Connecticut western news., 1894-08-02


 confess that I would be happier if could exercise the simple and beautiful faith that is possessed by many whom I know. I am not willingly out of the church or out of the faith. My state of uncertainty is one of unrest. Sometimes I doubt my immortality and look upon the deathbed as the closing scene, after which there is nothing. What shall do that I have not done?" An, skepti- cism is dark and doleful land! Let me say that this Bible Is either true or false. If it be false, we are as we'll of as you; if it be true, then which of us Is safer?
 A Line Drawn.
 Let me also ask whether your trouble has not been that you confounded Chris tianity with the inconsistent character of some who profess it. You are a law yer In your profession there are mean and dishonest men. Is that anything against the law? You are a doctor. There are unskilled and contemptible men in your profession. Is that any thing against medicine? You are a mer- chant There are thieves and defrauders in your business. Is that anything against merchandise? Behold, then, the unfairness of charging upon Christiani- ty the wickedness of its disciples.
 We admit some of the charges against those who profess religion. Some of the most gigantic swindles of the present day have been carried on by members of the church. There are men in the churches who would not be trusted for $5 without good collateral security. They leave their business dishonesties in the vestibule of the church as they go in and sit at the communion. Hay ing concluded the sacrament, they get up, wipe the wine from their lips, go out and take up their sins where they let off To serve the devil is their regu- lar work; to serve God. sort of play spell With Sunday sponge they ex- pect to wipe off from their business slate all the past weeks inconsistencies. You have no more right to take such mans life as a specimen of religion than you have to take the twisted irons and split timbers that lie on the beach at Coney Island as specimen of an American ship It is time that we drew line be- tween religion and the frailties of those who profess it.
 Htndrances to Piety.
 Again, there may be some of you who, in the attempt after Christian life, will have to run against powerful passions and appetites. Perhaps 1t is a disposition to anger that you have to contend against, and perhaps, while in a very serious mood, you hear of some thing that ma zes you feel that you must swear or die I know of Christian man who was once so exasperated that he said to a mean customer, II cannot swear at you myself, for I am mem Der of the church, but if you will go down stairs my partner in business will swear at you. All your good resolu- tions heretofore have been torn to tat ters by explosions of temper. Now, there is no harm in getting mad If you only get mad at sin. You need to bridle and saddle these hot breathed passions and with them ride down injustice and wrong. There are thousand things in the world that we ought to be mad at. There is no harm in getting redhot if
 
 needs hammering. A man who has no power of righteous indignation is an i'm beetle. But be sure it is righteous in dignation and not a petulancy that blurs and unravels and depletes the soul.
 There is large class of persons in midlife who have still in them appe- tites that were aroused in early man. hood, at a time when they prided them selves on being little fast, Thigh hvers," free and easy, i" ''hail fellows we'll met ," They are now paying in compound interest for troubles they col lected 20 years ago. Some of you are trying to escape, and you will, yet very narrowly, '.as with the skin of your teeth. :" God and your own soul only know what the struggle is Omnipotent grace has pulled out many soul that was deeper in the mire than you are. They line the beach of heaven, the mul- titude whom God has rescued from the thrall of suicidal habits. If you this day turn your back on the wrong and start anew, God will help you. Oh, the weak ness of human help! Men will sympa- thize for awhile and then turn you off. If you ask for their pardon, they will give it and say they will try you again; but, falling away again under the power of temptation, they cast you of forever. But God forgives seventy times seven - yea, seven hundred times - yea, though this be the ten thousandth time he is more earnest, more sympathetic, more helpful this last time than when you took your first misstep.
 If, with all the influences favorable fs right life, men make so many mis- takes, how much harder it is when, for instance, some appetite thrusts its iron grapple into the roots of the tongue and pulls a man down with hands of de- he break away, there will be no sport t in the undertaking, no holiday enjoy ment, but a struggle in which the wres- tiers move from side to side and bend and twist and watch for an opportunity to get in heavier stroke until with one final effort, in which the muscles are distended, and the veins stand out, and the blood starts, the swarthy habit falls under the knee of the victor-es- capped at last as with the skin of his teeth
 In the last day it will be found that Hugh Latimer and John Knox and Huss and Ridley were not the greatest martyrs, but Christian men who went up incorrupt from the contaminations and perplexities of Wall street, Water street, Pearl street, Broad street, State street, Third street, Lombard street and the bourse. On earth they were called brokers or stockholders or retailers or importers, but in heaven Christian heroes No fagots were heaped about their feet, no inquisition demanded from them recantation, no soldier aim- ed a spike at their heart, but they had mental tortures, compared with which all physical consuming is as the breath of a spring morning.
 Peace of the Gospel.
 I find in the community large class of men who have been so cheated so