Connecticut western news., 1902-09-04


 for letter of credit which will sue
 cessr,.liy carry us through the dark
 days W hen we are dying and be sufh cie... fSr us until we realize the bright and triumphant advent of a heavenly welcome.
 The Long, Long Journey.
 The simile of death as a long jour ney away from the family fireside is very striking. When man takes long earthly journey, he is very apt to gather his family about him and say, If l should take this journey, in all probability 1 will return home at such and such a time," or If the father is going into a new country to establish another home he says to his children: After I am settled there and find ev erything all right you can sell the goods and pack up and come to me. l will be in such and such a place at such and such n time" Or perhaps the man who Is about to take long jour ncy will do us my father and myself did when we started on our journey around the world. We were to set sail from San Francisco and go by the way of the Sandwich Islands, Samoa, Australia and India. It was a long, hard Journey, and mother was phys ically unable to undertake 1t. So ia ther said: Mother, you take the two girls and go to Europe and meet Frank and myself as we come around the world. Meet us either at Brindisi or in Paris or London" So mother set sail from New York and went east. Father and myself set sail from San
 Francisco, going west. We were all | to meet by precOncerted plan at the French capital.
 My brother, as you must take this long journey through the valley of the
 shadow of death with the divine pass port in your hands, how can you ever expect to rejoin your loved ones unless you make previous arrangements with them where to meet? Having a letter of credit at the Bank of Grace, you
 say you expect to journey to the Celes- tial City. Have you ever told your loved ones about that city? Have you ever told them how to get to that cen ter of the universe? Have you ever told them there Is only one way to
 reach your destination, and that is for them to obtain forgiveness. of their sins by the blood of the Lamb, so that their heavenly advent shall be made pos sible? If 1t is important for you to make spiritual preparations for the l journey of death by being washed in s the Saviour's blood, is it not just as \ important for your loved ones to be cleansed by the same blood? You \ should tell your loved ones how they ! can be cleansed from sin as surely as N the guide, many years ago, told the \ traveller how his body could be cleansed \ as he became covered over with a | swarm of leeches when he was ford \ iE3 a shallow river in Burma. In hor- k TOT the foreigner began to pull them off, for the vampires were draining away his life's strength. But the guide bade him cease or he would destroy himself. Then the guide prepared a bath in which he diluted some herbs, | the juices of which were fatal to the life of the leech. Then he directed the traveller to lie down in the prepared waters, and immediately his body was freed from the vile aquatic worms. ! Have you ever told your loved ones that the only way they can meet you | in heaven is by bathing themselves in | the blood of the Lamb, so that the fa- | tai worm of sin which is sucking at their hearts shall fall of and dief
 I would plead with you, men and | women, who are trying to set your house In order, to look after the spir- itual welfare of your loved ones as
 well as your own, because do not un- derstand how heaven can ever be a
 truly and entirely happy place for any man who has neglected to look after
 the spiritual interests of those who on earth were near and dear to him.
 know that the Bible distinctly declares
 that heaven is to be a bright and a happy place; but, for one, think that ! even celestial happiness would be mar red if, when we are safely there, we | were conscious that our loved ones
 had missed their opportunity of com | ing in through our own neglect to tell them the way to the great white | throne. I well remember in our jour | ney around the world how the heart
 ached when in farofr Australia father
 and received a cablegram that moth
 CT was sick and had to return to Amer lea and could not meet us in Paris. we'll remember how anxiously we two. 12.0O0 miles from home. looked at each other. Then we began to worry about the Illness which some months later
 ended my mothers earthly life. And,
 oh, If we were disappointed by not
 meeting my mother In the French cap | ital, how much more disappointed will | some of us be, when we reach heaven.
 If we should feel that our brothers and
 sisters and husbands and wives, fa- thers and mothers and children, should
 have been in any way prevented join
 ing us In heaven and especially if the
 obstacle has been one of our making!
 For my own part. can sympathize a great deal with the prayer a weeping l wife once made by the bedside of her
 husband, whom she supposed to be
 asleep. With the tears raining down her cheeks she said: 70 God, save my
 husband! Save my dear, dear hus-
 band! And, if by any means my own
 sinful life has made him turn his back
 upon thee, then blot out my name from
 the book of life, If thou wilt! Only
 save him." My brother and sister. preparing for the great and eternal
 journey beyond the grave, beg of you
 at this critical time to look after the
 spiritual interests of your loved ones
 and those who are near to you.
 But there is one overwhelming
 thought about my text upon which
 love to dwell. If we go to the throne
 of grace in the right spirit of prayer,
 God will let every one of us live as
 long as Is necessary to do the work
 he wants us to do in his name. When
 the prophet Isaiah entered the royal
 palace of Jerusalem and said to the
 sick Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord,
 set thine house in order, for thou shalt
 die," the king turned his face toward
 the wall and began to weep. Hezekiah | was not weeping because he had to die