Connecticut western news., 1899-01-05

| They will have lived thousand; they | have lived a thousand. There are those who think they are 80 years of age. They have not even entered upon their | infancy, for one must become babe in
 Christ to begin at all.
 Now. do not know what your ad
 vantages or disadvantages are. I do not
 know what your tact or talent is. I do
 not know what may be the fascination
 of your manners or the responsiveness of
 them, but I know this: There is for you, my nearer, a field to culture, a
 harvest to reap, tear to wipe away, a
 soul to save. If you have worldly means,
 consecrate them to Christ. If you have eloquence, use it on the side that Paul and Wilberforce used theirs. If you
 have learning, put it all into the poor
 box of the worlds suffering But if you ] have none of these-neither wealth, nor ! eloqunce, nor learning-you at any
 rate have smile with which you can encourage the disheartened, a frown with which you may blast injustice, a | voice with which you may call the wanderer back to God. "Oh," you say,
 that is Q very sanctimonious view of | ifep' It is not. It is the only bright view of life, and it is the only bright | view of death. Contrast the death scene | of a man W ho has measured life by the l worldly standard with the death scene | of a man who has measured life by the | Christian standard. Quin, the actor, in his last moments said, II hope-this tragic scene will soon be over, and l
 hope to keep my dignity to the last. ' | Malesherbes said in his last moments to the confessor: "Hold your tonguel Your | miserable style puts me out of conceit | with heaven" Lord Chesterfield in his
 last moments, when he ought to have
 been praying for his soul, bothered him.
 self about the propreties of the sick
 room and said, "Give Dayboles chair.
 Godfrey Kneller spent his last hours on
 earth in drawing diagram of bis own | monument.
 Compare the silly and horrible de- 1 parture of such men with the seraphio | glow on the face of Edward Payson as | bo said in his last moment: "The breezes | of heaven fan me. I float in sea of glory" Or with Paul the apostle, who | said in his last hour: ''I am now ready ! to be offered up, and the time of my
 departure is at hand. have fought the | good fight, 1 have kept the faith. Hence
 forth there is laid up for me crown of
 righteousness which the Lord, the right eous Judge, will give me-" Or compare | it with the Christian deathbed that
 you witnessed in your own household. | Oh, my friends, this world is a false | god. It will consume you with the blaze
 in which it accepts your sacrifice, while | the righteous shall be held in everlast- | ing rememb brance, and when the thrones have fallen and the monuments have
 crumbled and the world has perished | they shall banquet with the conquerors | of earth and the hierarchs of heaven. | The Coming Year.
 | This is good day in which to begin
 q new style of measurement. How old | art thou2 You see the Christian way of
 measuring life and the worldly way of
 measuring It. leave it to you to say
 which is the wisest and best way. The wheel of time has turned very swiftly,
 and it has hurled us on. The old year I has gone The new year has come. For
 what you and have been launched up
 on it God only knows. Now let me ask | you all, have you made any preparation
 for the future? You have made prepara-
 tion for time. my dear brother. Have
 you made any preparation for eternity7 Do you wonder that when that man on
 the Hudson river in indignation tore up
 the tract which was handed to him and just one word landed on his coat sleeve,
 the rest of the tract being pitched into
 the river, that one word aroused his
 soul? It was that one word, so long, so broad, so high, SO deep-"eternity." A dying woman, in her last moments,
 said, "Call it back" They said,
 What do you want?'' "Time," she
 said, "call it back" Oh, 1t cannot be
 called back. We might lose our fortunes and call them back; we might lose our
 health, and perhaps recover it; we might lose our good name and get that
 back, but time gone Is gone forever.
 Some of you during the past year made preparation for eternity, and it makes no difference to you really, as to the matter of safety, whether you go
 now or go some other year-whether
 this year or the next year. Both your
 feet on the rock, the waves may dash
 around you. You can say, "God is our
 :efuge and strength-a very present 1elp." You are on the rock, and you
 nay defy all earth and hell to over
 throw you. I congratulate you. give
 you great joy. It is a happy new year
 % you.
 can see no sorrow at all in the fact
 that our years are going. You hear acme people say, II wish could go back
 again to boyhood." would not want
 to go back again to boyhood. I am afraid might make 8 worse life out of
 it than have made. You could not afford to go back to boyhood if 1t were possible. You might do a great deal
 worse than you have done. The past Is gonel Look out for the futurei To all Christians it is time of gladness. l am glad the years are going. You are coming on nearer home. Let your coun- tenance light up with the thought nearer homel
 Now, when one can sooner get to the center of things Is he not to be con- gratulated? Who wants to be always In the freshman class? We study God in this world by the Biblical photograph of him, but we all know we can in five minutes of interview with friend get a more accurate idea of him than we can by studying him 50 years through pictures or words. The little child that died at six months of age knows more of God than all Andover and all Prince ton and all New Brunswick.
 The Center of the Wheel.
 Does not our common sense teach us that it is better to be at the center than to be clear out on the rim of the wheel,
 holding nervously fast to the tire lest
 we be suddenly hurled into light and eternal felicity? Through all kinds of optical instruments trying to peer in through the cracks and the keyholes of