Connecticut western news., 1891-12-17

THE PERn.S OF SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS. There is mistake we make about
 young men. We put them in two
 classes-the one class is moral, the other is absolute The moral are safe. The absolute cannot be reclaimed. l deny both propositions. The moral are not safe unless they have laid hold of God, and the absolute may be re- claimed. l suppose there are self righteous men in this house who feel no need of God, and will not seek after
 him, and they will go out in the
 world and they will be tempted, and
 they will be flung down by misfor-
 tune, and they will go down, down, down, until some night you will see
 them going home hooting, raving,
 shouting blasphemy-going home to
 their mother, going home to their sis ter, going home to the young compan- ion to whom only little while ago, in the presence of q brilliant assemblage, flashing lights and orange blossoms,
 and censers swinging in the air. they promised fidelity and purity and kind
 ness perpetual. As that man reaches the door she
 will open it, not with an outcry, but
 she will stagger back from the door as he comes in, and in her look there will
 be the prophecy of woes that are com ing, want that will shiver in need of fire, hunger that will cry in vain for bread, cruelties that will not leave the
 heart when they have crushed it, but pinch it again, and stab it again, until | some night she will open the door of
 the place where her companion was ruined, and she will fling out her | arn from under her ragged shawl
 and say, with almost omnipotent elo- quence: Give me back my husband! Give me back my protector! Give me back my all Him of the kind heart
 and gentle words and the manly brow give him back to mel" And then
 the wretches, obese and filthy, will
 push back their matted locks, and they
 will say: Put her outl Put her outw l Oh, self righteous man, without God you are in peril Seek after him to- day. Amid the ten thousand tempta- tions of life there is no safety for man | without God. B l But may be addressing some who have gone astray, and so assault that other proposition that the absolute
 cannot be reclaimed. Perhaps you
 have only gone little astray. While
 speak are you troubled2 Is there a
 voice within you saying, What did ] you do that for2 Why did you go
 there9 What did you mean by thatY"
 Is there memory in your soul that
 makes you tremble9 God only knows
 all our hearts. Yea, if you have gone
 so far as to commit iniquities, and have l gone through the whole catalogue, I
 invite you back this hour The Lord
 waits for you. "Rejoice! oh, young
 man, in thy youth, and let thy heart
 cheer thee in the days of thy youth;
 but know thou that for all these things
 God will bring thee into judgment.
 Come home, young man, to your fla
 ther's God. Come home, young man,
 to your mothers God Oh, wish that
 all the batteries of the Gospel>could to-
 day be unlinbered against all those in
 fuences which are taking down so many
 of our young men. Iwould like to
 blow trumpet of warning and recruit
 until this whole audience would march 1 out on a crusade against the evils of so- ciety. But let none of us be disheart- ened. .sr..
 Oh, Christian workers, my heart Is | high with hope. The dark horizon s blooming into the morning of which prophets spoke, and of which poets
 have dreamed, and of which painters have sketched. The worlds bridal hour advances. The mountains will kiss the morning radiant and effulgent, and all | the waves of the sea will become the crystal keys of a great organ, on which
 the fingers of everlasting joy shall play | the grand march of world redeemed. Instead of the thorn there shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar there shall come up the myrtle tree,
 and the mountains and the hills shall
 break forth into singing, and all the
 trees of tile wood shall clap their hands