Connecticut western news., 1895-07-18

preaching. I am suffering from the phys ical effects of early sin. | can't preach now; 1 am sick. A consecrated man he now is, and he mourns bitterly over early sins, but that does not arrest their bodily effects.
 The simple fact is that men and wom- en often take 20 years of their life to build up influences that require all the rest of their lifo to break down. Talk about man beginning life when he is 21 years of age; talk about woman be- ginning life when she is IS years of agel An, no! In many respects that is the time they close life. In nine cases out of ten all the questions of eternity are decided before that. Talk about a majority of men getting their fortunes between 30 and 40! They get or lose fortunes between 10 and 20. When you tell me that man is just beginning life, tell you he is just closing it. Tho next 50 years will not be of as much i'm portance to him as the first 20.
 Cannot Be Undone.
 Now, why do say this? Is it for the annoyance of those who have only a baleful retrospection? You know that is not my way. say it for the benefit of young men and women. want them to understand that eternity is wrapped up ill this hour; that the sins of youth VIC never get over; that you are now fash ioning the mold in which your great future is to run that minute, instead of being 60 seconds long, is made up of everlasting ages. You can see what dig ,,i+ nixy fn life of all our young folks. Why, in the light of this subject life is not some thing to be frittered away, not some thing to be smirked about, not some thing to be dance.l out, but something to be weighed in the balances of eternity. Oh, young man, the sin of yesterday, the sin of tomorrow will reach over 1O,- 900 years-aye, over the great and unend- ing eternity. You may after awhile say: 'I am very sorry. Now have got to be 30 or 40 years of age, and 1 do wish had never committed those sins. What does that amount to? God may pardon you, but undo those things you never will, you never can.
 In this same category of irrevocable mistakes put all parental neglect We begin the education of our children too late. By the time they get to be 10 or 15 we wake up to our mistakes and try to eradicate this bad habit and change that, but it is too late. That parent who omits ill the first ten years of the child's life to make an eternal impression for Christ never makes it. The child will probably go on with all the disadvan- tages, which might have been avoided by parental faithfulness. Now you see what mistake that father or mother makes who puts off to late life adher- ence to Christ. Here is man who at 50 years of age says to you, "I must be Christian,'' and he yields his heart to God and sits i'll the place of prayer to- day Christian. None of us can doubt it. He goes home, and he says: "Here at 50 years of age have given my heart to the Saviour. Now must establish family altar '' What? Where are your | children now? One i'll Boston, another | in Cincinnati another in New Orleans, and you, my brother, at your fiftieth year going to establish your family al tar? Very we'll, better late than never, | but alas, alas, that you did not do it 25 | years ago!
 Too Late.
 When I was in Chamouni, Switzer- | land, saw in the window of one of the shops picture that impressed my mind very much. It was picture of an accident that occurred on the side of one of tho Swiss mountains. A company of travellers, with guides, went up some very steep places-places which but few travellers attempted to go up. They were, as all travellers gre there, fastened | together with cords at the waist, so that if one slipped the rope would hold him, | the rope fastened to the others. Passing along the most dangerous point, one of l the guides slipped, and they all started down the precipice But after awhile one more muscular than the rest struck his heels into the ice and stopped, but | the rope broke, and down, hundreds and thousands of feet, the rest went
 And so I see whole families bound to- gether by ties of affection and in many cases walking on slippery places of ! worldliness and sin. The father knows it, and the mother knows it, and they are bound all together After awhile
 hey begin to slide down sleeper and sleeper, and the father becomes alarm ed, and he stops, planting his feet on the "rock of ages. He stops, but the rope breaks, and those who were once | tied fast to him by moral and spiritual | influences go over the precipice. Oh, there is such thing as coming to Christ soon enough to save ourselves, but not soon enough to save others
 How many parents wake up in the latter part Of life to find out the mis- takel The parent says, II have been too Ienient," or ''have been too severe in the discipline of my children. If had the little ones around me again, how different I would dol' You will never have them around again. The work is done the bent to the character is given l; the eternity is decided. I say this to young parents, those who are 25 and 30 or 35 years of age-have the family altar tonight. How do you suppose that fla ther felt as he leaned over the couch of his dying child, and the expiring son said to him: Father, you have been very good to me- You have given me a fine education, and you have placed me in a fine social position, you have done everything for me in a worldly sense but, father, you never told me how to die. Now am dying, and am afraid. Y"
 Unkindness to the Departed.
 In this category of irrevocable mis- takes I place also the unkindnesses done the departed. When I was boy, my mother used to say to me sometimes, "De Witt, you will be sorry for that when am gone. And remember just how she looked, sitting there with cap
 and spectacles and the old Bible in her
 lap, and she never said truer thing than that, for I have often been sorry since. While we have our friends with us we say unguarded things that wound the feelings of those to whom we ought tn give nothing hnt kindness Perhans