Connecticut western news., 1901-01-03

ther! Evil habit is apt to skip one | generation, a fact recognized in the | Ten Commandments. which speak of | the third and fourth generation, but l say nothing of the second generation. Or the man nstray may have an un- | happy home. and that Is enough to | wreck any one. We often speak of men who destroy their homes. but do not say anything about the fact that | there are thousands of wives in Ameri- ca who by petulance and fretting and | Reconsideration and lack of economy | and all manner of disagreeableness | drive their husbands into dissipation. | The reason that thousands of men | spend their evenings In clubhouses and | taverns Is because they cannot stand 1t | at home. 1 know men who are 30 year | martyrs in the fact that they are aw. | fully married. That marriage was not made in heaven. Without asking di- | vine guidance they entered into an alli- | ance which ought never to have been | made. That Is what Is the matter with | many men you and know. They may | be very brave and heroic and say nothing about 1t, but all the neighbors | | has such domestic misfortune be very I lenient and excusatory in your word of warning. The difference between you | and him may be that you would have | gone down faster than he Is going | down If you had the same kind of con- | jugal wretchedness.
 Besides that, you had better be mer- | ciful in your word of warning, for the I day may come when you may need | some one to be lenient and excusatory | to you. There may be somewhere | ahead of you temptation so mighty | that unless you have sympathetic treat ment you may go under. "Oh, mo-" | says some one; II am too old for that" | How old are you? "Oh," you say, "I have been so long in active business | life that I am clear past the latitude of | danger" There is a man In Sing Sing penitentiary who was considered the | soul of honor until he was 50 years of | age and then committed dishonesty | that startled the entire commercial world.
 Divine Architecture.
 In mentioning fine arts people are apt to speak of music and painting and sculpture and architecture, but they ! forget to mention the finest of all the | fine arts, the art of doing good, the art | of helping others, the art of saving ' men. An art to be studied as you | study music for 1t Is music in the fact ! that it drives out moral discord and substitutes eternal harmony. An art to | be studied like sculpture. for 1t Is seulp- ture In the fact that 1t builds man not | In cold statue, but in immortal shape that will last long after all pentelican marble has crumbled. An art to be studied as you study architecture. for 1t l Is architecture In the fact that 1t builds for him house of God, eternal in the heavens. But an art that we cannot fully learn unless God helps us Our selves saved by grace divine, we can go forth to save others, and with tender ness and compassion and pity that we could not otherwise exercise we can pronounce the warning word with mag niflcent result The Lord said to the prophet Amos. "Amos. what seest | thou?" and he answered, "A basket of summer fruit" But 1 do not think Amos saw in that basket of summer fruit anything more inviting and lus- cious than many a saved man has seen In the warning word of some hearty, common sense Christian adviser, for
 word itly spoken is like apples of gold In baskets of silver
 So also Is word of invitation potent and beautiful. Who can describe the | drawing power of that word, so small ! and yet so tremendous, "Come?' It Is I a short word, but its influence Is as long as eternity; not sesquipedalian word spreading It's energy over many syllables, but monosyllabic. Whether calling In wrong direction or right di- rection many have found 1t irresistible. That one word has filled all the places of dissipation and dissoluteness. 1t Is responsible for the abominations that curse the earth. Inquire at the door of prisons what brought the offender there and at the door of almshouses what brought the paupcr there and at the door of the lost world what was the cause of the incarceration, and if the inmates speak the truth they will say, 'The word come brought us here" Come and drink. Come and gamble. Come and sin. Come and die. Pro- nounce that word with one kind of in- nection, and you can hear in 1t the toll 1 Ing of all the bells of conflagration and woe.
 The chief baker in prison in Pha- raoh's time saw in dream something quite different from apples of gold In hoc bot nf oil For hn %< 'T was also in a dream, and, behold, had three white baskets on my head, and In the uppermost basket there was | all manner of baked meats for Pha- raoh, and the birds did eat them out of ! the baskets upon my head" Joseph in- ! terpreted the dream and said 1t meant | that the chief baker should be behead- | ed, and the birds would eat his flesh. | So many man has In his own bad habits omens of evil that peck at him | and foretell doom and death.
 A Mighty Word.
 But, oh, the power of that word come" when alright uttered! We do well when we send young men Into | schools and colleges and theological seminaries and by nine years of in- | struction and drill hope to prepare
 them to sound alright that sweet and
 cnrapturing and heaven descended | word 'come." The gospel we believe In Is gospel of come" That word | speak all the churches. That word is | now building thrones for conquerors and furnished coronets for kings and | queens. That word Is to sound so clear
 ly and impressively and divinely that
 the day is advancing when all nations | shall respond: "We come! We come!''
 And while the upper steeps toward | God and heaven will be thronged with
 redeemed souls ascending there will
 not be one solitary traveller on the road | of sin and death.
 In the Kremlin at Moscow Is what is called the King of Bells" but 1t Is a