Connecticut western news., 1891-01-28

Sin has made itself king in the earth. It has crowned itself. It has spread banquet. It invites all the world to come to it. It has hung in it's banqueting hall the spells of all king do1ns and the banners of all nations. It has gathered from all music. It has strewn from it's wealth the tables and the floors and arches. And yet how often is that banquet broken up, and how horrible is it's end! Ever and anon there is a handwriting on the wall. A king falls. A great culprit is arrested. The knees of wickedness knock to- gether. Gods judgment, like an armed host, breaks in upon the banquet, and that night is Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain.
 Here is young man who says: '1 cannot see why they make such fuss about the intoxicating cup. Why, it is exhilarating! It makes me feel well. can talk better, think better, feel better. cannot see why people have such a prejudice against it." A few years pass on, and he wakes up and finds himself in the clutches of an evil habit which he tries to break, but can not, and he cries out, "Oh, Lord God, help me!' It seems as though God would not hear his prayer, and in an agony of body and soul he cries out, Ut biteth like a serpent, and it stingeth like an adder" How bright it was at the startl How black it was at the lastl
 Here is man who begins to read corrupt novels "They are so charm ing" says he, II will go out and see for myself whether all these things are so." He opens the gate of sinful life. He goes in. A sinful sprite meets him with her wand She waves her wand, ] and it is all enchantment. Why, it seems as if the angels of God had poured out phials of perfume in the atmosphere! As he walks on he finds the hills becoming more radiant with foliage, and the ravines more resonant with the falling water. Oh. what a charming landscape he seesl But that | sinful sprite with her wand meets him 1 again; but now she reverses the wand, and all the enchantment is gone. The cup is full of poison The fruit turns to ashes All the leaves of the bower 1 are forked tongues of hissing serpents. The flowing fountains fall back in a dead pool. stenchful with corruption. The turing songs become curses and screams of demoniac laughter. Lost spirits gather about him, and feel for his heart, and beckon him on with Hail, brotherl Hail, blasted spirit, haill'' He tries to get out. He comes 1 to the front door where he entered, and tries to push it back, but the door turns l against him. and in the jar of that shutting door he hears these words. "This night is Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans, slain" Sin may open bright as the morning. It ends dark ] as the nightl
 DEATH AT THE FEAST.
 learn further from this subject that Death sometimes breaks in upon ban quet. Why did he not go down to the prisons in Babylon? There were people there that would like to have died. suppose there were men and women in torture in that city who would have welcomed Death But he comes to the palace, and just at the time when the mirth is dashing to the tiptop pitch Death breaks in at the banquet. We have often seen the same thing illus trated. Here is a young man just come from college. He is kind. He is lov- ing. He is enthusiastic He is elo- quent By one spring he may bound to heights toward which many men have been struggling for years. A pro- fession opens before him. He is estab- lished in the law. His friends cheer him. Eminent men encourage him.
 After a while you may see him stand ing in the United States senate or nov ing a popular assemblage by his elot l quence, as trees are moved in a whirl- wind. Some night he retires early. A fever is on him. Delirium, like 8 reck- less charioteer seizes the reius of his intellect. Father and mother stand by, and see the tides of his life going out to the great ocean. The banquet is coming to all end. The lights o1 thought and mirth and eloquence are being extinguished. The garlands are snatched from the brow. The vision is gone Death at the banquet.
 We saw the same thing, on a larger scale, illustrated at the last war in this country Our whole nation had been sitting at national banquet-north, south, east and west. What grain was there but we grew it on our hills. What invention was there but our rivers must turn the new wheel and rattle the strange shuttle. What warm furs but our traders must bring them from the Arctic What fish but ou1 nets must sweep them for the markets. What music but it must sing in our halls. What eloquence but it must speak in our senates.
 Ho! to the national banquet, reach ing from mountain to mountain, and from sea to sea! To prepare that ban quet the sheepfolds and the aviaries o1 the country sent their best treasures. The orchards piled up on the table their sweetest fruits. The presses burst out with new wines. To sit al that table came the yeomanry of New Hampshire, and the lumbermen o1 Maine, and the Carolinian from the rice fields, and the western emigrant from the pines of Oregon, and we were all brothers-brothers at banquet Suddenly the feast ended.
 What meant those mounds throwr