Connecticut western news., 1894-02-15

men and put out to sea. The pirates, with their flag inscribed of 8 deaths head, thinking they would get an easy prize, bore down upon the Scottish mer- chantman, when the armed men of Wal lace boarded the craft of the pirates and put them in chains and then sailed for port under the Scotch flag flying. And so our souls, assailed of sin and death and hell, through Christ are rescued, and the black flag of sin is torn down, and the striped flag of the cross is hoisted. Bless sed be God for any sign, for any sigual, for any precious stone, that brings to mind the price paid for such @ rescuel
 like the coral, for it seems the solidi- fled foam of breakers, and like the jas per, for it gathers IT colors into its bosom, and like the jet, for it congresses the shadows of many midnights, and like the chrysoprase because it's purple is illumined with small heaven of stars, and I like the chrysolite for its waves of color which seem on fire. But this morn ing nothing so i1npresses me as the ruby, for it depicts, ittypifes, it suggests ''The blood of Jesus Christ that cleanseth from all sin." Without the shedding of blood there is no remission" Yea, Solomon was right when in my text he said. "Wis- dom is better than rubies."
 To bring out contrast that will illus trate my text, put before you two last earthly scenes. The one is in a room with rubies, but no religion, and the other in room with religion, but norubies. You enter the first room, where an aff1uent and worldly man is about to quit this life. There is ruby on the mantel, pos sibly among the vases. There is a ruby in the headdress of the queenly wife.
 On the finger of the dying man there is ruby. The presence of these rubies implies opulence of all kinds. The pic lures on the walls are heirlooms or the trophies of European travel. The cur tains are from foreign looms. The rugs are from Damascus or Cairo. The sofas are stuffed with ease and quietude. The rocking chairs roll backward and for ward on lullabies. The pillows are ex- quisitely embroidered. All the appoint ments of the room are peroration to a successful commercial or professional life. But the man has no religion, never has had and never professed to have, There is not Bible or one religious book in the room.
 The departing man feels that his earth ly career is ended, and nothing opens be- yond. Where he will land stepping of from this life Is mystery, or whether he will land at all, for it may be annihi- lation. He has no prayer to offer, and he does not know how to pray. No hope of meeting again in another state of ex- istence. He is through with this life and is sure of no other. The ruby on the mantel and the ruby on the wasted fn- ger of the departing one say nothing of the ransoming blood which they so nightly typify. So far as giving solace or illumination to departing spirit, they are dead failure. Midnight of utter hopelessness drops on all the scene. BETTER THAN RUBIES.
 Another room of mortal exit Religion and no rubies. She never had money enough to buy one of these exquisites Sometimes she stopped at jewellers show window and saw row of them in carnadining the velvet. She had keen taste enough to appreciate those gems, but she never owned one of them. She was not jealous or unhappy because oth- CTS had rubies while she had none. But she had a richer treasure, and that was the grace of God that had comforted her along the way amid bereavements and temptations and prosecutions and sick nesses and privations and trials of all sorts. Now she is going out of life. The room is bright, not with pictures or statues, not with upholstery, not with any of the gems of mountain or of sea, but there is strange and vivid glow in the room. Not the light of chandelier or star or monday sun, but something that outshines all of them. It must be her illumined face think she must hear sweet voices. Yea, she does hear sweet voices-voices of departed kindred, voices apostolic and prophetic and evan I gelic, but all of them overpowered by the voice of Christ, saying, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the king dom."
 From her illumined face, think she must hear rapturous music. Yea, she does hear rapturous music, now soft as | solos, now thunderous as orchestras; now a saintly voice alone, now the hun dred and forty and four thousand in con- cert. From her illumined face, think she must breathe redolence. Yea. she does inhale aroma from off the gardens whose flowers never wither and from the blossoms of orchards, every tree of which bears 12 manner of fruit. From her illumined face, think she must see a | glorious sight. Yes, she sees the wall that has jasper at the base and amethyst at the top and blood red rubies between. l Goodby, sweet soull Why should you longer stay? Your work all done, your burdens all carried, your tears all weptl Forward into the lightl Up into the joyl Out into the grandeurs! And after you have saluted Christ and your kindred, search out him of the palaces of Lebanon cedar and tell him that you have found to be gloriously true what thousands of years ago he asserted in this mornings text, Wisdom is better than rubies."
 In those furnished palaces of our God may we all meet. For confess to you that my chief desire for heaven is not the radiance, or, to take the suggestion of the text, not the rubescence of the scene
 My one idea of heaven is the place to meet old friends, God, our best friend, and our earthly friends already trans ported. Aye, to meet the millions whom I have never seen, but to whom have administered in the gospel week by week through journalism on both sides of the sea, and throughout Christendom, and through many lands yet semibarbaric.
 A MIGHTY AUDIENCE.
 For the last twenty-three years every
 blast of injustice against me has multi
 piled my readers all the world over. and
 the present malignancy printed and ut
 tered because our church is in financial
 struggle after having two great struc
 lures destroyed by fire and we com.
 pelled to build three large churches
 say the present outrageous injustice ir