Connecticut western news., 1900-11-29

 page scenes which the Bible depicts. On the banks of the Dead sea there are pieces of the very birthstone that fell In the sulphurous storm that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Make up your mind whether the Bible Is a glorious revelation of God or the worst imposi- ton of the centuries. Why go gadding about among infidels, atheists and de- ists asking questions and surmising and guessing about the authority and value of book which involves the in- finities? It is either a good book or bad book If 1t be a bad book, you do not want 1t in your house nor have your children contaminated with its teachings. If 1t Is a good book, your eternal happiness depends upon the adoption of its teachings. Once and forever make up your mind whether 1t is the book of God or the book of vil- lainous pretenders.
 So also many are unfixed in regard to their spiritual condition and day after day and year after year go gadding about among hopes and fears and anx- ieties. They sing with great emphasis that old hymn which we have all sung:
 Iris a point long to know;
 Oft it causes anxious thought;
 Do I love the Lord or no2
 Am his am notf
 Start on the Kings Highway.
 Why do you not find out whether you are his or not? There are all the broad invitations of the gospel. Accept them. There are all the assurances. Apply them. There are all the hopes of par don and heaven. Adopt them. There is the Kings highway. Start on it. Travelling any road, you are not satis- fled until you have found out whether 1t Is the right road or the wrong road, and you climb up In the darkness to read the words on the finger board at the roadside to see If 1t be the right road, and If 1t be the wrong road you cross over to the right road. If you are on the sea, you want to know into what port you will run or upon what rocks you are In danger of crashing This moment you have all the informa- ton pointing to the road that termi- mates at the gate of the Golden City and the voyage that anchors In the ha- ven of eternal rest. Why go on guess ing when you have all the facts before you? You ought to know by examina- tion of chart and compass and ther- mometer in what latitude and longi- tude you are sailing, whether in the arctic or the tropics A man who does not know whether or not he Is Chris tian Is like a man who does not know whether he is millionaire or pau per. Better go to the records and find out. The Scriptures are the records. If you cannot there read your title, 1t Is because you have no title, and you ought to begin anew. Start new prayer, sing new song, open a new experience.
 So, alas, there are those who gad about among particular churches. No pastor gan depend on them for single service At some time when he has prepared sermon after all prayer and all research putting nerve and muscle and brain and soul into its every para graph, these intermittent attendants are not there to hear 1t. While an oc- casional absence is excusable for the qualification of some wish to hear that which is consecrated or religiously ora toric in some other pulpit, when the pastor of a church with his eye calls the roll of attendance by your presence in the old place practically answer, saying: "I am here to get the benefit of all the useful thoughts you may utter and of all the hymns you may give out and of all the prayers you may offer. I, soldier of Jesus Christ, am in my own place in the company in the bat talion, in the regiment, and when you command March! I will march, and when you command Halt? I will halt, and when you order Ground arms! will ground arms"
 GadAbouts Injnre Churches.
 But, oh, how the gadabouts injure the churches! Instead of staying in their own prayer meeting or Sunday school they afflict other prayer meet ings and Sunday schools. I meet them on the street going the wrong way on Sunday morning or evening, and I ac- cost them in the words of the text, "Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy wayY
 My text also addresses those who in search of happiness are going hither and yonder looking for that which they nnd not. Their time Is all taken up with "musicales" and progressive euchres" and teas and yellow lunch cons and lat homes" and dances and operas and theaters, and instead of finding happiness they get pale cheeks and insomnia and indigestion and neu- ralgia and exhaustion and an abbrevi- ated lifetime. There Is more splendid womanhood sacrificed in that way in our cities than in any other way. The judgment day only can reveal the aw- ful holocaust of tangled nerves and the suicidal habits of much of our social life. The obituary of such reads well, for the story is suppressed about how they got their death while standing In attire of gauge waiting for the carriage on a raw night on the front steps. While in their lifetime they possessed all the ability for the relief of pain and impoverishment, yet they have no time for visitation of the poor or to win the blessing of such as comes upon those who administer to those who are ready tO ptIlSu EuOuBu uOWtT5 III luelT Qlu- ing halls to bewitch a prince, but not one tuft of heliotrope to perfume the room of that rheumatic on the back street, to whom the breath of one fow- CT would be like the opening of the front door of heaven. Find me one man or one woman who in all the rounds of pleasure and selfishness has found piece of happiness as large as that half dollar which the benevolent and Christlike soul puts into the palm of the hand of that mother whose chil- dren are crying for bread. Queen Vic toria, riding in triumph through Lon don at her jubilee, was not so sublime figure as Queen Victoria in a hut near Balmoral castle reading the New Tes- lament to poor dying man. Let all the gadabouts for happiness know that in kindness and usefulness and self ab- negation are to be found a satisfaction which all the gayeties of the world az greQated cannot afford