Connecticut western news., 1897-07-08

| citation, your sympathy, your gratitude,
 and, above all, your prayers Yea, 1
 want you to go further and pray every
 day for prison inspectors and jailkeep-
 ers-work awful and beneficent. Rough
 men, cruel men, impatient men, are
 not fit for those places. They have un.
 der their care men who were once as
 good as you, but they got tripped up. i Bad company, or strong drink, or
 strange conjunction of circumstances
 flung them headlong. Go down that l prison corridor and ask them how they | got in, and about their families and
 what their early prospects in life were,
 and you will find that they are very ! much like yourself, except ill this, that God kept you, while he did not restrain | them. Just one false step made the diff | ference between them and you. They | want more than prison bars, more than | jail fare, more than handcutfs and hop | ples, more than vermin covered couch,
 to reform them. Pray God day by day
 that the men who have these unfortu-
 mates ill charge may be merciful Chris
 tia1ly strategic, and the means of ref
 ormation and rescue.
 | Some years ago city pastor in New
 York was called to the city prison to attend d funeral A young woman had | committed a crime and was incarcerat- | ed, and her mother came to visit her,
 and died on the visit. The mother, hay | ing no home, was buried from her
 daughters prison cell After the service
 was over the imprisoned daughter came
 up to the minister of Christ and said,
 "Wouldn't you like to see my poor | mother?' And while they stood at the coffin the minister of Christ said to that
 imprisoned soul, Don't you feel today, i in the presence of your mothers dead
 body, as if you ought to make VOW
 before God that you will do differently 1 and live better life?" She stood for few moments, and then the tears rolled down her cheeks, and she pulled from | her right hand the worn out glove that | she had put on in honor of the obsequies,
 and, having barred her right hand, she | put it upon the chill brow of her dead | mother, and said: By the help of God | I swear I will do differently! God help
 mep' And she kept her VOW. And years
 after, when she was told of the incident, | she said: "When that minister of the gospel said, God bless you and help you 1 to keep the vow that you have made,'
 I cried out, and said: You bless me!
 Do you bless me? Why, that's the first
 kind word I've heard in ten years, and | it thrilled through my soul, and it was | the means of my reformation, and ever | since, by the grace of God, I've tried | to live a Christian life. " Oh, yes, there | are many amid the criminal classes that
 may be reformed. Pray for the men | who have these unfortunates in charge, | and who knows but that when you are | leaving this world you may hear the
 voice of Christ dropping to your dying pillow, saying, "I was sick and in prison, | and you visited me-" Yea, take the suggestion of the Apostle Paul and ask | you to pray for all who are in authority, ! that we may lead quiet and peaceful | lives in godliness and honesty.
 Gods Representatives.
 My word now is to all who may | come to hold any public position of trust in any city. You are Gods repre- | sentatiyes. God, the King and Ruler and ] Judge, sets you in his place. Oh, be faithful in the discharge of all your du- | ties, so that when all our cities are in
 ashes and the world itself is red scroll ] of flame you may be in the mercy and | grace of Christ rewarded for your faith | fuiness. It was that feeling which gave | such eminent qualifications for office to | Neal Dow, mayor of Portland, and to
 Judge Mclean of Ohio, and to Benja- ! min F. Butler, attorney general of New | York, and to George Briggs, governor 1 of Massachusetts. and to Theodore Ere l linghuysen, senator of the United States, and to William Wilberforce,
 member of the British parliament. You
 may make the rewards of eternity the
 emoluments of your office. What care l you for adverse political criticism if you
 have God on your side? The one or the | two or the three years of your public 1 trust will pass away, and all the years | of your earthly service, and then the | tribunal will be lifted, before which | you and l must appear May God make | you so faithful now that the last scene i shall be to you exhilaration and rap | ture. l wish now to exhort all good peo- pie, whether they are the governors or the governed, to make one grand effort | for the salvation, the purification, the 1 redemption of our American cities. Do | you not know that there are multitudes l going down to ruin, temporal and eter-
 nal, dropping quicker than words drop
 from my lips? Gro2shops swallow them
 up. Gambling hells devour them. | Houses of shame are damning them. Oh, let us toll and pray and preach l and vote until all these wrongs are | rightedl What we do we must do quick | ly. With our rulers, and on the same ] platform, we must at last come before
 the throne of God to answer for what l we have done for the bettering of our | great towns. Alas, if on that day it be | found that your hand has been idle and
 my pulpit has been silentl Oh, ye who
 are pure and honest and Christian, go
 to work and help to make the cities
 pure and honest and Christian!
 Lest it may have been>Sllought that I
 am addressing only what are called the | better classes my final word is to some | dissolute soul to whom these words may come: Though you may be covered
 with all crimes, though you may be
 smitten with all leprosies, though you
 may have gone through the whole cata-
 logue of iniquity, and may not have
 been ill chur1 Il for 20. years, you may
 have your nature entirely reconstructed,
 and upon your brow, hot with infamous | practices and besweated with exhaust
 ing indulgences, God will place the ] flashing coronet of Saviour's forgive
 ness. "Oh, no, you say. "If you knew
 who l am and wEere came from, you
 wouldn't say that to me. don't believe
 the gospel you are preaching speaks of
 my case. " Yes, it does, my brother.
 And then, when you tell me that, think
 of what St. Teresa said when reduced
 to utter destirution. Having only two
 pieces of money left, she jingled the
 two pieces of noney in her hand and said. USt Telnsa and trxn ,,incoS nf r,,n,,