Connecticut western news., 1895-11-14


 Daniel must read it as it is. A minister preached before James I of England. who was James VI of Scotland. What subject did he take? The king was noted all over the world for being unsettled and wavering in his ideas. What did tho minister preach about to this man who was James I of England and James VI of Scotland? He took for his text James i, 6: "He that wavereth is like wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Hugh Latimer offended the king by a sermon he preached, and the king said, "Hugh Latimer, come and apologize. 1T will,' said Hugl, Latimer. So the day was appointed, and the kings chapel was full of lords and dukes and the mighty men and women of the country, for Hugh Latimer wal to apologize. He began his sermon by saying: "Hugh Latimer, bethink thee Thou art in the presence of thine earthly king, who can destroy thy body. But bethink thee, Hugh Latimer, that thou art in the presence of the king of heaven and earth, who can destroy both body and soul in hell fire." Then he preached with appalling directness at the kings crimes.
 4 Ghastly Banquet.
 Another lesson that comes to us to- night-there is a great difference be ween the opening of the banquet of sin and its close. Young man, if you had looked in upon the banquet in the first few hours, you would have wished you had been invited there and could sit at the feast. ''Oh, the grandeur of Bel shazzar's feast!'' you would have said, but you look in at the close of the ban quet and your blood curdles with hor. TOT. The king of terrors has there a ghastlier banquet. Human blood is the wine and dying groans are the music. Sin has made itself a king in the earth It has crowned itself It has spread a banquet. It invites all the world tc come to it. It has hung in it's banquet ing hall the spells of all kingdoms and the banners of all nations. It has gath cred from all music. It has strewn from its wealth the tables and floors and sches. And yet how often is that ban quet broken up and how horrible is its end Ever and anon there is a handwrit- ing on the wall A king falls. A great culprit is arrested. The knees of wicked. ness knock together. Gods judgment, like an armed host, brakes in upon the banquet, and that night is Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain.
 Here is young man who says: "1 cannot see why they make such fuss about the intoxicating cup. Why, it is exhilaratingl It makes me feel well. can talk better, think better, feel better. I cannot see why people have such a prejudice against it." A few years pass on, and he wakes up and finds himself in the clutches of an evil habit which he tries to break, but cannot, and he cries out, 70 Lord God, help mel" It seems as though God would not hear his prayer, and in an agony of body and soul he cries out, Ut biteth like a ser pent, and it stingeth like an adder. D How bright it was at the start How black it was at the last
 Here is man who begins to read loose novels. "They are so charming, " he says. "I will go out and see for my self whether all these things are so. '' He opens the gate of sinful life. He goes in. A sinful sprite meets him with her wand. She waves her wand, and it is all enchantment Why, it seems as If the angels of God had poured out vials of perfume in the atmosphere. AS he walks on he finds the hills becoming more radiant with foliage and the ravines more resonant with the falling water. Oh, what charming landscape he sees But that sinful sprite, with her wand, meets him again, but now she re- verses the wand, and all the enchant- ment is gone. The cup is full of poison. The fruit turns to ashes. All the leaves of. the bower are forked tongues of hiss ing serpents. The flowing fountains fall back in dead pool stenchful with cor. ruption. The turing songs become curses and screams of demoniac laughter. Lost spirits gather about him and feel for his heart and beckon him on with "Hail brother! Hail, blasted spirit, hailp He tries to get out. He comes to the front door where he entered and tries tt him, and in the jar of that shutting dool he hears these words, s'This night ii Belshazzar. the king of the Chaldeans slain. Sin may open bright as tkt morning. It ends dark as the nightl
 An Unexpected Visitor.
 I learn further from this subject tha death sometimes breaks in upon a ban quet. Why did he not go down to th' prisons in Babylon? There were peopl, there that would like to have died. suppose there were men and women il torture in that city who would have welcomed death, but he comes to tn, palace, and just at the time when tn, mirth is dashing to the tiptop pitch death breaks in at the banquet. We hav' often seen the same thing illustrated Here is young man just come from college. He is kind. He is loving H' is enthusiastic. He is eloquent. By on' spring he may bound to heights towart which many men have been strugglin for years. A profession opens befor him. He is established in the law. Hi I friends cheer him. Eminent men en courage him. After awhile you may se him standing in the American senate O moving popular assemblage by his elo quence, as trees are moved in whirl wind. Some night he retires early. 1 fever is on him. Delirium, like a reck less charioteer, seizes the reins of hi intellect. Father and mother stand b. and see the tides of his life going out t the great ocean. The banquet is comini to an end. The lights of thought an, mirth and eloquence are being extin guished. The garlands are snatched iron the brow. The vision is gone. Death a the banquetl
 We saw the same thing on larg, scale illustrated in our civil war. Ou whole nation had been sitting at na tional banquet-north, south, east an west. What grain was there but W grew it on our hills? What inventio was there but our rivers must turn tn new wheel and rattle the strange shut tie? What warm furs but our trader