Connecticut western news., 1898-06-23

AAANNA great hearts and intellects ill bodies worn out by their own neglects. Mag nificent machinery capable of propelling a great Etruria across the Atlantic, yet fastened in rickety North river pro- peller. Physical development which merely shows itself ill a fabulous lift ing or ill perilous rope walking or in pugllistio encounter excites only our contempt, but we confess to great ad- miration for the man who has great soul in an athletic body, every nerve. muscle and bone of which is consecrated to right uses. Oh, it seems to me out rageous that men through neglect should allow their physical health to go down beyond repair, spending the rest of their life not in some great enterprise for God and the world, but in studying what is the best thing to take for dys- pepsia. A ship which ought with all sails set and every man at his post to be carrying rich cargo for eternity, em- ploying all its men ill stopping up leak ages When you may through some of the popular and healthful recreations of our time work off your spleen and your querulousness and one-half of your physical and mental ailments, do not turn your back from such grand med icament
 Again, judge of the places of amuse- ment by tho companionship into which they put you. If you belong to an or ganization where you have to associate with the incorporate, with the un- clean, with the abandoned, however we'll they may be dressed, ill the name of God quit it. They will despoil your nature. They will undermine your moral character. They will drop you when you are destroyed. They will not give one cent to support your children when you are dead. They will weep not one tear at your burial. They will chuckle over your dalnnation. But the day comes when the men who have ex- erted evil influence upon their fellows will be brought to judgment. Scene, the last day. Stage, the rocking earth. En- ter dukes, lords, kings, beggars, clowns. No sword No tinsel. No crown. For footlights, the kindling flames of world For orchestra, the trumpets that wake the dead. For gallery, the clouds filled with angel spectators. For applause, the clapping floods of the sea. For curtains, the heavens rolled togeth- CT as scroll. For tragedy, the doom of the destroyed. For farce, the effort to serve the world and God at the same time. For the last scene of the fifth act, the tramp of nations across the stage-some to the right, others to the left.
 Again, any amusement that gives you distaste for domestic life is bad. How many bright domestic circles have been broken up by sinful amusements? The father went off, the mother went off, the child went off. There are all around us the fragments of blasted households. Oh, if you have wandered away, I would like to charm you back by the sound of that one word, "homep' Do you not know that you have but little more time to give to domestic welfare? Do you not see, father, that your chil- dren are soon to go out into the world and all the influence for good you are to have over them you must have now? Death will break ill on your conjugal relations, and alas if you have to stand over the grave of one who perished from your neglect
 saw wayward husband standing at the deathbed of his Christian wife, and and heard her say to ker husband, ''Do you see that ring?" He replied. "Yes, I see it. |" Well" said she, "do you remember who put it there?" "Yes," said he, 1T put it there." And all the past seemed to rush upon him. By the memory of that day, when ill the pres ence of men and angels you promised to be faithful in joy and sorrow and in sickness and ill health; by the memory of those pleasant hours when you sat to- gether in your new house talking of a bright future; by the cradle and the ex- cited hour when one life was spared and another given; by that sickbed when the little one lifted up the hands and called for help and you knew he must die, and he put one arm around each of your necks and brought you very near together in that dying kiss; by the lit tie grave ill the cemetery that you never thing of without rush of tears; by the family Bible, where in it's stories of heavenly love is the brief but express i've record of births afll deaths; by the neglects of the past and by the agonies of the future; by a judgment day when husbands and wives, parents and chil- dren, in immortal groups will stand to be caught up in shining array or to shrink down into darkness-by all that, beg you to give to home your best af- fections. look in your eyes today, and I ask you the question that Gehazi ask ed of the Shunammite: "Is it we'll with thee? Is it we'll with thy husband? Is it we'll with thy child?" God grant that it may be everlastingly welll
 Let me say to all young men your style of amusement will decide your eternal destiny. One night I saw young man at a street corner evidently doubting as to which direction he had better take. He had his hat lifted high enough so you could see he had an in- telligent forehead. He had stout chest; he had robust development. Splendid young man. Cultured young man. Honored young man. Why did he stop there while so many were going up and down? The fact is that every man has a good angel and bad an gel contending for the mastery of his spirit. And there was a good angel and bad angel struggling with that young mans soul at the corner of the street.
 "Come with me-, " said the good an- gel, "I will take you home. I will spread my wing over your pathway. I will lovingly escort you all through life. I will bless every cup you drink out of, every couch you rest on, every doorway you enter. I will consecrate your tears when you weep, your sweat when you toll, and at the last will hand over your grave into the hand of the bright angel of a Christian resur- rection. In answer to your fathers pe- tition and your mothers prayer I have H.. As.a 4s