Connecticut western news., 1902-02-20

uays wages in his pocket as certainly needs tke guidance of religion as he who rattles the keys of a bank and could abscond with a hundred thou sand dollars.
 Putting Religion Into Practice.
 There are those prominent In the churches who seem to be on public oc- casions very devout who do not put the principles of Christs religion into practice. They are the most inexora- ble of creditors. They are the most grasping of dealers. They are known as sharpers on the street. They fleece every sheep they can catch. A country merchant comes In to buy spring or fall goods, and he gets into the store of one of these professed Christian men who have really no grace in their hearts, and he Is completely swindled. He Is 80 overcome that he cannot get out Of town during the week. He stays in town over Sunday, goes into some church to get Christian consolation, when what Is his amaZement to find that the very man who hands him the poor box in the church Is the one who relieved him of his money! But never mind; the deacon has his black coat on now. He looks solemn and goes home, talking about ''the blessed sermon" If the wheat in the churches should be put into hopper, the first turn of the crank would make the chaff fly, tell you. Some of these men are great sticklers for gospel preaching. They say: You stand there In bands and sur plice and gown and preach-preach like an angel-and we will stand out here and attend to business. Don't mix things. Don't get business and re ligion In the same bucket. You attend to your matters, and we will attend to ours." They do not know that God sees every cheat they have practiced in the last six years; that he can look through the iron wall of their flreproof safe; that he has counted every dis honest dollar they have in their pocket, and that a day of judgment will come. These inconsistent Christian men will sit on the Sabbath night in the house  service Rock of ages cleft for me" and then when the benediction Is pronounc- ed shut the pew door and say as they go out: "Goodby, religion. I'll be back next Sunday"
 I think that the church of God and the Sabbath are only an armory where we are to get weapons. When war comes, if a man wants to fight for his country, he does not go to Troy or Springfield to do battling, but he goes there for swords and muskets. l look upon the church of Christ and the Sab bath day as only the place and time where and when we are to get armed for Christian conflict, but the battle field is on Monday, Tuesday, Wednes- day, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. "St. Martins" and "Lenox" and "Old Hundredth" do not amount to anything unless they sing all the week. A ser mon is useless unless we can take 1t with us behind the blow and the coun- ter. The Sabbath day is worthless if 1t last only twenty-four hours.
 The Work Nearest at Hand.
 There are many Christians who say: "We are willing to serve God, but we do not want to do it in these spheres about which we are talking, and it seems so insipid and monotonous. If we had some great occasion, if we had lived in the time of Luther, if we had been Paurs travelling companion, If we could serve God on a great scale, we would do 1t, but we can't in this everyday life" admit that a great deal of the romance and knight errant- ry of life have disappeared before the advance of this practical age. The an cient temples of Rouen have been changed into storehouses and smithies The residences of poets and princes have been turned into brokers shops The classic mansion of Ashland has been cut up into walking sticks. The groves where the poets said the gods dwelt have been carted out for fire wood. The muses that we used to read about have disappeared before the i'm migrants ax and the trapper's gun, and the man who is waiting for a life bewitched with wonders will never find 1t. There is, however, a field of endurance and great achievement, but 1t Is in everyday life. There are Alps to scale, there are Hellesponts to swim, there are fires to brave, but they are all around us now. This is the hardest kind of martyrdom to bear.
 1t took grace to lead Latimer and Ridley through the fire triumphantly when their armed enemies and their friends were looking on, but 1t re- quires more grace now to bring men through persecution when nobody is looking on. I could show you in this city a woman who has had rheuma- tism for twenty years who has en- dured more suffering and exhausted more grace than would have made twenty martyrs pass triumphantly through the fire. If you are not faith full in an insignificant position in life, you would not be faithful in a grand mission. If you cannot stand the bite of -midge, how could you endure the breath of a basilisk?
 Do not think that any work God gives you to do In the world Is on too small scale for you to do. The whole universe is not ashamed to take care of one little flower. Plato had a fable which l have now nearly forgotten, but 1t ran something like this: He said spirits of the other world came back to this world to find body and find a sphere of work. One spirit came and took the body of a king and did his work; another spirit came and took the body of poet and did his work; after awhile Ulysses came, and he said: "Why, all the fine bodies are taken, and all the grand work Is taken There is nothing left for me-" And some one replied, "Ah, the best one has been left for you" Ulysses said, Whats that" And the reply was, "The body of a common man, doing a common work and for a common reward" A good fable for the world and just as good a fable for the church Whether we eat