known deep personal
SORROWS. Even Goethe, the seh-cui-
| q
out of suffering nobly borne came deep
0ympathies and wide vision when he
said:
Who ne'er his bread in sorrow ate.
Who ne'er throughout the midnight
hours
watered his darksome couch with
tears,
He knows We not. We Heavenly Pow
4 ers! $780,
Bad times test character with. pecu-
liar thoroughness. There is a strength
i ! revealed by adversely that no other
| experience can bring TO the surface
i Courage never shines quite so brightly
? as when everything goes dead wrong
1 have sometimes stood in amaze
, ment at the strength and patience -ex-
J hibited in calamity by some whose
previous careers of ease and comfort
) had kept their stronger qualities quite
Ill submerged. Wnen InaL6Ildl
have tumbled in wreck. when the in
tangible walls of physical disease have
; closed in upon one, when some strong
? arm on which one has rested has beer
5 taken away, then 1t is that fortitnd,
. | gets its chance, There is in many soul
a fine vigor of faith that asserts itself
not when things look bright, but whel
e all is gone except God and self. =
y Human sympathy, moreover finds it
a richest expression in times of grief -
s never knew before that had so man
. friends!" explained a man after
y painful accident. 1t. Is pity but
II fact nevertheless, that we, often hav
Il to wait for trouble to come before W
= know how kind human hearts reail
lie are. e.
: Count it all joy" said the Apostl
l. James. when We fall into manifol
J. trials" Not many OF US reach Oh
3 point where We can unaffectedly do Q
se much as that. Perhaps IL is enoug
= to expect of most of us that we lear
III to trust that, in some way beyond OF
Is present ken, the difficulties and sol
y rows of life are really opportunitit
sr rather than defeats. and that the who
l. painful lot of them may serve to re
Dr. veal in US the peaceabie fruits
81 righteousness.
xet THE PARSONs