Connecticut western news., 1895-01-31


 will them part. But one sound of mari. tai discord makes tho ears of oonti- pent, and perhaps of hemisphere. alert.
 The one letter that ought never to have been written printed in n newspa per makes moro talk than the millions of letters that crowd the postoffices and weigh down tho mail carriers with ex- pressions of honest love. Tolstoi, the great Russian author, is wrong when he prints book for the depreciation of marriage, If your observation has put you in an attitude of deploration for the marriage state, one of two things is true in regard to you. You have either been unfortunate in your acqCaintanceship or you yourself are morally rotten. Tho world, not as rapid as we would like, but still with long strides, is on the way to the scenes of beatitude and felicity which the Bible depicts. The man who cannot see this is wrong, either in his heart or liver or spleen. Look at the great Bible picture gallery, where Isaiah has set up the pictures of arboresoence, girdling the world with cedar and fir and pine and boxwood and the lion led by a child, and St. Johns pictures of waters and trees, and white horse cavalry, and tears wiped away, and trumpets blowl and harps struck, and nations redeemed While there are 10, 900 things do not like, have not seen any Encouragement for the cause of God for 25 years. The kingdom is coming. The earth is prepar- ing to put on bridal array. We need to be getting our anthems and grand marches ready. In our hymnology we shall have more use for Antioch" than for "Windham," for "Ariel' than for "Naomi.'' Let "Hark, From the Tombs Doleful Cry!' be submerged with ''Joy to the World, the Lord Is Comer' Really. if thought the human race were as det; rmined to be bad and getting worse, as the pessimists represent, l would mink it was hardly worth saving. If after F lndreds of years of gospeliza- tion no improvement has been made, let us givc it up and go at something else besides praying and preaching.
 My opini, Il is that if we had enough faith in qnitk results and could go forth rightly equipped with the gospel call the battle for God and righteousness would end with this nineteenth century, and the twentieth century, only five or six years off, would begin the millenni- um, and Christ would reign, either in person on some throne set up between the Alleghanies and the Rockies or in the institutions of mercy and grandeur set up by his ransomed people. Discour- aged work will meet with defeat Ex- pectant and buoyant work will gain the victory. Start out with the idea that all men are liars and scoundrels, and that everybody is as bad as he can be. and that society, and the church, and the world are on the way to demolition, and the only use you will ever be to the world will be to increase the value of lots in 8 cemetery. We need a more cheerful front in all our religious work. People have enough trouble already and do not want to ship another cargo of trouble in the shape of religiosity. If religion has been to you peace, de- fense, an inspiration and a joy, say so. Say it by word of mouth, by pen in your right hand, by face illumined with divine satisfaction. If this world is ever to be taken for God. it will not be by groans, but by halleluiahs. If we could present the Christian religion as 1t real ly is, in it's true attract1veness, all the people would accept it, and accept it right away. The cities, the nations would cry out: "Give us thatl Give it to us in all it's holy magnetism and gra- cious power Put that salve on our woundsl Throw back the shutters for that morning light! Knock off these chains with that silver hammer Give us Christ-his pardon, his peace, his comfort, his heavenl Give us Christ in song, Christ in sermon, Christ in book, Christ in living exampleP
 Religion ExempliAed.
 As a system of didactics religion has never gained one inch of progress. As a technicality it befogs more than it ir- radiates. AS dogmatism it is an awful failure But as fact, as re-enforce- ment, as a transf1guration, it is the mightiest thing that ever descended from the heavens or touched the earth. Exemplify it in the life of good man or good woman, and no one can help but like it. A city missionary visited house in London and found sick and dying boy. There was an orange lying on his bed, and the missionary said, Where did you get that orange?" He said: "A man brought it to me. He comes here often and reads the Bible to me and prays with me and brings me nice things to eat.'' "What is his name?'' said the city missionary. "I forget his name," said the sick boy, "but he makes great speeches over in that great building, pointing to the fnrliament house of London. The mis- sionary asked, 'tWas his name Mir Gladstone?'' "Oh, yes," said the boy, "that is his name-Mr. Gladstonew Do you tell me man can see religion like that and not like it? There is an old haps she is somewhere in the seventies, perhaps 75 or 76. It is the early even- ing hour. Through spectaoles No. she Is reading 8 newspaper until toward bedtime, when she takes up we'll worn book, called the Bible. I know from the illumination in her face she is reading one of the thanksgiving psalms, or in Revelation the story of the 12 pearly gates. After awhile she closes the book and folds her hands and thinks over the past and seems whispering the names of her children, some of them on earth and some of them in heaven. Now a smile is on her face, and now tear. and sometimes the smile catches the tear. The scenes of long life come back to her. One minute she sees all the chil- dren smiling around her, with their toys and sports and strange questionings. Then she remembers several of them down sick with infantile disorders. Then she sees short grave, but over it cut in marble, Suffer them to come to me-" Then there is the wedding hour, and the neighbors in, and the promise of "I will, and the departure from the n11 horoootoad thor, cooy,o of borI