Connecticut western news., 1895-08-08
JONAH'S PERVERSITY
MORAL LESSONS OF THE MEMORABLE
 JOURNEY TO TARSAlSA.


 Delusions of Life and the Wages of Sin.
 NEW YORK, Aug. 4.-At this season of the year, when large portion of the is journeying either by land or sea, Rev. Dr. Talmage, who is still absent on his midsummer preaching and tour, has chosen as the subject of his sermon for today, Man Over board" the text being Jonah i, 6: "So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him: What meanest thou, O sleep CT? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
 God told Jonah to go to Nineveh on an unpleasant errand. He would not go. He thought to get away from his duty by putting to sea. With pack under his arm find him on his way to Joppa, seaport. He goes down among the ship ping and says to the men lying around on, the docks, (Which of these vessels sails today?" The sailors answer, "Yon- der is vessel going to Tarshish. Ithink if you hurry you may get on board her. ' Jonah steps on board the rough craft. asks how much the fare is, and pays it. Anchor is weighed, sails are hoisted, and the rigging begins to rattle ill the strong breeze of the Mediterranean. Joppa is an exposed harbor, and it does not take long for the vessel to get on the broad sea. The sailors like what they call "spanking breeze," and the plunge of the vessel from the crest of tall wave is exhilarating to those at home on tho deep. But the strong breeze becomes gale, the gale a hurricane. The affrighted passengers ask the cap tain if he ever saw anything like this before.
 "Oh, yes," he says. "This is noth- ing" Mariners are slow to admit dan ger to landsmen. But after awhile crash goes the mast, and the vessel pitches so far "abeam's end" there is a fear she will not be righted. The cap tain answers few questions, and orders the throwing out of boxes and bundles and of so much of the cargo as mey can get at. The captain at last confesses there is but little hope and tells the passengers that they had better go to praying It is seldom that a sea captain is an atheist. He knows that there is a God, for he has seen him at every point of latitude between Sandy Hook and Queenstown. Captain Moody, command ing the Cuba of the Cunard line, at Sun day service led the music and sang like a Methodist. The captain of this Medi- terranean craft, having set the passen- gers to praying, goes around examining the vessel at every point. He descends into the cabin to see whether i'll the strong wrestling of the waves the vessel had sprung aleak, and he finds Jonah asleep Jonah had had a wearisome tramp and had spent many sleepless nights about questions of duty, and he is so sound asleep that all the thunder of the storm and the screaming of the passengers does not disturb him. The captain lays hold of him and begins to shake him ont of his unconsciousness with the cry: Don't you see that we are all going to the bottom? Wake up and go to praying if you have any God to go to. What meanest thou, o sleep CT? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not 1" The rest of the story will not rehearse, for you know it we'll. To appease the sea they threw Jonah over board.
 Learn that the devil takes man s money and then sets him down in poor landing place. The Bible says he paid his fare to Tarshish. But see him get out. The sailors bring him to the side of the ship, lift him over the guards and let him drop with loud splash into the waves. He paid his fare all the way tc Tarshish, but did not get the worth oi his money. Neither does any one who turns his back on his duty and does that which is not right.
 The Rewards of Dissipation.
 There is young man who during tht past year has spent large part of hi salary in carousal What has he gained by it? A soiled reputation, half starv ed purse, dissipated look, petulan temper, disturbed conscience. Th' manacles of one or two bad habits tha are pressing tighter and tighter vii keep on until they wear to the bone You paid your fare to Tarshish, but yol have been set down in the midst of { sea of disquietude and perplexity.
 One hundred dollars for Sunday hors, hire.
 One hundred dollars for wine suppers
 One hundred dollars for cigars.
 One hundred dollars for frolics tha shall be nameless.
 Making four hundred dollars for hi damnationl
 Instead of being in Tarshish now h is in the middle of the Mediterranean.
 Here is a literary man tired of tn faith of his fathers who resolves t, launch out into what is called freethink ing. He buys Theodore Parker's work for $l2, Renan's "Life of Christ" fo $150, Andrew Jackson Davis work for $20. Goes to hear infidels talk at tn rapping Talks glibly of David, tn psalmist, as an old libertine, of Paul a wild enthusiast and of Christ as de cent kind of man, little weak i some respects, but almost as good a himself Talks smilingly of Sunday a good day to put little extra blackin on ones boots and of Christians as, fo the most part, hypocrites and of eternit as "the great to be, ' "the everlastin now'' or 'the infinite what is it. Some day he gets his feet very wet an finds himself that night chilly; tn next morning has hot mouth and headachy; sends word over to the stor that he will not be there today; bathe his feet; has mustard plasters; calls tn doctor. The medical man says aside "This is going to be Q bad case of COT gestion of the lungs" Voice fails. Chi
 dren must be kept down stairs or sent the ne1ghbors to keep the house qule' You say, "Send for the minister. '" Bu no. He does not believe in ministers You say, "Read the Bible to him. i" Nc he does not believe in the Bible. A law yer comes in, and sitting by his bedsid writes document that begins ''In tn name of God, amen. l, being of soun
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