Connecticut western news., 1893-04-20
anit,y.
anity.

l Sometimes you have been riding along
 on summer night by swamp, and | you have seen lights that kindled over | decayed vegetation-lights which are | called jack-o- lantern or will-o'- -the-wisp. | These lights are merely poisonous mias- | mata. My friends, on your way to
 heaven you will want a better light than | the will-o -the-wisps which dance on the
 rotten character of dead Christians. Ex- udations from poisonous trees in our
 neighbours garden will make very poor
 balm for our wounds.
 Sickness will come, and we will be
 pushed out toward the Red sea which | divides this world from the next and not the inconsistency of Christians but the | rod of faith will wave back the waters as | a commander wheels his host. The judg- ment will come with its thundershod so- | lemnities, attended by bursting noun | tains and the deep laugh of earthquakes, | and suns will fly before the feet of God | like sparks from the anvil, and 10000 | burning worlds shall blaze like banners | in the track of God omnipotent Oh, | then we will stop and say, There was mean Christian: there was a cowardly | Christian; there was a lying Christian; | there was an impure Christian" In that | day as now, "If thou be wise, thou shalt | be wise for myself, but if thou scornest | thou alone shall bear it." Why, my brother. the inconsistency of Christians so far from being an argument to keep you away from God ought to be an ar- gument to drive you to him. The best place for sl1illful doctor is neighbor- II l best place for an enterprising merchant to open his store is in a place where the bargain makers do not understand their business, and the best place for you who want to become the illustrious and com plete Christians-the best place for you is to come right down among us who are so incompetent and so inconsistent some times.
 Other persons apologize for not becom- ing Christians because they lack time, as though religion muddled the brain of the accountant, or tripped the pen of the author, or thickened the tongue of the orator, or weakened the arm of the me chanic, or scattered the briefs of the lawyer, or interrupted the sales of the merchant. They bolt their store doors against it and fight it back with trowels and with yard sticks and cry, "Away with your religion from our store. our office. our factoryw
 RELIGION FOR WORKERS. They do not understand that religion in this workaday world will help you to do anything you ought to do. It can lay keel, it can sail ship it can buy car go, it can work pulley, it can pave street, it can fit a wristband, it can write constitution. it can marshal host. It
 is as appropriate to the astronomer as his telescope, to the chemist as his labora- tory, to the mason as his plumbline, to the carpenter as his plane, to the child as his marbles, to the grandfather as his staff
 No time to be religious here! You have no time not to be religious. You might as well have no clerks in your store, no books in your library, no compass on your ship, no rifle in the battle, no hat for your head, no coat for your back, no shoes for your feet. Better travel on to- ward eternity bare headed and bare footed and houseless and homeless and friend - less than to go through life without re- ligion.
 Did religion make Raleigh any less of statesman, or Havelock any less of a soldier, or Grinnell any less Of mer- chant, or West any less of painter? Religion is the best security in every bargain, 1t is the sweetest note in every song, it is the brightest gem in every coronet. No time to be religious! Why, you will have to take time to be sick, to be troubled, to die. Our world is only the wharf from which we are to embark for heaven. No time to secure the friendship of Christ. No time to buy lamp and trim it for that walk through the darkness which otherwise will be illumined only by the whiteness of the tombstones. No time to educate the eye for heavenly splendofs, or the hand for choral harps, or the ear for everlasting songs, or the soul for honor, glory and immortality. One would think we had time for nothing else.
 Other persons apologize for not enter ing the Christian life because it is time enough yet. That is very like those per- sons who send their regrets and say: "I will come in perhaps at II or 12 o'clock. I will not be there at the opening of the banquet, but will be there at the close" Not yet! Not yet!
 Now, do not give any doleful view of this life. There is nothing in my na- ture, nothing in the grace of God, that tends toward doleful view of human
 life. have not much sympathy with Addison's description of the ''Vision of Mirza," where he represents human life as being bridge of hundred arches, and both ends of the bridge covered with clouds, and the race coming on, the most of them falling down through the first span, and all of them falling down through the last span. It is very dis nal picture. have not much sympathy with the Spanish proverb which says, "The sky is good, and the earth is good that which is bad is between the earth and the sky"
 CHRISTIANS SHOULD BE HOPEFUL.
 But while we Christian people are bound to take cheerful view of life we must also confess that life is great un- certainty, and that man who says, '1 can't become Christian because thereis time enough yet" is running a risk inf mite. You do not perhaps realize the fact that this descending grade of sin gets sleeper and sleeper, and that you are gathering up rush and velocity which after awhile may not answer to the brakes. Oh, my friends, be not among those who give their whole life to the world and then give their corpse to God. It does not seem fair while our pulses are in full play of health that we serve our selves and serve the world and then make God at last the present of coffin. It does not seem right that we run our ship from coast to coast, carrying cargoes for ourselves, and then when the ship is crushed on the rocks give to God the shivered timbers. It is great thing for man on his dying pillow to repent better than never at all-but how much