Connecticut western news., 1898-12-01


 On that map must be put the isthmian I canal, begun if not completed. No long voyages around Cape Horn for the worlds merchandise, but short and cheap communication by water instead of expensive communication by rail train, and moro millions will be added to our national wealth and the world s betterment than 1 have capacity to cal Gulate.
 Connecting Links.
 On the map it must be made evident that America is to be the worlds civ ilizer and evangelizer. Free from the national religions of Europe on the one side and from the superstitions of Asia OH the other side, it will have facilities for the work that no other continent can possibly possess. AS near as can tell by the laying OF of the hands of the Lord Almighty, this continent has been ordained for that work This is the only country in the world where all religions are on the same platform, and the peo- pie have free selection for themselves without any detriment When we pre- sent to the other continents this assort- ment of religions and give them unhin de1ed choice, we have no doubt of their selecting this religion of mercy and kindness and good will and temporal and eternal rescue. Hear it! America is to take this world for God
 On the map which we will put on the cradle of the new century we must have very soon railroad bridge across Be- ring strait, those 36 miles of water, not deep, and they are spotted with islands capable of holding the piers of a great bridge. And what with America and Asia tkus connected and Siberian rail way, and railroad now projected for the length of Africa, and Palestine and Persia and India and China and Burma intersected with railroad tracks, all of which will be done before the new cen tury is grown up, the way will be open to the quick civilization and evangeliza- ton uf the whole world. The old map we used to study in our boyhood days is dusty, and on the top shelf or amid the rubbish of the garret, and so will the present map of the world, however gild- ed and beautifully bound, be treated,
 
 into the infantile hand of the coming century.
 The work of this century has been to get ready. All tho earth is now free to the gospel except two little spots, one in Asia and one in Africa, while at the beginning of the century there stood the Chinese wall and there famed the fires and there glittered the swords that forbade entrance to many islands and large reaches of continent. Bornesian oruelties and Fiji island oannibalism have given way, and all the gates of all the continents are swung open with a clang that has been positive and glorious invitation for Christianity to enter. Telegraph, telephone and phono- graph are to be consecrated to gospel dissemination, and instead of the voice that gains the attention of few hun dred or few thousand people within the church walls the telegraph will thrill the glad tidings and the telephone will utter them to many millions. Oh, the infinite advantage that the twentieth century has over what the nineteenth century had at the startingl
 The Evils of the World.
 In preparation for this coming cen tury we have time in the intervening years to give some decisive strokes at the seven or eight great evils that curse the world. It would be an assault and battery upon the coming century by this century if we allowed the full blow of present evils to fall upon the future. We ought somehow to cripple or minify some of these abominations. Alcohol ism is today triumphant, and are we to let the all devouring monster that has throttled this century seize upon the next without first having filled his ac- cursed hide with stjnging arrows enough to weaken and stagger him? We have wasted about 20 years. How so? While we have been waiting for the law of the land to prohibit intoxicants we have done little to quench the thirst of appe- tite in the palate and tongue of whole generation. Where are the public and enthusiastic meetings that used to be held 80 years ago for the one purpose of persuading the young and middle aged and old that strong drink is poisonous and damning? When will we learn that we must educate public opinion up to a prohibitory law, or such law will not be passed or if passed will not be executed? God grant that all state and national legislatures may build up against this evil wall which will be an impossible wall, shutting out the alco- holic abomination. But while we wait for that, let us, in our homes, in our schools and our churches and on our platforms and in our newspapers, per. suade the people to stop taking alcoholic stinulant unless prescribed by physi cians, and then persuade physicians not to prescribe it if in all the dominions of therapeutics there may be found some other remedy.
 Seven or eight years ago on the anni- versary platform of the National Tenn peranee society in New York I deplored the fact that we had left politics to do that which moral suasion only could do and said on that occasion, eff some poor irunkard wandering along this street tonight should see the lights kindled by this brilliant assemblage and should como in, and, finding the character of the meeting, should ask f6r a temper ance pledge, that he might sign it and begin a new career, do not believe there is in all this house temperance pledge, and you would have to take out a torn letter envelope or loose scrap of paper for the inebriate's signature. I found out afterward that there was one such temperance pledge in the audience, but only one that could hear of. Do not leave to politics that which can be done now in 10, 900 reformatory meet ings all over the country. The two great political parties, Republican and Demo- cratic, will put prohibitory plank in the platform the same day that satan joins the church and turns perdition in- to camp meeting. Both parties want the votes of the traffickers in liquid death, and if you wait for the ballot bovr Tn Io tho xyorE frct xOr ,x,;Il I,ox,o