Connecticut western news., 1901-11-07

influence comes 10 fun orD-his 1ntiu- ence rolling out through Antioch, through Cyprus, through Lystra, through Corinth, through Athens. through Asia, through Europe, through America. through the first century, through five centuries, through twenty centuries, through earth, through heav- en, and at last the wave of influence, having made full circuit, strikes his soul. Oh, then would like to see him! No one can tell the wide sweep of tue circle of PauPs influence save the one who Is seated on the circle of the earth.
 should not like to see the counte- nance of Voltaire when his influence comes to full orb. When the fatal hem orrhage seized Jim at eighty-three years of age, his influence did not cease. The most brilliant man of his century, he had used all his faculties for assaulting Christianity, his bad influence widen ing through France, widening out through Germany, widening through all Europe, widening through America, widening through the 123 years that have gone since he died, widening through earth, widening through the great future, until at last the accumu- lated influence of his baleful teachings and absolute life will beat against his dismayed spirit, and at that moment 1t will be enough to make the black hair of eternal darkness turn white with horror. No one can tell how that bad mans influence girdled the earth save the one who Is seated on the circle If the earth-the Lord Almighty.
 Well, now" say some, ''this, in some respects, is very glad theory and in others very sad one We would like to have the good we have done come back to us, but the thought that all the sins we have ever commit ted will come back to us fills us with alright" My brother, have to tell you God can break that circle and will do so at your call. I can bring twenty passages of Scripture to prove that when God, for Christ's sake, forgives man the sins of his past life never come back. The wheel may roll on and on, but you take your position behind the cross, and the wheel strikes the cross and is shattered forever. The sins fly off from the circle and fall at right angles with complete oblivion. Forgiven! Forgiven! The meanest thing man can do Is after some diffi- culty has been settled to bring 1t up again, and God will not do anything like that. Gods memory Is mighty enough to hold all the events of the ages, but there Is one thing that Is %x~ ell h{C Is sure to forget, and that Is pardoned transgression. How do 1 know 1t? will prove It. Their sins and their iniquities will remember no more." Blessed Is he whose transgression Is forgiven"
 The Eternal Circle.
 But do not make the mistake of thinking that this doctrine of the circle stops with this life. It rolls on through heaven. You might quote in opposi- ton to me what St. John says about the city of heaven. He says it ''lieth four square" That does seem to mill tate against this idea of a circle. But do you not know there Is many a square house that has family circle facing each other and In circle mov- ing, and I can prove that this is so in regard to heaven. St. John says, "1 heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders" And again he says, T saw round about the throne four and twenty seats" And again he says, There was a rainbow round about the throne"
  The two former imply a circle; the last, either a circle or a semicircle. The seats facing each other, the angels fac ing each other, the men facing each other. Heaven an amphitheater of glo- ry. Circumference of patriarch and prophet and apostle. Circumference of Scotch Covenanters and Theban legion and Albigenses. Circumference of the good of all ages. Periphery of splendor unimag1ned and indescribable. A cir cle! A circle!
 But every circumference must have center, and what Is the center of this heavenly circumference? Christ. His all the glory; his all the praise; his all the crowns. All heaven wreathed into a garland round about him. Take off the imperial sandal from his foot and be- hold the scar of the spike. Lift the cor onet of dominion from his brow and see where was the laceration of the briers Come closer, all heaven. Narrow the circle around his great heart. O Christ, the Savious! O Christ, the man! O Christ, the God! Keep thy throne for ever, seated on the circle of the earth, | seated on the circle of heaven.
 On Christ, the solid rock. stand: All other ground Is shifting sand.