Connecticut western news., 1897-12-09

why, nave 70 LOOK clear QOWn DeIOre l
 can see you, you are so far beneath me !"
 That manner always disgusts, always drives men away from the kingdom of Jesus Christ instead of bringing them in. Working Naturally For the Gospel. When I was lad. was one day in
 8 village store, and there was a large | group of young men there full of rollick-
 ing and fun, and a Christian man came in, & very good Christian man, and | without any introduction of the subject
 and while they were in great hilarity
 said to one of them, George, what is
 the first step of wisdom?" George look | ed up and said, Every man to mind his own business. We'll, it was a very
 rough answer, but it was provoked. Re- | hgion had been hurled in there as | though it were bombshell. We must ! be natural in the presentation of religion to the world. Do you suppose that Mary in her conversations with Christ | lost her simplicity or that Paul, thun- | dering from Mars hill, took the pulpit
 tone? Why is it people cannot talk as naturally in prayer meetings and on re- | ligious subjects as they do in worldly | circles? For no one ever succeeds in any
 kind of Christian work unless he works | naturally. We want to initiate the Lord
 Jesus Christ, who plucked poem from the grass of the field. We all want to | initiate him who talked with farmers | about the man who went forth to sow and talked with the fishermen about the drawn net that brought in fish of all sorts, and talked with the vine | dresser about the idler in the vine- | yard, and talked with those newly affl-
 anced about the marriage supper, and talked with the man cramped in money
 matters about the two debtors, and talk | ed with the woman about the yeast that
 leavened the whole lump, and talked with the shepherd about the lost sheep. Oh, we might gather even the stars of the sky and twist them like forget
 menots in the garland of Jesusi We
 must bring everything to him-the
 wealth of language, the tenderness of sentiment, the delicacy of morning dew, | the saffron of floating cloud, the tangled | surf of the tossing sea, the bursting | thunder guns of the storms bonn bard | ment. Yes, every star must point down | to him, every heliotrope must breathe his praise, every drop in the summer | shower must flash his glory, all the tree branches of the forest must thrum their
 music in the grand march which shall l celebrate world redeemed.
 Now, all this being so, what is the common sense thing for you and for me to do? What we do, think, will depend
 upon three facts-three great facts: The Only Sure Time.
 The first fact, that sin has ruined us.
 It has blasted body, mind and soul. We want no Bible to prove that we are sin ners Any man who is not willing to | acknowledge himself all imperfect and
 sinful being is simply fool and not to be argued with. We all feel that sin has disorganized our entire nature That is one fact. Another fact is that Christ came to reconstruct, to restore, to revise, to correct, to redeem That is
 a second fact. The third fact is that the only time we are sure Christ will par don us is the present.. Now, what is the common sense thing for us to do in view
 of these three facts? You will all agree with me to quit sin, take Christ, and take him now.
 Suppose some business man in whose skill you had perfect confidence should tell you that tomorrow, Monday morn lng, between II and 12 o'clock, you could by a certain financial transaction
 make $5,000, but that on Tuesday per- haps you might make it, but there
 would not be any positiveness about it, and on Wednesday there would not be
 20 much, and Thursday less, Friday less, and so on less and less-when would you attend to the matter2 Why, your common sense would dictate, Immediately will attend to that mat ter, between II and 12 o'clock tomor- row, Monday morning, for then I can
 surely accomplish it, but on Tuesday
 may not, and on Wednesday there is less to it tomorrow. Now, let us bring our common sense in this matter of religion. Here are the hopes of the gospel We may get them now. Tomorrow we may
 get them and we may not. Next day we may and we may not, the prospect less and less and less and less, the only
 sure time now-now. would mot talk to you in this way if did not know that Christ was able to save all the peo. pie would not go into hospital and tear off the bandages from the wounds if had no balm to apply. would not
 have the face to tell a man he is sin
 ner unless I had at the same time the authority for saying he may be saved. The Divine Raphael.
 Suppose in Venice ther. is Raphael,
 8 faded picture, great in it's time, bear
 ing some marks of its greatness. History
 describes that picture. It is nearly faded
 away. You say, "Oh, what pity that
 so wonderful picture by Raphael
 should be nearly defacedi' After
 awhile man comes up, very unskillful
 in art, and he proposes to retouch it.
 You say: "Stand off. would rather
 have it just as it is You will only make
 it worse." After awhile there comes an
 artist who was the equal of Raphael.
 He says, II will retouch that picture
 and bring out all its original power. "
 You have full confidence in his ability.
 He touches it here and there. Feature
 after feature comes forth, and when he
 is done with the picture it is complete
 in all its original power.
 Now, God impresses his image on our
 race, but that image has been defaced
 for hundreds and for thousands of years,
 getting fainter and fainter. Here comes
 up divine Raphael-I shall call him
 divine Raphael. He says, II can restore
 that picture. '' He has all power in heav-
 en and on earth. He is the equal of
 the one who made the picture, the equal
 of the one who drew the image of God
 in our soul. He touches this sin and it
 is gone, that transgression and it is gone,
 and allthe defacement disappears, and
 'where sin abounded grace doth much
 more abound. Will you have the de-
 facement, or will you have the restora-
 tion? I am we'll persuaded that, if I
 could by touch of heavenly pathos in