Connecticut western news., 1900-08-09

had lots of 1t in my time. But have ! not had to go Into paths of sin to find | It. No credit to me, but because of an l extraordinary parental example and in- l fiuence I was kept from outward trans gressions, though my heart was bad
 enough and desperately wicked. have had fun illimitable, though l never l swore one oath and never gambled for | so much as the value of a pin and never saw the inside of haunt of sin save as when many years ago, with commissioner of police and detective | and two elders of my church, explor- | ed New York and Brooklyn by mid | night, not out of curiosity, but that | might In pulpit discourse set before ! the people the poverty and the hor- ! TOTS of underground city life. Yet. | though I was never intoxicated for an | instant and never committed one act l of dissoluteness, restrained only by the | grace of God, without which restraint I would have gone headlong to the bottom of infamy, I have had so much | fun that don't believe there is man on the planet at the present time who | has had more. Hear 1t, men and boys, women and girls, all the fun Is on the | side of right. Sin may seem attractive, ! but it is deathful, and like the man. chineel. a tree whose dews are poison ! ous. The only genuine happiness Is in | Christian life.
 No PIeasure In Sin.
 There they go, two brothers. The one was converted year ago In church | one Sunday morning during prayer or | sermon or hymn. No one knew 1t at the time. The persons on either side of | him suspected nothing, but in that young mans soul this process went on: Lord, here I am, young man amid
 the temptations of city life, and I am afraid to risk them alone. Come and | be my pardon and my help. Save me | from making the mistake some of my comrades are making, and save me | now" And quicker than a flash God l rolled heaven into his soul. He Is just as jolly as he used to be. IS just as ! brilliant as he used to be. He can strike a ball or catch one as easily as | before he was converted. With gun
 or fishing rod In this summer vacation he Is just as sktllful as before. The
  He appreciates pictures, music, inno- | cent hilarity, social life, good jokes l and has plenty of fun, glorious fun. But his brother Is going down hill. In l the morning his head aches from the champagne debauch. Everybody sees | he is In rapid descent. What cares he for right or decency or the honor | ofs his family name? Turned out of | employment, depleted in health, cast down in spirits, the typhoid fever | strikes him in the. smallest room on the fourth story of fifth rate board ing house. cursing God and calling for bis mother and fighting back demons from his dying pillow, which is be
 sweated and torn to rags. He plunges out of this world with the shriek of destroyed spirit. Alas for that kind of | fun! It Is remorse. It is despair. 1t
 Is blackness of darkness. It Is woe intending and long reverberating and l crushing as though all the mountains | of all continents rolled on him in one avalanche. My soul. stand back from such fun. Young man, there Is no fun 1 tn Shipwrecking your character, no fun | in disgracing your fathers name. There is no fun in breaking your moth CTS heart There Is. no fun In the physically hpangs of the dissolute. There I Is no fun In the profigate's deathbed. | There Is no fun in an undone eterni- I ty. Paraceisus, out of the ashes of a burnt rose, said he could recreate the | ,ose but he failed In the alchemic un- | aertaking. and roseate life, once burn \ ed down in sin, can never again be made to blossom.
 Measured by God.
 | Oh, this plumb line of the everlasting ! right! God will throw 1t over all our lives to show us our moral defiections. | God will throw 1t over all churches to show whether they are doing useful l work or are instances of idleness and pretense. He will throw that plumb line over all nations to demonstrate | whether their laws are just or cruel, their rulers good or bad, their ambi- l tfons holy or infamous. God Is now
 throwing that plumb line over this re- public, and 1t Is a solemn time with this nation, and whether we keep his | Sabbaths or dishonor them, whether l righteousness or iniquity dominate, \ whether we are Christian or infidel,
 whether we fulfill our mission or refuse,
 whether we are for God or against him,
 will decide whether we shall as a na- ton go on in higher and higher career
 or go down in the same grave where
 Babylon and Nineveh and Thebes are
 sepulchered.
 But" say you, If there be nothing
 but a plumb line, what can any of us
 do, for there Is an old proverb which | truthfully declares, If the best mans ! faults were written on his forehead,
 It would make him pull his hat over
 his eyes What shall we do when,
 according to Isaiah, God shall lay judgment to the line and righteous
 ness the plummetY~ An, here is
 where the gospel comes in with
 SavioE's righteousness to make up
 for our deficits. And while I see hang
 ing on the wall plumb line, see also
 hanging there a cross. And while the
 one condemns us, the other saves us,
 If only we will hold to 1t. And here 1 and now you may be set free with
 more glorious liberty than Hampden or Sidney or Kosciusko ever fought for.
 Not out yonder or down there or up
 here, but just where you are you may get 1t.
 The invalid proprietress of a wealthy
 estate in Scotland visited the e-continent
 of Europe to get rid of her maladies,
 and she went to Baden Baden and
 tried those waters and went to Carls-
 bad and tried those waters and went
 to HoNburg and tried those waters
 and instead of getting better she got
 worse, and In despair she said to
 physician, What shall doT' His re-
 ply was: Medicine can do nothing for
 you. You have only one chance, and l that Is the waters of Pit Keathly.