Connecticut western news., 1896-04-09


 that amounts to nothing at all. If re-
 solve to become Christian tomorrow,
 that amounts to nothing at all If re-
 solve at the service this day to become a | Christian, that amounts to nothing at | all If I resolve after I go home today, | to yield my heart to God, that amounts
 to nothing at all. The only kind of reso- | lution that amounts to anything is the
 resolution that is immediately put into execution.
 There is man who had the typhoid | fever. He said: ''Oh, if could get over this terrible distress, if this fever should | depart, if l could be restored to health,
 l would all the rest of my life serve God. The fever departed. He got we'll enough to walk around the block. He
 got we'll enough to go over to business.
 He is we'll today-as we'll as he ever
 was. Where is the broken VOW? There is | a man who said long ago, ''If could
 live to the year 1896, by that time will have my business matters all ar | ranged, and will have time to attend
 to religion, and will be a good, thor ough, consecrated Christian. |" The year | 1896 has come January, February,
 March, April-a third of the year gone. | Where is your broken VOW? "Oh," says
 some man, "I'll attend to that when | get my character fixed up, when can | get over my evil habits ! am now giv- ] en to strong drink" " Or, says the man, ''I am given to uncleanness. "-sOr, says | the man, 'T am given to dishonesty. When I get over my present habits, then
 I'll bea thorough Christian. My broth CT, you will get worse and worse until | Christ takes you in hand. Not the | righteous, sinners Jesus came to call '" ! Oh, but you say, ''I agree with you in all that, but must put it of a little longer" Do you know there were many | who came just as near as you are to the ! kingdom of God and never entered it2 | was at Easthampton, and went into | the cemetery to look around, and in that cemetery there are 12 graves side by side --the graves of sailors. This crew, some ! years ago, in a ship went into the break | CTS ct Amagansett, about three miles | away. My brother, then preaching at Easthampton, had been at the burial I These men of the crew came very near
 being saved. The people from Amagan-
 
 cts, and they sent ropes from the shore,
 and these poor fellows got into the boat,
 and they pulled nightly for the shore,
 but just before they got to the shore the rope snapped and the boat capsized, and they were lost, their bodies afterward washed upon the beach. Oh, what a | solemn day it was-I have been told of | it by my brother-when these 12 men | lay at the foot of the pulpit, and he read | over them the funeral service. They ! came very near shore-within shouting distance of the shore-yet did not arrive | on solid land. There are some men who | come almost to the shore of God
 mercy, but not quite, not quite. To be
 almost saved is to be lost Two Prodigals.
 will tell you of two prodigals-the one that got back and the other that did not get back. In Richmond there is & very prosperous and beautiful home in
 many respects. A young man wandered | of from that home. He wandered very ] far into sin. They heard of him after, but he was always on the wrong track. He would not go home. At the door of that beautiful home one night there was
 a great outcry. The young man of the house ran down to open the door to see
 what was the matter. It was midnight. The rest of the family were asleep There were the wife and children of this prodigal young man. The fact was he | had come home and driven them out
 He said: "Out of this housel Away with these childrenl will dash their brains out Out into the storm l'' The mother gathered them up and fled. The next morning the brother, the young man who had staid at home, went out to find this prodigal brother and son, and be came to where he was and saw the young man wandering up and down in front of the place where he had been staying, and the young man who had kept his integrity said to the older broth CT: Here, what does all this mean? What is the matter with you? Why do you act in this way?'' The prodigal looked at him and said: "Who am IT
 Who do you take me to be?" He said,
 "You are my brother. !" "No, I am not I am brute. Have you seen anything of my wife and children? Are they deadf drove them out last night in | the storm. am brute. John, do you | think there is any help for me? Do you | think will ever get over this life of dis | sipation?" He said, "John, there is one | thing that will stop this. The prod | igal ran his fingers across his throat | and said: "That will stop it, and will stop it before night. Oh, my brain I can stand it no longer. That prodigal D,.k II tall 1f | a prodigal that did get home. In Eng | land two young men started from their fathers house and went down to Ports
 mouth-I have been there-a beautiful | seaport. Some of you have been there | The father could not pursue his children flor some reason he could not leave | home-and so he wrote letter down to ! MT. Griffin, saying:
 "Mr. Griffin, wish you would go and see my two sons They have arrived in Portsmouth, and they are going to
 take ship and going away from home.
 l wish you would persuade them back. !"
 Mir. Griffin went and tried to per
 suade them back. He persuaded one to | go He went with very easy persuasion,
 because he was very homesick already. | AAo oeucr youuB IuhI salu. VIII uob
 go. have had enough of home. I'll
 never go home" "Well," said MT.
 Girffip, ''then if you won t go home, I'll
 get you a respectable position on re-
 spectacle ship" "No, you won't," said
 the prodigal. "No you won't. I am go-
 ing as a private sailor, as a common
 sailor; that will plague my father most,
 and what will do most to tantalize and
 worry him will please me best" Years
 passed on, and MT. Griffin was seated in
 his study one day when messenger
 came to him, saying there was a young
 man in irons on ship at the dock-a
 young man condemned to death-who
 wished to see this clergyman. MT. Grif-
 fin went down to the dock and went on
 shipboard. The young man said to him,
 "You don't know me, do you?" "No, 1"