News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-09-27

level. One OF the Oh painters reIuSeu
to look at poor pictures because he
said it damaged his style A musician
cannot afford TO dwell among discords, nor
can writer afford to peruse books of inferior
style, nor an architect walk out among dis
proportional structures. And no man or
woman was ever so good as to be able to
afford to choose evil associations Therefore
l said have it a rule of your life to go among
those better than yourselves. Cannot find
them. Then what pink of perfection you
must be; When was your character COM
pletsi. What a misfortune for the sanity
and angelic of heaven that they are not en-
1oying the improving influence Of your
society! All, if you cannot find those better
than yourself, it is because you are ignorant
of yourself Woe unto you, Scribes and
Pharasees hypocritesl
/ But, as l remarked in the opening, in
sacred and in all styles of literature chain
means not only adornment and royalty of
nature but sometimes captivity. And L sup
pose there are those in that sense deliberately
and persistently making chain. Now here
is young man of good physical health, good
manners and good education. How shall he
put together enough links to make chain
for the down-hill roads | will give him some
directions First, let him smoke. If he can
not stand cigars. let him try cigarettes. | think
cigarettes will help him on this road little
more rapidly because the doctors say there
is more poison in them, and SO he will be
helpei along faster, and have the more
COuuueuC6 III pIOpOsiuS Oulo OCCduSO oOOuu
fifty of the first yodng men of Brooklyn dur
ing the last year We're, according to the doc
tors reports, killed by cigarettes. Let him
drink light wines first, or ale or lager, and
gradually he will be able to take some-
thing stronger, and as all styles of
strong drink are more and more adulterated,
his progress will be facilitated. With the old
time drinks a man seldom got delirium
tremens before thirty or forty years of age;
now he can get the madness by the time he is
eighteen. Let him play cards, enough money
put up always to add interest to the game.
If the father and mother will play with him
that will help by way of countenancing the
habit. And it will be such pleasant
thing to think over in the day of judg-
ment when the parents give account for the
elevated manner in which they have reared
their children Every pleasant Sunday
afternoon take a carriage ride and stop at
the hotels on either side the road for Sabbath
refreshments. Do not let the old-fogy preju-
dices against Sabbath breaking dominate
you. Have a membership of some club
where libertines go ami tell about their vic
torious sins, and laugh as loud as any OF them
in der.sion of those who belong to the same
sex as your sister and mother Pitch your
Bible overheard as old-fashioned and fit only
for women and children Read all the maya
zine articles that put Christianity at disad-
vantage, and go to hear all the lectures that
malign Christ, who, they say, instead of be-
ing the Mighty One he pretended to be, was
an imposter and the implantsr of a great de-
fusion. Go, at first out of curiosity, to see
all the houses of dissipation, and then go be-
cause you have felt the thrall of their fasci
nation. Getting along splendidlv nowl
Let me see what further can l suggest in
that direction Become more defiant of all
decency, more loud-mouthed in your atheism,
more thoroughly alcoholized, and instead of
the small stakes that will do well enough for
games of chance in a ladies' parlor, put up
something worthy, put up more, put up all
you have. Well done! You have sue
ceeded. You have made a chain-the
tobacco habit one link the rum habit one
link, the impure club another link, infidelity
another link, Sabbath Dissertation another
link uncleanness another link, and altogether
they make chain. And so there is chain
on your hand and chain on your foot and
a chain on your tongue and chain on your
eye and a chain on your brain and a chain
on your property and a chain on your
soul. Some day you wake up and
you say: - am tired of this and |
I am going to get loose from this shackle."" |
You pound away with the hammer of good |
resolution, but cannot break the thralL |
help, but fail exhausted in the unavailing at
empt. Now you begin, and with the wrIth-
ng of LAGOON, TO try to break away, and
he muscles are diStended, and the great
'eads of perspiratiOn dot your forehead,
nd the eyes stand out from the sockets,
nd with all the concentered energies
f body, mind and soul you attempt to get
'ose but have only made the chain sink
a
inc flask and the rum jug and the decanter
for each one has devil of its own-come
ut and sit around you and chatter. In some
Midnight you spring from your couch
nd cry: Il am fast; God, let
ess let me loose, Father and mother 9the
nd brothers and sisters, help me to get
Oosei" And you turn your prayer to bias
henry and then your blasphemy into prayer;
nd to all the din and uproar there is played
n accompaniment, not an accompaniment
" key and pedal, but the accompaniment is
attic, and the rattle is that of chain. For
i've years, for ten years, for twenty years,
rou have been making a chain
But here take a step higher and tell you
there is power that can break any chain
chain of body, chain of mind, chain of soul.
