Connecticut western news., 1890-02-12

Christ Jesus. Then let all the forces of this world come up. in cavalry charge, and let spirits of darkness come on an internal stOrming party attempting to take our soul, this rope twisted from these words, "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin," will hurl them back defeated forever.
 Still further: We must take this red cord of tte text and stretch it across the window of our households. When the Israeiitish army came up against Jericho, they said: "What is that in tue windowE' Some one said ssThat is a scarlet liue." ''Oh," said some one else, "that must be the house that was to be spared. Don't touch it." Tha line was thick enough, and long enough, and conspicuous enough to save Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers and her sisters-the entire family. Have our house. holds as good protection! You have bolts on the front door and on the back, and fas- tenings to the window, and perhaps burglar alarms, and perhaps an especial watchman blowing his whistle at midnight before your dwelling, but all that cannot protect your household.
 Is there on our houses the sign of a Saviour's sacrifice and mercyY Is there 8 scarlet line in the window? Have your chii- dren been consecrated to Christ? Have you been washed in the blood of the atonement? In what room do you have family prayers? Show me where it is you are accustomed to kneel. The sky is black with the coming delnge. Is your family inside or outside of the ark? It IS sad thing for man to reject Christ; but to lie down in the night of sin, come up and trip over him-that is terrific. It is a sad thing for mother to reject Christ ]; but to gather her family around her, and tten take them by the hand and lead them out into paths of worldliness, away from God and heav. n-alas alas! There may be geranium and cactus in that family window, and up holstery lowering over it, and childish faces looking out of 1t, but there Is no scarlet thread stretched across it.
 Although that house may be on the best street in all the town or city, 1t is really on the edge of a marsh across which sweep foundation, and its spaendor will come down, and great will be the fall of 1t. A home without God! A prayerless father! An un- devout mother! Awful! awful! Is that you? Will you keep on, my brother, on the wrong read, and take your loved ones with you? Time is so short we cannot waste any of 1t on apologies, or indirections, or circum- locutiOns. You owe to your children, o father, o mother, more than food, more than clothing, more than shelter-you owe them the example Of 8 prayerful, consecrated, ], pronounced, out-and-out Christian life. You cannot afford to keep it away from them.
 Now, as 1 stand here, you do not see any hands outstretched toward me, and yet there are hands on my brow and hands on both my shoulders. They are hands of pa- ternal benediction. It is quite a good many years ago now since we folded those hands as they began the last sleep on the banks of the Raritan in the village cemetery; but those hands are stretched out toward me to- day, and they are just az warm, and they are just as gentle as when 1 sat on her knee at 5 years of age. And shall never shake of those hands. do not want to. They have helped me so many thousand times already, and do not expect to have trouble or Il trial between this and my grave where those hands will not help me. It was not very splendid home, as the world calls it, but we had family Bible there. well worn by tender perusal; and there was family altar there, where we knelt morning and night; and there was a holy Sabbath there; and stretch ed in straight line or hung in loops or fes- toons, there was a scarlet line In the window.
 Q the tender, precious, blessed memory of Christian memory! Is that che impression you are making upon your children? When you are dead-and 1t will not be long before you are-when you are dead, will your child say: If there ever was Christian father, mine was one. If there ever was good Christian mother, mine was oneW
 But blessed be God for this scarlet line in the window. That tells me that the blood of Christ bought that home for my soul, and as put my hand on that scarlet line, every thing in the future brightens. My eyesight gets better, and the robes of the victors are more lustrous, and our loved ones who went away some time ago-they do not stand any more with their backs to us, but their faces are this way, and their voices drop through this Sabbath air, saying with all tenderness and sweetness: "Come Come! Comew'
 And the child that you think of only as buried-why, there she is, and it Is May day in heaven; and they gather the anMranth, and they pluck the lilies, and they twist then, into garland for her brow, and she is one of the May queens of heaven. Oh, do you think they could see the waving todayy It is quite a pleasant day, pretty clear, and not many clouds in the sky: wonder if they can see us from the good land! l think they can. If from this window of earthly pros poets we can almost see them, then from their powers of light think they can fully see us. And so 1 wave them the glory, and wave them the joy, and say: "Have you their voices answer: ssGod hath wiped away all tears from our eyes," I say: '.Is it as grand up there as you thought it would be p and the voices answer: "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath 1t entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for those that love him."
 1 say: "Do you have any more struggle for bread?" and they answer: ''We hunger no more, we thirst no more." And I say: ''Have you been out to the cemetery of the golden city?' and they answer: ''rhere is no heavens, and I say, "Where do you get your light from nights, and what do you burn in the temple?" and they answer: s'There is no night here, and we have no need of candle or of star" And I say: ''What book do you sing out ofF' and they answer: "The Halle lujah Chorus" And say: ''In the splendor and magnihcence of your city don't you ever get lostw' and they answer: "The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne leadeth Us to living fountains of water." Oh, how near they seem! Their wings-do you not feel them? And all that through the window of our earthly prospects, across which stretches the scarlet line.