Connecticut western news., 1893-11-30

years of my life while l was galnget-
 ting. I like this evening of my day
 great deal better than I did the morn
 ing. In the morning greedily devoured
 the prey, but now it is evening, and I am
 gloriously dividing the spoil"
 My friends, this world is poor thing
 to hunt. It is healthful to go out in the
 woods and hunt. It rekindles the luster
 of the eye. It strikes the brown of the
 autumnal leaf into the cheek. It gives
 to the rheumatic limbs the strength to
 leap like roe. Christopher Norths pet
 gun, the muckle-mou'd Meg, going off
 in the summer in the forests, had it's
 echo in the wintertime in the eloquence
 that rang through the university halls
 of Edinburgh. It is healthy to go hunt
 ing in the fields, but tell you it is be-
 littling and bedwarfing and belaming
 for a man to hunt this world. The ham,
 mer comes down on the guncap, and the
 barrel explodes and kills you instead of
 that which you are pursuing.
 When you turn out to hunt the world,
 the world turns to hunt you, and as
 many sportsman aiming his gun at a
 panther's heart has gone down under the
 W
 attempting to devour this world the
 world has been devouring you. So it
 was with Lord Byron. So it was with
 Coleridge. So it was with Catherine of
 Russia. Henry II went out hunting for
 this world, and it's lances struck through
 his heart Francis aimed at the world,
 but the assassin's dagger put an end to
 his ambition and his life with one stroke.
 Mary Queen of Scots wrote on the win dow of her castle:
 From the top of all my trust
 Mishap hath laid me in the dust.
 The queen dowager of Navarro was
 offered for her wedding day a costly and
 beautiful pair of gloves, and she put
 them on, but they were poisoned gloves,
 and they took her life. Better bare
 hand of cold privation than warm and poisoned glove of ruinous success. "Oh," :" says some young man in the audience, "I believe what you are preaching. I am going to do that very thing In the morning of my life am going to devour the prey, and in the evening shall di- vide the spoil of Christian character. I only want little while to SOW my wild oats, and then I will be good"
 Young man, did you ever take the cen sus of all the old people? How many old people are there in your house? One, two or none? How many in vast assemblage like this2 Only here and there gray head, like the patches of snow here and there in the fields on late April day The fact is that the tides of the years are so strong that men go down under them before they get to be 60, before they get to be 90, before they get to be 40, before they get to be 30. And if you, my young brother, resolve now that you will spend the morning of your days in devouring the prey the probability is that you will never divide the spoil in the evening hour. He who postpones until old age
 the religion of Jesus Christ postpones it forever.
 Where are the men who 30 years ago resolved to become Christians in old age, putting it off a certain number of years? They never got to be old. The railroad collision, or the steamboat explosion, or
 the slip on the ice, or the falling ladder, or the sudden cold, put an end to their opportunities. They have never had an opportunity since, and they never will have an opportunity again. They locked the door of heaven against their soul,
 and they threw away the keys. They
 chased the world, and they died in the chase. The wounded tiger turned on them. They failed to take the game they pursued. Mounted on 8 swift
 courser, they leaped the hedge, but the courser fell on them and crushed them. f0 hor orfa bafx fo, :, "a
 world, they lost both and got neither. DIVIDING THE SPOIL.
 While this is an encouragement to old
 people who are still unpardoned, it is no
 encouragement to the yourg who are putting off the day of grace. This doc urine that the old may be repentant is to be taken cautiously. It is medicine that kills or cures. The same medicine given to different patients, in one case it saves life and in the other it destroys it. This possibility of repentance at the close of life may cure the old man while it kills the young. Be cautious in taking it. Again, my subject is descriptive of those who come to sudden and radi- cal change. You have noticed how short time it is from morning to night-only seven or eight hours. You know that the day has a very brief life. Its heart beats 24 times, and then it is dead How quick this transition in the character of these Benjamites! "In the morning thoy shall devour the prey, and at night they shall divide the spoil" Is it possible that there shall be such transforma- tion in any of our characters? Yes. A
 man may be at 7 o'clock in the morning
 an all devouring worldling, and at 2 o'clock at night he may be peaceful, distributive Christian.
 Conversion is instantaneous. A man
 passes into the kingdom of God quicker than down the sky runs zigzag lightning. A man may be anxious about his soul for great many years; that does not | make him Christian. A man may pray | great while; that does not make him a Christian. A man may resolve on the reformation of his character and have
 that resolution going on great while; that does not make him Christian But the very instant when he filings his soul on the mercy of Jesus Christ, that in- stant is illustration, emancipation, resur- | rection. Up to that point he is going in
 the wrong direction; after that point he is going in the right direction. Before
 that moment he is child of sin; after that moment he is child of God. Be- | fore that moment devouring the prey; after that moment dividing the spoil. | Five minutes is as good as five years. My nearer, you know very we'll that
 the best things you have done you have
 done in flash. You made up your mind
 in an instant to buy, or to sell, or to in
 vest, or to stop, or to start If you had
 missed that one chance, you would have
 missed it forever. Now, just as precipi-
 tate and quick and spontaneous will be
 the ransom of your soul Some morning
 you were making a calculation. You got l on the track of some financial or social
 game. With your pen or pencil you
 were pursuing it. That very morning
 you were devouring the prey, but that | ~-l-A- .--