Connecticut western news., 1897-08-05

advertise that on a certain day they will put money into their papers, so that the purchaser of this tobacco in Cincinnati or New York may unexpect- edly come upon magnificent gratuity Boys hawking through the cars pack ages containing nobody knows what, until you open them and find they con- tain nothing. Christian men with pie lures on their wall gotten in a lottery, and the brain of community taxed to find out some new way of getting things without paying for them. Oh, young men, these are the threads that make the cart rope, and when young man consents to these practices he is being bound hand and foot by habit which has already destroyed "a great multi tude that no man can number.
 Sometimes these gift enterprises are carried on in the name of charity, and some of you remember at the close of our civil war how many gift enterprises were on foot, the proceeds to go to the orphans and widows of the soldiers and sailors. What did the men who had charge of those gift enterprises care for the orphans and widows? Why, they would have allowed them to freeze to death upon their steps. I have no faith in a charity which for the sake of re- lieving present suffering opens gaping jaw that has swallowed down so much of the virtue and good principle of the community. Young man, have nothing to do with these things. They only sharpen your appetite for games of chance. Do one of two things-be hon. est or die.
 Where Safety Lies.
 I have accomplished my object if I put you on the lookout. It is great deal easier to fall than it is to get up again. The trouble is that when men begin to go astray from the path of duty they are apt to say, |''There's no use of my trying to get back. I've sacrificed my responsibility, can't return" And they go on until they are utterly de- stroyed. I tell you, my friends, that God this moment, by his Holy Spirit, can change your entire nature so that you will be different man in min- ute. Your great want-what is it? More salary? Higher social position? No, no. I will tell you the great want of every man if he has not already obtained 1t. It is the grace of God. Are there any who have fallen victims to the sin that have been reprehending? You are in a prison. You rush against the wall of this prison and try to get out and you fail, and you turn around and dash against the other wall until there is blood on the grates and blood on your soul. You will never get out ill this way. There is only one way of getting out There is key that can unlock that prison house. It is the key of the house of David. It is the key that Christ wears at his girdle. If you will allow him to put that key to the lock, the bolt will shoot back, and the door will swing open. and you will be free man in Christ Jesus. Oh, prodigal, what business this is for you, feeding swine, when your father stands in the front door, straining his eyesight to catch the first glimpse of your return, and the calf is as fat as it will be, and the harps of heaven are all strung, and the feet free.
 There are converted gamblers in heaven. The light of eternity flashed upon the green baize of their billiard saloon. In the layer of Gods forgive ness they washed off all their sin. They quit trying for earthly stakes. They tried for heaven and won it. There stretches hand from heaven toward the head of the worst offender. It is a hand, not clinched as if to smite, but outspread as if to drop benediction. Other seas have a shore and may be fathomed, but the sea of Gods love- eternity has no plummet to strike the bottom, and immensity no ironbound shore to confine it. It's tides are lifted by the heart of infinite compassion. Its waves are the hosannas of the re- deemed. The argosies that sail on 1t drop anchor at last amid the thunder ing salvo of eternal victory. But alas for that man who sits down to the final game of life and puts his immortal soul on the ace, while the angels of God keep the tally board, and after kings and queens, and knaves, and spades are "shuffled" and ''out," and the game is ended, lowering and impending worlds discover that he has lost it, the faro bank of eternal darkness clutching down into it's wallet all the blood stained wagers.