Connecticut western news. [volume] (Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Conn.) 1871-1970, 1901-04-18

tenance frank, habits good, soul saved,
and all the inhabitants of heaven, from
the lowest angel up to the archangel
and clear past him to the Lord God
Almighty, your coadjutors.
Joys of Christian Life.
This Is not the advice Of a mis-
anthrope. There Is no man in the
house to whom the world Is brighter
than 1t Is to me. 1t is not the advice
of a dyspeptlc-my digestion is per-
feet; it Is not the advice of a man who
cannot understand q joke or who pre-
fers a funeral; it Is not the advice of
wornout man, but the advice of a
man who can see this world In all its
brightness and considering myself
competent in judging what is good
cheer / tell the multitudes of young
men that there is nothing In worldly
associations so grand and so beautiful
| and so exhilarant as in Christian So
| ciety.
l know there is great deal of talk
| about the self denials of the Christian.
have to tell you that where the
| Christian has one self denial the man
| of the world has thousand self de-
J malls. The Christian Is not COM
| manded to surrender anything that Is
\ worth keeping. But what does a man
deny himself who denies himself the
religion Of Christ! He denies himself
pardon for sin; he denies himself peace
of conscience; he denies himself the
| joy of the Holy Ghost; he denies him
| self a comfortable death pillow; he
| denies himself the glories of heaven.
| Do not talk to me about the self de-
| malls of the Christian life. Where
| there Is one In the Christian life there
are thousand In the life of the world.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness.'
Again, find great deal of religious
sunshine il Christian and divine ex-
| PLANTATION. TO great many people life
is an inexplicable tangle. Things turn
out differently from what was suppos-
! ed There is a useless woman in per-
| feet health. There is an industrious
| and consecrated woman a complete in
| valid. Explain that. There Is bad
man with $4,000 of income. There Is
| good man with $500 of income. Why
| is that? There is foe of society who
| lives on doing all the damage he can,
/ to rs years of age, and here is Chris
| tan father, faithful in every depart
ment of life, at 80 years of age taken
| away by death, his family left helpless.
| Explain that. Oh, there Is no sentence
that oftener drops from your lips than
| this: II cannot understand 1t; cannot
| understand it,"
Grand Cancellations.
| Well, now religion comes in just at
| that point with it's illumination and it's
| explanation. There Is a business man
| who has lost his entire fortune. The
| week before he lost his fortune there
| were 20 carriages that stopped at the
| door Of his mansion. The week after
he lost his fortune all the carriages
| you could count on one finger. The
| week before financial trouble began
| people all took OFF their hats to him as
| he passed down the street. The week
his financial prospects were under dis
cussion people just touched their hats
| without anywise bending the rim. The
| week that he was pronounced insolyent
| people just jolted their heads as they
passed, not tipping their hats at all,
| and the week the sheriff sold him out
| all his friends were looking In the store
| windows as they went down past him.
| Now, while the world goes away from
| a man while he is in financial distress,
| the religion of Christ comes to him and
says: you are sick, and your sickness
is to be moral publication. You are be-
| reaved God wanted In some way to
take your family to heaven, and he
/ nd 60 hC
the one that was most beautiful and
was most ready to CO." / do not say
that religion explains everything In
this life, but do say 1t lays down GER
tain principles which are grandly con-
solatory. You know business men of
ten telegraph in cipher. The merchant
in San Francisco telegraphs to the mer-
chant in New York certain information
in cipher which no other man in that
line of business can understand. but
the merchant in San Francisco has the
key to the cipher, and the merchant In
New York has the key to the cipher,
and on that information transmitted
there are enterprises involving hun
dreds Of thousands of dollars. Now,
the providences of life sometimes seem
to be a senseless rigmarole, a mysteri-
Gus cipher, but God has key to that
cipher, and the Christian key to that
cipher, and though he may hardly be
able to spell out the meaning he gets
enough of the meaning to understand
that it Is for the best. Now. Is there
not sunshine in that? Is there not
pleasure In that? Far beyond laughter,
it is nearer the fountain of tears than
boisterous demonstration. Have you
never cried for joy? There are tears
which are eternal rapture in distilla-
ton.
Everything Explained.
There are hundreds of people who
are walking day by day in the sublime
satisfaction that all is for the best, all
things working together for good for
their soul. How a man can get along
through this life without the explana-
ton Is to me mystery. What, is that
child gone forever? Are you never to
get it back? Is your property gone for
ever? Is your soul to be bruised and
to be tried forever? Have you no ex-
PLANTATION, no Christian explanation,
and yet not a maniac? But when you
have the religion of Jesus Christ In
your soul 1t explains everything so far
as It Is best for you to understand.
You look off in life, and your soul is
full of thanksgiving to God that you
are so much better off than you might
be. A man passed down the street
without any shoes and said: II have no
shoes. Isn't 1t a hardship that l have
| no shoes? Other people have shoes.
No shoes, no shoes!" until he saw a
man who had no feet. Then he learned
a lesson. You ought to thank God for
what he does instead of grumbling for
what he does not. God arranges all
the weather in this world-the spiritual
weather, the moral weather as well as
the natural weather. what kind of
| weather will II no today1. said soma