Connecticut western news., 1901-01-24


 "No admittance," while we stand in- side of the same churches hammering out our little niceties of religious be- lief, making pins. Oh, for deeper ap- preciation of the sentiment of my text, Other sheep I have which are not of this fold"
 I have to remark that the heavenly Shepherd will find many sheep amid the nonchurchgoers. There are con- gregations where they are all Chris tians, and they seem to be completely finished, and they remind one of the skeleton leaves which by chemical preparation have had all the greenness and verdure taken off them and are left cold and white and delicate, noth ing wanting but glass case to put over them. The minister of Christ has nothing to do with such Christians but to come once a week and with ostrich feather dust off the accumulation of the last six days, leaving them bright and crystalline as before. But the oth- CT kind of church Is an armory, with perpetual sound of drum and fife, gath ering recruits for the Lord of Hosts
 
 want to be on Gods side, the safe side and the happy side? If so, come in the , armory and get equipped. Here Is a bath in which to be cleansed. Here are sandals to put on your feet. Here Is helmet for your brow. Here Is breast plate for your heart. Here Is sword for your right arm, and wonder Is the battlefield. Quit yourselves like men," succor the Sinner.
 When the steamer Atlantic struck Mars rock and the people clambered up on the beach, why did not MT. An cient, that heroic minister of the gos- pei of whom we have all read, sit down and take care of those men on the beach, wrapping them In fiannels, kin | ding fire for them and seeing that | they got plenty of food? An, he knew | that there were others who would do 1, that. He says: Wonder are men and women freezing In the rigging of that wreck. Launch the lifeboat." Now l see the oar blades bend under the strong pull, but before they reach the | wreck a woman was frozen and dead. She was washed off, poor thing. "But," he says, there Is man to save" And he cries out: Five minutes longer, and I will save you. Steady, steady! Give me your hand. Leap into the lifeboat. Thank God, he Is savedw So there are those who are safe on the shore of Gods mercy. They are as safe as though they had been 1000 years in heaven, kept by the power of God | foit fn Rr1f there are some who are freezing in the rigging of sin and surrounded by tenn pest. Pull away, my lads! Let us reach them. Alas, one Is washed off and gone. There is one more to be saved. Let us push out there for that one. Clutch the rope, o dying man. | Clutch it as with a death grip. Steady, now, on the slippery places! Steadyl They are saved, saved, just as l thought, for Christ has declared that there are some still in the breakers who shall come ashore. "Other sheep have which are not of this fold"
 | Christ says that ministers of the gos- l pei are to be fishers for men. Now, when I go fishing I do not want to fish in anybody else's pond. I do not want to go along Hohokus creek where there are half dozen men fishing, and drop my line just about where they drop their lines. The lines would get tangled. 1 should like to get in a Newfoundland fishing smack and | push out to sea 90 miles beyond the breakers. I do not think the church of God gains a great deal when you | fol- oh Fol- md mt hor in another fold, and yet you and have sometimes seen pastors fishing in other peoples ponds. They throw a line into one pond and they jerk out a Methodist, they throw a line into an- other pond and they jerk out Pres byterian, or there Is a religious row in some neighboring church, and a whole school of fish swims off from that pond, and we take them all in with one sweep of the net. What Is gain. ed? Absolutely nothing for the cause of Christ. 1t Is the lost sheep on the mountains that you want to bring back-the lost sheep on the mountains. And they are coming now. You are this hour In the tide of Christian in. fuences. Your voice will yet be heard in public prayer. You will die in peace, your bed surrounded by Chris tian sympathies, and you will be car. ried out by devout men to the burial and over your grave will be chiseled the words, Precious in the sight oi the Lord is the death of his saints, and on resurrection day you will gel up with the dear children you have already buried and with your Chris tian parents who have already won the palm. And all that grand and glorious history begins today. "Other sheep have which are not of this fold'
 Hunting For Lost Sheep.
 I remark again the heavenly Shep herd Is going to find great many of his sheep among those who are now rejecters of Christianity. Some of the mightiest advocates of the gospel were once skeptics. Thomas Chalmers once a skeptic, Robert Hall skeptic Christmas Evans a skeptic, Charles c Kinney a skeptic, Paul, the apostle once a skeptic. But when once with strong hand they laid hold of the gos pei chariot they rolled it on with wha, momentum! I do not know how you came to reject Christianity. It may have been through the infidel talk of some young man In the store or shor or factory. It may. have been through the trickery of some professed Chris tian man, who disgusted you with re ligion. It may be that 30 years ago you lost all faith by what happened in an oil company which was formed amid the petroleum excitement. The company owned no land, or, if they did, there was no sign of oil produced But the president of the company was a Presbyterian elder and the treasurer an Episcopal vestryman and one di rector was Methodist class leader and the other officers prominent mem