Connecticut western news., 1895-01-31

sent rom her usudl pldC6 hb tI6 taDI6.
 One of the grandchildren goes to the foot
 of the stairs and cries, "Grandmotherin
 But there is no answer. Fearing some
 thing is the matter, they go up to see,
 and all seems right. The spectacles and
 Bible on the stand. and the covers of the
 bed are smooth, and the face is calm,
 her white hair on the white pillow case
 like snow on snow already fallen. But
 her soul is gone up to look upon the
 things that the night before she had
 been reading of in the Scriptures. What
 a transporting look on her dear old
 wrinkled face! She has seen the King in his beauty" She has been welcomed
 by the "Lamb who was slain. And her
 two oldest sons, having hurried up stairs, look and whisper. Henry to George,
 "That is religionr George to Henry,
 "Yes, that is religionP'
 He Dispensed Blessings.
 There is a New York merchant who
 has been ill business l should say 10 or 50 years. During an old fashioned re
 vival of religion in boyhood he gave his heart to God. He did not make the ghastly and infinite and everlasting mis-
 take of sowing ''wild oats, with tEe expectation of sowing good wheat later
 on. He realized the fact that the most
 of those who sow wild oats" never
 reap any other crop. He started right
 and has kept right. He went down in 1857, when the banks failed, but he
 failed honestly and never lost his faith in God. Ups and downs-he sometimes laughs over them-but whether losing or gaining he was growing better all the
 time He has been in many business
 ventures, but he never ventured the ex- pertinent of gaining the world and los ing his soul. His name was a power both in the church and in the business world. He has drawn more checks for contributions to asylums and churches
 and schools than any one, except God, knows. He has kept many business man from failing by lending his name on the back of note till the crisis was past. All heaven knows about him, for the poor woman whose rent he paid in her last days, and the man with con- sumption in the hospital to whom he sent flowers and the cordials just before
 ascension, and the people he encouraged in many ways, after they entered heaven kept talking about it, for the immortals are neither deaf nor dumb. Well, it is
 about time for the old merchant himself to quit earthly residence.
 As it is toward evening, he shuts the
 safe, puts the roll of newspapers ill his pocket. thinking that the family may like to read them after he gets home. He folds up a S5 bill and gives it to the boy to carry to one of the car men who got his leg broken and may be in need of little money; puts stamp on let ter to his grandson at college, letter with good advice, and an inclosure to make tho holidays happy, then looks around the store or office and says to the clerks, Good evening", and starts for home, stopping on the way at a door to ask how his old friend, deacon in tho
 same church, is getting on since his last
 bad attack of vertigo He enters his own home, and that is his last evening on
 earth. He does not say much. No last words are necessary. His whole life has been a testimony for God and righteous
 ness. More people would liko to attend his obsequi than any house or church would hold. The officiating clergyman begins his remarks by quoting from the psalmist, "Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men," Every hour in heaven for all the million years of eternity that old merchant will see the results of his earthly benefcence and fidelity, while on the street where he did business. and in the orphan asylum in which he was a director, and in the church of which he was an officer, when ever his geniality and benetioence and goodness are referred to, bank director will say to bank director, and merchant to merchant, and neighbor to neighbor,
 and Christian to Christian: "That is re- igion. Yes, that is religion"
 Saved From Degradation.
 There is man seated or standing very near you. Do not look at him, for
 it might be unnecessary embarrassment. Only few minutes ago he came down off the steps of as happy home as there
 is in this or any other city. Fifteen years ago, by reason of his dissipated
 habits, his home was horror to wife and children. What that woman went
 through with in order to preserve re- spectability and hide her husbands dis grace is a tragedy which it would re- quire @ Shakespeare or Victor Hugo to write out in five tremendous acts Shall tell it? He struck herl Yes; the one who at the altar b had taken with VOWS so solemn they nlao.a the orange blos- soms tremblel He s-ruck herl He made
 the beautiful holidays "a reign of ter
 ror." Instead of his supporting her, she
 supported him. The children had often
 heard him speak the name of God, but
 never in prayer-only in profanity. It
 was the saddest thing on earth that
 can think of-a destroyed homel Walk
 ing along the street one day an imper- sonation of all wretohedness he saw
 sign at the door of Young Mems Chris
 tian association, Meeting For Men Only"
 He went in, hardly knowing why he did so, and sat down by the door. and a young man was in broken voice and
 poor grammar telling how the Lord had saved him from a dissipated life, and
 the man back by the door said to him. self, Why cannot I have the Lord do the
 same thing for me?' and he put his hands, all a-tremble, over his bloated face
 and said: 70 God, want thati I must have thatP and God said, "You shall
 have it, and you have itnow" And the man came out and went home a changed
 man, and though the children at first
 shrank back and looked to the mother
 and began to cry with fright they soon
 saw that the father was changed man. That home has turned from Paradise
 Lost' to Paradise Regained. The
 wife sings all day long at her work, for
 she is so happy, and the children rush
 out into the hall at the first rattle of the
 fathers key in the door latch to welcome
 him with oaresses and questions of,