Connecticut western news., 1896-01-30

bI6 prUW UT III lD6 btcTut WIdpptu III our striped shawl, holding big handled
 sunshade, while others are blistered in
 the heat and pull until the oarlocks groan and the blades bend till they snap. Oh, you religious sleepyheads, wake upl You have lain so long in one place that the ants and caterpillars have
 begun to crawl over youl What do you
 know, my brother, about living gospel
 made 10 storm the world? Now, my idea
 of Christian is a man on fire with zeal
 for God, and if your pulse ordinarily
 beats 60 times minute when you think
 of other themes and talk about other
 themes, if your pulse does not go up to
 75 or 80 when you come to talk about
 Christ and heaven, it is because you do |
 not know the one, and have poor
 chance of getting to the other.
 In former charge one Sabbath I took into the pulpit the church records, and laid them on the pulpit and open ed them and said: Brethren, here are the church records. I find a great many of you whose names are down here are off duty" Some were afraid l would i read the names, for at that time some of them were deep in the worst kind of oil stocks and were idle as to Christian work But if ministers of Christ today should bring the church records into the pulpit and read, oh, what f1utter there
 would bel There would not be fans
 enough in church to keep the cheeks cool. I do not know but it would be a
 good thing if the minister once in
 awhile should bring the church records
 in the pulpit and call the roll, for that is what I consider every church record
 to be-merely muster roll of the Lords
 army-and the reading of it should re-
 veal where every soldier is and what be is doing.
 Call the Roll.
 Suppose in military circles on the
 morning of battle the roll was called, and out of ,0O0 men only 100 men in the
 regiment answered. What excitement there would be in the campi What
 would the colonel say? What high talk
 ing there would be among the captains
 and majors and the adiutants. Suppose word came to headquarters that these delinquents excused themselves on the ground that they had overslept them l selves, or the morning was damp and l they were afraid of getting their feet i wet, or that they were busy cooking ra l tions. My friends, this is the morning l of the day of God Almighty's battle. Do you not see the troops? Hear ye not all | the trumpets of heaven and all the l drums of he'll? Which side are you on? | If you are on the right side, to what | cavalry troop, to what artillery service, | 10 what garrison du:y do you belong? | In other words, in what Sabbath school | do yoa teach? In what prayer meeting | do you exhort? To what penitentiary do | you declare eternal liberty? To what l alplshouse do you announce the riches | of heaven? What broken bone of sorrow | have you ever set? Are you doing noth- | ing? Is it possible that man or woman | sworn to be a follower of Jesus Christ | is doing nothing? Then hide the horri- l ble secret from the angels. Keep it away from the book of judgment. If you are | doing nothing, do not let the world find | it out, lest they charge your religion | with being false face. Donot let your | cowardice and treason be heard among
 the martyrs about the throne, lest they | nonnce your betrayal of that cause for | WHICH tD6y dSOulZeu
 May the eternal God rouse Us all to l action AS for myself, feel would be | ashamed to die now and enter heaven until I have accomplished something more decisive for the Lord that bought me- Oh brethren, how swiftly the time | goes by It seems to me as if the years | had gained some new power of locomo- | tion-a kind of speed electric.
 The temple of Berith is very broad, I and it is very high. It has been going | pp by the hands of men and devils, and 1 uo human engineering can demolish 1t,
 but if the 70, coo ministers of Christ in
 this country should each take branch i of the tree of life, and all their congre- gations should do the same, and we should march on and throw these
 and worldliness and folly, it would need
 no match or coal or torch of ours to | touch off the pile, for, as in the days of
 Elijah, fire would fall from heaven and
 kindle the bonfire of Christian victory | over demolished sin.
 l One Safe Refuge.
 Still further, I learn from this subject | the danger of false refugees AS soon as | these Shechemites got into the temple they thought they were safe. They said: "Berith will take care of us. Abimelech may batter down everything else. He cannot batter down this temple where
 we are now hid" But very soon they
 heard the timbers cracking, and they
 were smothered with smoke, and they
 miserably died. suppose every person | in this audience this moment is stepping
 into some kind of refuge. Here you step
 in the tower of good works. You say, "I
 shall be safe in this refuge" The bat dement's are adorned; the steps are var | nished; on the wall are pictures of all
 the suffering you have ,alleviated, and | all the schools you have established,
 and all the fine things you have ever
 done. Up in that tower you feel you are 1 safe. But hear you not the tramp of your
 unpardoned sins all around the tower? | They each have match. You are kin | ding the combustibie material. You | feel the heat and the suffocation. Oh,
 may you leap in time, the gospel de-
 claring. "By the deeds of the law shall
 no flesh living be justified. ''
 "Well," you say, "I have been driven
 out of that tower. Where shall I go?" l Step into this tower of indifference.
 You say, "If this tower is attacked, it
 will be great while before it is taken. !"
 You feel at ease. But tbere is an Abim-
 elech with ruthless assault coming
 on. Death and his forces are gathering
 around, and they demand that you sur
 render everything, and they clamor for 1 your overthrow, and they throw their
 skeleton arms in the window, and with
 their iron fists they beat against the
 door, and while you are trying to keep
 them out you seo the torches of judg-
 ment kindling, and every forest is a
 torch and every mountain torch and
 every sea torch, and while the Alps l and Pvreneea and Hi ima laras fr1rn into a