Connecticut western news., 1894-09-27


 restitution. In times of pros perity it is right, against rainy day, to assign property to your wife, but If, in time of perplexity and for the sake of defrauding your creditors, you make such assignment you become culprit before God, and you may as we'll stop praying until you have made restitu- tion. Or suppose one man loans another money on bond or mortgage, with the understanding that the mortgage can lie quiet for several years, but as soon as the mortgage is given commences sheriff mounts the auc- tion block, and the property is struck down at half price, and the mortgagee buys it in. The mortgagee started to get the property at half price and is thief and robber Until he makes restitu- tion there is no mercy for him.
 There Must He Restitution.
 You say: "I cannot make restitution. The parties whom I swindled are gone. " Then I say, "Take the money up to the American Bible society and consecrate it to God. " Zaccheus was wise when he disgorged his unrighteous gains, and it was his first step ill the right direction.
 The way being clear, Christ walked into the house of Zaocheus. He becomes a different man; his wife different woman; the children are different. Oh, it makes a great change in any house when Christ comes into iti How many beautiful homes are represented among youi There are pictures on the wall, there is music in the drawing room, and luxuries in the wardrobe, and a full supply in the pantry. Even if you were half asleep, there is one word with which I could wake you and thrill you through and through, and that word is ''homep There are also houses of suffering represented in which there are neither pictures nor ward robe nor adornment-only one room, and plain cot, or @ bunk in a corner. Yet it is the place where your loved ones dwell, and your whole nature tingles with satisfaction when you think of it and call it home. Though the world may scoff at Us and pursue us, and all the day we be tossed about, at eventide we sail into the harbor of home. Though there be no rest for us in the busy world, and we go trudging about, bearing burdens that we'll nigh crush us, there is refuge, and it hath an easy chair in which we may sit, and a lounge where we may lie, and a seren- ity of peace in which we may repose,.- and that refuge is home. The English sitting on the walls around one night heard a company of musicians playing Home, Sweet Home," and it is said that the whole army broke out in sobs and wailing, so great was their homesickness- God pity the poor, miserable wretch who has no home!
 If Christ Came to Your House.
 Now, suppose Christ should come into your house. First the wife and the mother would feel his presence. Re lgion almost always begins there. It is easier for women to become Christians than for us men. They do not fight so against God. If woman tempted man away from holiness, now she tempts him back She may not make any fuss about it, but somehow every body in the house knows that there is a change in the wife and mother. She chides the children more gently. Her face sometimes lights up with an un- earthly glow. She goes into some unoc- cupied room for little while, and the husband goes not after her, nor asks why she was there. He knows without asking that she has been praying. The husband notices that her face is brighter than on the day when, years ago, they stood at the marriage altar, and he knows that Jesus has been putting upon her brow a wreath sweeter than the orange blossoms She puts the children to bed, not satisfied with the formal prayer that they once offered, but she fingers now and tells them of Jesus good place where they all hope to be at last. And then she kisses them good night with something that the child feels to be a heavenly benediction- that shall hold onto the boy after he has become a man 40 or 50 years of age, for there is something in good, loving, Christian mothers kiss
 
 His Troubled Conscience.
 Now the husband is distressed and and almost vexed If she would only speak to him, he would .blow her up." He does not like to say about it, but he knows that she has a hope that he has not and peace that he has not. He knows that, dying as he now is, he cannot go to the same place. He cannot stand it any longer. Some Sunday night, as they sit in the church side by side, the floods of his soul break forth. He wants to pray, but does not know how. He hides his face lest some of his worldly friends see him, but Gods spirit arouses him, melts him, overwhelms him. And they go home, husband and wife, in silence, un- til they get to their room, when he cries out, "Oh. pray for me'' And they kneel down. They cannot speak. The words will not come. But God does not want any words. He looks down and answers sob and groan and outgushing tenderness That night they do not sleep any for talking of all the years wasted and of that Saviour who ceased not to call. Before morning they have laid their plans for new life. Morn ing comes. Father and mother descend from the bedroom. The children do not know what is the matter. They never saw father with Bible in his hand be- fore. He says, Come, children; want you all to sit down while we read and pray" The children look at each other and are almost disposed to laugh, but they see their parents are in deep ear nest. It is short chapter that the father reads. He is a good reader at other times, but now he does not get on much He sees so much to finger on. His voice trembles. Everything is so strangely new to him. They kneel-that is, the father and mother do, but the children come down one by one. They do not know that they must. It is some time before they all get down. The sentences are broken. The phrases are a little ungrammatical