Connecticut western news., 1897-03-18

awful ruin mark the track of Jehovah's advancement They show that God was terribly in earnest when he anpo1nced himself abhorrent of all iniGufty. They
 make us believe that. Enough nations belligerent and revekgeful may sign ar- ticles of peace and come to an amicable adjustment, there shall be no cessation of hostilities between the forces of light
 and the forces of darkness until the
 kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord. Affrighted by no opposition, discouraged by no temporary defeats, shrinking from no exposure, every man to his position, while from the tops of our schoolhouses and churches and seminaries and asy- | lums "in the name of God we will set | up our banners ''
 l A Glorious Standard.
 Again, it was the custom in ancient ! times for the purpose of gathering ar | mics to lift an ensign on the top of some ! high hill, so that all who saw it would | feel impelled to rally around it. In more modern times the same plan has | been employed for the gathering of an | army. Thus it is that the church of { Christ lifts its flag for recruits. The | cross of Jesus is our standard, planted I on the hill of Calvary Other armies | demand that persons desiring to enter | the lists of war shall be between such | and such an age, lest the folly of ex- | treme youth or the infirmity of advanced | age be a clog rather than an advantage. l But none is too young for Christ's reg | iment; none can be too old. The hand | that is strong enough to bound ball or trundle hoop is skilled enough to fight | for Christ, while many hand trem-
 bling with old age has grasped the ar- | row of truth, and with dim eye close | to it, taking aim, has sent its sharp | point right through the heart of the
 Kings enemies. Many of you have long | ago had your names written on the roll | of celestial troops, and you like the serv- | ice well, although you now bear the | scars of multitudinous conflicts and can l recount many long march and tell of | siege guns opened on you that you | thought never would be spiked. But there may be some who have not yet en- | listed. Your being here implies that | you are seriously thinking about it, and | your attention makes me hope you are | only looking for the standard to be | hoisted. Will you not, 100 of you, with | all the aroused enthusiasm of your na- ture, come bounding into the ranks, | while Gin the name of God we set up l our banners?'' .... | Through natural modesty do you hold back and say, II will be of no advan- | tage to Christ I am too awkward to \ fbo e@o of hact tr ho f,f | any service in the shock of battle?" To you make the reply, Try it. One hour
 under Christ's drill, and you would so we'll understand his rules that the first step of your march heavenward would | make the gates of he'll tremble on their l hinges We may not be as polished and | trim as many Christians we have | known, and we may not as we'll under | stand sharpshooting, but there is rough | work which we can all accomplish. We | may be axmen and hew pathway | through the forests. We may be spades | men and dig the trenches or throw up | the Qualifications. We do not care where, | we do not care what, if we can only | help in the cause of our King and shout I as loudly as any of them at the compile
 tion of the conquest.
 l There are. nonprofessors who have a | very correct idea of what Christians | ought to be. You have seen members of
 the church who were as proud as Ahab
 and lied as badly as Ananias and who
 were as foul hypocrites as Judas. You
 abhor all that. You say followers of | Christ ought to be honorable, humble
 and self denying and charitable and pa
 tient and forgiving. Amen. So they
 ought Come into the kingdom of | Christ, my nearer, and be just that
 glorious Christian that you have de-
 scribed. Every church has enough stingy
 men in it to arrest it's charities, and
 enough proud men in it to grieve away
 the Holy Ghost, and enough lazy men
 in it to hang on behind till it's wheels,
 like Pharaoh's chariots, drag heavily,
 and enough worldly men to exhaust the
 patience of the very elect, and enough
 snarly men to make appropriate the Bi-
 ble warning, Beware of dogs" If any
 of you men on the outside of the king
 dom expect to make such Christians as
 that, we do not want you to come, for
 the church has already a million mem-
 bers too many of just that kind. We do
 not want our ranks crowded with serfs
 when we can have them filled with
 zouaves
 There are men now, as in Christ's
 time, possessed of seven devils. In some
 instances it seems as though at conver-
 sion only six of these evil spirits were
 cast out, while there remains still one
 in the heart-the devil of avarice, the
 devil of lust or the devil of pride. Men
 of the world, if you would be trans
 formed and elevated by the power of the
 gospel, now is the time to come. It is
 no mean ensign I lift this hour. It is 8
 time honored flag. It has been in ter
 rife battle. Draggled in the dust of a
 Saviour's humiliation from Bethlehem
 to Calvary. Rent by hell's onslaught,
 the spears of a maddened soldiery and
 the hands of men who said, "Let him
 be crucified. I" With this ensign in his
 bleeding hand the Saviour scaled the
 heights of our sin. With this he mount
 ed the walls of perdition, and amid its
 very smoke and flame and blasphemy he
 waved his triumph, while demons howl.
 ed with defeat and heaven
 Thronged his chariot wheels
 And bore him to his throne,
 Then swept their golden harps and sung,
 The glorious work Is done.
 A Victory Signal,
 Again, when a grand victory has
 been won, it is customary to announce it by flags floating from public build ings and from trees and from the masts , of ships. They are the signal for eulogy , and rejoicing and festivity. So the en-
 sign which the church hoists is a banner
 of victory. There was time when the religion of Christ was not considered l respectable. Men of learning and posi- f tion drowned upon it. Governments 1 mathematical its supporters. To be a Christian was to be an underling. But mark the difference. Religion has con- f pelled the worlds respect. Infidelity, in