Connecticut western news., 1899-12-07


 read about political chicanery and cor ruption of more than hundred years ago-the nineteenth century, in which you lived here-but the low political caucus has gone from the face of the earth, and the stuffed ballot box. and the bribery by money and by promise of office, and the jobs got through legis- latures and congresses by lobbyists. The last corrupt judge of election was buried 30 years ago, the preacher off ciating at the obsequies taking for his text Proverbs x. :. The name of the wicked shall rot or Jeremiah xxi, 19, He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem
 Our laws are good and well exc cuted. Men do not in our century have to wade chin deep through moral slush in order to gain office"
 End of InHdelity.
 AS in company with our escort We pass down from the heights on which these buildings stand, 1 see q dis mounted cannon planted on the side of the hill, and l go to examine it, and read the inscription, cut in letters of bronze; This is the last gun that was fired in the last battle of the last war that will ever be fought. Presented by the last regiment of war just before disbanding. Glory to God in the high est, and on earth peace. good will to men" Then l look up, and our escort says: Do you see that large structure on our right? That was fortress. but now it is college. and instead of guns aiming out of the portholes are looking the students of a higher literature and a wiser science and a grander civiliza- tion than the world ever before imag- ined. And those students are taught by professorate of men as renowned for piety as for science. Archnolo- gist's hammer and geologist's crow bar and chemists laboratory and explorers journey have joined in a confirmation of the truth of the Holy Scriptures until there Is not an unbeliever in all the earth. The astronomer through hIs telescope has seen the Morning Star of the Re deemer, and the geologist has found the Rock of Ages, and the geometri- clan has demonstrated that heaven is the city which 'lieth four square, and the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal'"
 "Whatw say to our escort. No skeptics? No infidels? No agnostics?" His reply Is: Absolutely none. The last fool who said in his heart there is no God was buried a half century ago without any liturgical service"
 In response to my question as to what had wrought all this change obliterated all the evil and fully in- augurated all the good-our escort, the spirit of the twenty first century, tells me that gospelization had directly or indirectly done 1t. It was a practical gospel that had not only changed the heart, but made the man honest-a practical religion, which did not ex- pend all its energy in singing Ely abroad. thou mighty gospel" but gave something to make it fly.
 Sin obIiterated.
 The good work was helped on by the fact that it became a general habit among millionaires and multimillion- aires to provide churches and schools and institutions of mercy, not to be built after the testators were dead, but built so that they might be present ht the laying of the cornerstone and at the dedication and leave less induce ment for the heirs at law to prove in orphans court that when the testators made their last will and testament they were crazy. The telegraphic wires in the air and the cables under the sea thrill with Christian invitation. Pho nographs charged with gospel ser mons stand in every neighborhood. The 5000, 100000 of the worlds inhab- itants in that century are 5,00O,000,000 disciples.
 But I say to our escort, the spirit of the twenty-first century, you have shown us much. But what about in- ternational conditions? When we lived on earth, it was century that bled with Marengo and Chalons and Lodi Bridge and Lucknow and Solferino and Leipsic and Waterloo and San Juan" Our escort replies, Come with me to this building of white marble and glttering dome." As we pass up and on we are taken into room where the migh.iest and best representatives of all nations are assembled to settle international controversies. As we en- ter hear the presiding officer opening the council of arbitration. reading the second chapter of Isaiah: They shall beat their swords into plowshares and hnir tion shall not lift up sword against na- tion, neither shall they learn war any more." Questions which in our long past nineteenth century caused quar- rel and bloodshed, as when Germany and France were deciding about Alsace and Lorraine, as when the United States and Spain were deciding about Cuba-such questions in this twenty first century settled in five minutes, one drop of ink doing more than once could have been accomplished by river of blood.
 But we cannot stay long in this hall of arbitration, for it Is almost time for us to retrace our way heavenward. This voluntary exile must soon end.
 But" say to our escort, the spirit of the twentytirst century, and you and l say to each other. we must go home now, back again to heaven. We have staid long enough on this terres- trial visitation to see that all the best things foretold In the Scriptures and which we read during our earthly resi- dence have come to pass, and all the Dayidic, Solomonic and Paulinian and Johannean prophecies have been full filled, and that the earth, instead of being a ghastly failure, is the mighti- est success in the universe. A star re- deemed. A planet rescued! A world saved! It started with a garden, and it is going to close with a garden. What a happiness that we could have seen this old world after 1t was righted and before 1t burned, for its internal A. n