he letters that the hammer of the Gospel
ave broken off, if piled together, would
make a mountain. The captives whom
Christ has set free, if stood side by
idle, would make an army Quicker
han ship chambers furnace ever
melted a cable, quicker than key ever
9net5 of revolution pried open the
Bastile you may be liberated and made a |
rec son or a free daughter of God. You
nave only to choose between serfdom and
between Satan and God. Make up your
mind and make it up quick. When
The King of Sparta had crossed the
Hellespont and was about to march through |
Thrace, he sent word to the people in the
different regions asking them whether he
hould march through their countries as a
riend or an enemy. ''By all means as a |
riend." answered most of the regions, but
he KING of Macedon replied: II will take
lime to consider it.n ''Then,n said the
King of Sparta: LET him consider it,
lut meantime we march-we march"
so Christ, our King, gives us our choice
between his friendship and his frown, and
many of MS have long been considering what
We had better do; but meantime He marches
IN, and our opportunities are marching by.
And we shall be the loving subjects of His
elgn, or tho victims of our own obduracy.
20, urge You to precipitancy, rather than
low de'iberation, and / write all over your
Oul the words of Christ | saw inscribed on the |
monument of Princess Elizabeth in the Isle
# Wight, the words to which her index
niger pointed in the open Bible when she was
ound dead in her bed after q lifetime of
rouble: Come unto Ne all We who are
weary and heavy laden. and l will give you
est. Is there a drunkard here. You NAV, by
he Saviour's grace, have that fire of thirst
tterly extinguished. Is there defrauder
ere? You may be made saint Is there
libertne here? You may be made as pure
S the light. When a minister in an outdoor
Meeting in Scotland was eulogizing goodness,
here were hanging around the edge
the audience some of the most denraved
1en and women, and the minister said moth
1g about mercy for prodigals. And a de-
raved woman cried out: Your rope is not
ing enough for the like of us.n Blessed be
Tod, our Gospel can fathom the deepest
epths and reach TO farthest wanderings and
ere is rope that is long enough to rescue
he worst: "Whosoever will
But why take extreme cases, when we all
ave been or are now the captives of sin and
eathf And we may through the great
drop our shackles and take a
1rone You have looked at your hand and
RIM only as being useful now, and a curious
iece of anatomy, but there is something ,
bout your hand and arm that makes ms
mink they are an undeveloped wing.
md if you would know what pos ,
Utilities are suggested by that, ask
he eagle that has looked close into the eye
as struck its claw into the black locks of the
empest; or ask the condor that this morning |
descending to the highest peak of CHM
,orazo. Your right hand and arm and your
eft hand and arm, two undeveloped wings, |
,etter get ready for the empyrean.
''I'ise. my soul, and stretch thy wing,
Thy better portion trace"
There have been chains famous in the
worlds history, such as the chain which
astened the prisoner of Chillon to the pillar,
nto the staple of which | have thrust my
and. on the isolated rock of the Lake of
teneva; such as the chain which the
russian exile c'anIIs on his wa to the mines
f Siberia; such as the chain which Zenooia,
he captive queen, wore when brought into
he presence OF AureIian. Ave, there have
zen races in chains, aud nations in chains,
nd there has been a world in chains; but.
hank God, the last one OF them shall be
rOken, and under the Iiberating power of |
he omnipotent Gospel the shackles shall |
all from the last neck. AMI the last arm and
he last foot. But these shattered letters
hall all he gathered no again from the dun