Connecticut western news., 1900-03-08

v man into your association ask him plainly, What do you do for living?" If he says, "Nothing; l am a gentle man." look out for him. care not how soft his hand or how elegant his ap. parel or how high sounding his family name. his touch Is death.
 These people who have nothing to do win come around you in your busy hours, and they will ask you to ride with them to Chevy Chase or to Cen. tral park, and they will tell you of some excursion that you must make. of some wine that you must drink. of some beautiful dancer that you must see. They will try to take you away from your regular work. Associate with these men, and, first of all, you will become ashamed of your apparel: then you will lose your place, then you will lose your responsibility, then you will lose your soul.
 Door to yillaIny.
 likeness is the next door to villainy. When the police go to find criminals, where do they go to find them? They find them among the idle-those who have nothing to do, or, having some thing to do, refuse to engage In their daily work. Some one came to good old Ashbel Green and asked him why he worked at so years of age when it was time for him to rest. ''Oh," he re- piled. II work to keep out of mischiefr And no man can afford to be idle. l care not how strong his moral charac- ter. he cannot afford to be idle.
 But you say: "A great many people are suffering from enforced idleness. During the hard times there were a great many people out of employ ment." 1 know it. but the times of dullness In business are the times when men ought to be thoroughly en- gagged in improving their minds and enlarging their hearts. The fortunes to be made 20 years from now will be made by the young men who in the times when business was dull cultivat- ed their minds and improved their hearts. They will get the fortunes aft. CT awhile, while those men who hang around their stores, never engaging in any useful occupation, will be as poor then as they are now. It Is absurd for q Christian man to say he has nothing to do.
 1 went into q store in New York where there were five Christian men, and they said they had nothing to do. The whole world lying in sin. Poverty to be comforted, sickness to be alleviat- ed, a Bible in the back office. every opportunity of mental culture. spir- itual culture; every inducement to work. yet Christian man. sworn be fore high heaven to consecrate his whole life to usefulness, has nothing to do! If you have not any business for this world, my Christian friend, then you ought to be doing business for eternity.
 People go to Florence and to Venice and to Rome to see one of the works of the great masters. l think l can show you the picture of one of the the slothful and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding. and, To. it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof. and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw and considered it well. I looked upon it and received instruction. Yet little sleep, n little slumber. little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth and thy want as an armed man." There is no more oX- plosive passage in all the Bible than that. It first begins to hiss like the fuse of cannon and then bursts like 54 pounder. The old proverb was trle. "The devil tempts most men. but idlers tempt the deyilr' Therefore seek something to do. If no worldly busi- ness offers, then. in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. go out on Christian toll. and the Lord will bless you. and the Lord will help you.
 Avoid Pleasure Seekers.
 Again, I counsel you, avoid the pleas ure seeker, the man whose entire busi- ness it is to seek for recreation and amusement. I believe in the amuse- ments of the world so far as they are innocent. could not live without them. Any man of sanguine tempera- ment must have recreation or die. And yet the amusements and recreationS of life must administer to hard work. They are only preparative for the occu- patton to which God has called us.
 God would not have given us the capacity to laugh if he did not some times Intend Us to indulge it. God hath hung In sky and set in wave and printed on grass many roundelay. p,,t o- nd hn lNpiu rho occ, of the natural world were merely in- tended to fit us for the earnest work of life. The thundercloud has edges ex- quisitely purpled, but it jars the noun tain as it says, ''I come down to water the fields" The flowers standing un- der the fence look gay and beautiful, but they say, "We stand here to re- fresh the husbandmen at the nooning" The brook frolics and sparkles and foams, but it says: T go to baptize the moss; go to slake the thirst of the bird; l turn the wheel of the mill; in my crystal cradle 1 rock muckshaw and water lily; play, but I work
 Look out for the man who plays and never works. Look out for that man whose entire business Is to play ball or sail yacht or engage In any kind of merriment. These things are all beau tiful and grand in their places, but when they become the chief work of life they become mans destruction. George Brummel was admired of all England. He danced with peeresses and went round of mirth and folly until after awhile. exhausted of purse, ruined of reputation, blasted of soul, he begged a ccust from. a grocer, de- elaring as his deliberate opinion that he thought that dogs life was better than mans.
 These mere pleasurists will come around you while you are engaged in your work, and they will try to take you away. They have lost their places Why not you lose your place? Then you will be one of them. Oh. my