Connecticut western news., 1897-03-11

I-see man coming to God and giving | up his sin I feel in body, mind and soul | a transport. When I see man bound | hand and foot in evil habit emanicipat- | ed, rejoice over it as though it were | my own emancipation. !
 Why Clergymen Are Long Lived.
 When in one communion service, such ! throngs of young and old stood up and | in the presence of heaven and earth and | he'll attested their allegiance to Jesus | Christ, felt joy something akin to | that which the apostle describes when | he says, Whether in the body cannot | tell, or out of the body cannot tell; God knoweth." Oh, have not ministers ! a right to rejoice when prodiga1 comes home? They blew the trumpet, and ought they not be glad of the gathering of the host? They pointed to the full supply, and ought they not to rejoice when thirsty souls plunge as the hart for the water brooks? They came forth, saying, "All things are now ready'- ought they not to rejoice when the prod igal sits down at the banquet? Life in- surance men will all tell you that min- isters of religion, as class, live longer than any other. It is the statistics of all those who calculate upon human longevity that ministers of religion, as class, live longer than any other. Why is it? There is more draft upon the nervous system than in any other pro- fession, and their toil is most exhaust ing. have seen ministers kept on mis- erable stipends by parsimonious congre- cations who wondered at the dullness of the sermon when the men of God were perplexed almost to death by questions of livelihood and had not enough nutri- tious food to keep any fire in their tenn perament. No fuel, no fire have some times seen the inside of the life of many of the American clergymen, never &C., cepting their hospitality because they cannot afford it, but have seen them struggle on with salaries of $500 or $500 a year-the average less than that their struggle we'll depicted by the west ern missionary who says ill @ letter:
 'Thank you for the last remittance. Un- til it came we had not any meat in our house for one year, and all last winter, although it was a severe winter, our children wore their summer clothes. And these men of God find in differ ent parts of the land struggling against annoyance and exasperations innumer- able, some of them week after week en- tertaining agents who have maps or lightning rods to sell and submitting themselves to all styles of annoyance, and yet without complaint and cheerful of soul. How do you account for the fact that these life insurance men tell aJo than any other? It is because of the joy of their work, the joy of the harvest field, the joy of greeting prodigals home to their Fathers house Oh, we are in sympathy with all innocent hilarities. We can enjoy hearty song and we can be merry with the merTiest, but those of us who have toiled in the service are l ready to testify that all these joys are tame compared with the satisfaction of seeing men enter the kingdom of God. | The great eras of every ministry are the outpourings of the Holy Ghost, and I I thank God I have seen 16 of them. ! Thank God, thank Cos
 A Great Communion.
 I notice also when the prodigal comes ! back all earnest Christians rejoice. If you stood on Montauk point and there | was hurricane at sea, and it was blow lg toward the shore, and vessel crashed into the rocks, and you saw peo- pie get ashore in the lifeboats, and the | very last man got on the rocks in safety, | you could not control your joy. And it | is glad time when the church of God sees men who are tossed on the ocean of their sins plant their feet on the rock
 Christ Jesus. Oh, when prodigals come
 home, just hear the Christians sing
 Just hear the Christians pray It is not
 a stereotyped supplication we have heard over and over again for 20 years, | but putting of the case in the hands of
 God with an importunate pleading. No long prayers. Men never pray at great
 length unless they have nothing to say
 and their hearts are hard and cold. All | the prayers in the Bible that were an
 swered were short prayers. "God be
 merciful to me sinner" "Lord, that
 I may receive my sight" "Lord, save
 me, or I perish.'
 The longest prayer, Solomon's prayer
 at the dedication of the temple, less than
 eight minutes in length according to the
 ordinary rate of enunciationl And just
 hear them pray now that the prodigals are coming home. Just see them shake
 hands. No putting forth of the four tips
 of the fingers ill formal way, but hearty grasp where the muscles of the
 heart seem to clinch the fingers of one
 hand around the other hand. And then
 see those Christian faces. How illumi
 mated they arel And see that old man get
 up, and, with the same voice that he
 sang 50 years ago in the old country
 meeting house, say, "Now, Lord, lettest
 thou thy servant depart in peace, for
 mine eyes have seen thy salvation. :"
 There was 8 man of Keith who was hurled into prison in time of persecu-
 tion, and one day he got off his shackles,
 and he came and stood by the prison
 door, and when the jailer was opening
 the door with one stroke he struck down
 the man who had incarcerated him.
 Passing along the streets of London, he
 wondered where his famify was. He did
 not dare to ask, lest he excite suspicion,
 but, passing along little way from the
 prison, he saw Keith tankard, cup
 that belonged to the family from gener-
 ation to generation-he saw it in win
 low. His family, hoping that some day
 ne would get clear, came and lived as
 near as they could to the prison house,
 and they set that Keith tankard in the
 window, hoping he would see it, and he
 came along and saw it and knocked at
 the door and went in, and the long sep
 arated family were all together again.
 Oh, if you would start for the kingdom
 of God this hour, think some of you
 would find nearly all your friends and
 nearly all your families around the holy
 tankard of the holy communion-fa- liners. mothers hrnthers sisters-arnund