Connecticut western news., 1896-03-05

to have forsaken God. Standing amid the laundering of your early failures, how could you get along without God to comfort you and God to deliver you and God to help you and God to save you? You tell me you have been through enough business trouble almost to kill you. I know it. I cannot understand how the boat could live one hour in that chopped sea. But I do not know by what process you got astray; some in one way and some in another, and if you could really see the position some of you occupy before God your soul would burst into an agony of tears and you would pelt the heavens with the cry, "God have mercyp Sinai's batteries have been unlimbered above your soul, and at times you have heard it thunder, "The wages of sin is death. " All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" /" By one man sin entered into the world, and death hy sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." !" "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. When Sevastopol was be. ing bombarded, two Russian frigates burned all night in the harbor, throw ing glare upon the trembling fortress, and some of you, from what you have told me yourselves, some of you are standing in the night of your souls trouble, the cannonade, and the conf1a- grafton, and the multiplication, and the multitude of your sorrows and troubles I think must make the wings of Gods lowering angles shiver to the tip.
 Melody From Heaven.
 But the last part of my text opens a door wide enough to let ns all out and to let all heaven in. Sound it on the organ with all the stops out Thrum it on the harps with all the strings atnne. With all the melody possible let the heavens sound it to the earth and let the earth tell it to tho heavens "The Lord hath laid on him the iniQuity of us all 1" am glad that the prophet did not stop to explain whom he meant by "him." Him of the manager, him of the bloody sweat. him of the resurrection throne, him of the oruoifixion agony. "On him the Lord hath laid the iniQuity of us all. !" "Ohl" says some man. "that isn't generous: that isn't fair. Let ev- cry man carry his own burden and pay his own debts" That sounds reason able. If have an obligation, and have the means to meet it, and I come to you and ask you to settle that obligation. you rightly say, Pay your own debts- If you and I, walking down the street both hale, hearty and well-I ask yoa to carry me, you say rightly, Walk on your own feetf" But suppose you and were in regiment. and I was wounded in the battle, and l fell uncon- scious at your feet with gunshot frac- lures and dislocations, what would you do? You would call to your comrades, saying: "Come and help; this man .is helpless. Bring the ambulance. Let us take him to the hospital '' and would be dead lift in your arms, and you would lift me from the ground where l had fallen, and put me in the ambu- lance, and take me to the hospital, and have all kindness shown me. Would there be anything bemeaning in my &C., cepting that kindness? Oh, no. You would be mean not to do it. That is what Christ doee. If we could pay our debts, then it would be better to go up and pay them, saying: Here, Lord, here is my obligation. Here are the means with which mean to settle that obligation. Now give ne a receipt. Cross it all out" The debt is paid.
 But the fact is we have fallen in the battle, we have gone down under the hot fire of our transgressions. we have been wounded by the sabers of sin, we are helpless, we are undone. Christ comes. The loud olang heard in the sky on that Christmas night was only the bell, the resounding bell of the ann bulance. Clear the way for the Son of God. He comes down to bind up the wounds, and to scatter the darkness, and to save the lost. Clear the way for the Son of God Christ comes down to us, and we are dead lift. He docs not lift us with the tips of his fingers. He does not lift us with one arm. He comes down upon his knee, and then with a dead lift he raises us to honor and glory and immortality. "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Why, then, will man carry his sins? You cannot carry successfully the smallest sin you ever committed. You might as we'll put the Apennines on one shoul- der and the Alps on the other. How much less can you carry all the sins of your lifetime? Christ comes and looks down in your face and says: 1T have come through all the lacerations of these days, and through all the tempests of these nights. I have come to bear your burdens, and to pardon your sins. and to pay your debts. Put them on my shoul- der, put them on my heart. "On him the Lord hath laid the iniquity of us all Sin has almost pestered the life out of some of you. At times it has made you cross and unreasonable, and it has spoiled the brightness of your days and the peace of your nights. There are men who have been riddled of sin. The world gives them no soiace Gossamery and volatile the world. while eternity, as they look forward to it, is black as l midnight. They writhe under the stings of a conscience which proposes to give no rest here and no rest hereafter, and yet they do not repent, they do not pray, they do not weep They do not realize that just the position they oc- cupy is the position occupied by scores, hundreds and thousands of men who never found any hope.
 Take God to Your Heart.
 If this meeting should be thrown open and the people who are here could give their testimony, what thrilling exper1- ences we should hear on all sides There is man who would say:"I had bril- liant surroundings; had the best edu- cation that one of the best collegiate in- stitutions of this country could give and I observed all the moralities of life, and I was self righteous, and thought was all right before God as I am all right before man, but the Holy Spirit came to me one day and said, You are a sim ner;' the Holy Spirit persuaded me of the fact. While had escaped the sins against the law of the land, had really committed the worst sin man ever
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