Connecticut western news., 1904-10-27

would have jumped into that boat without fear? Oh, no, not that. No one could charge you with being a coward. Personally you would just as lief run the risk now as you did fifteen years ago. but HOW you have a wife and children, which was not so fifteen years ago. Now you have oth- CTS dependent upon you. Now you cannot afford for their sakes to need lessly risk your life.
 Why They Were Reckless.
 What kind of soldiers are the most reckIessT' was one day asked Lord
 Kitchener, the British general of the
 Boer war. Without any hesitation he answered: Bachelor soldiers. Not that
 they are at heart braver, but when a
 man has a wife and children depend ent upon him for daily bread he guards
 his life more carefully on their ac- count and does not run into any useless dangers" Now, my friends, when a true father is careful not to run into physical dangers, fearing he may de-
 prlve his wife and children of their daily bread, Is not man by the same law of reasoning the more unwilling to run into spiritual dangers and tempta- tions if he realizes that the joys of oth- CTS, in a spiritual sense, are wrapped
 up in his own joys and that sorrows in other lives will be caused by his sins? Lord Bacon. in one of his match less essays, once said, After d man marries he surrenders into the hands of success his wife and children as hostages" By that Lord Bacon meant, Every man who is married Is handi- capped in the race of life" He meant that a man becomes timid when he has wife and children. In the crises of life, when success is won by the man who casts everything into the scale, the married man hesitates because he Is afraid to risk the future of his wife and children. But he overlooked the fact that his love for his family will keep him from running foolish risks. So when man enlarges his circle and makes the welfare of others his con cern he has an inspiration to better, truer, nobler life. He shrinks from wrongdoing because he knows that he will>injure others by his example. The ascetic has only himself to consider, but the man who has entered into oth CT mems joys and sorrows knows that his fall or his good life may affect the lives of others.
 What the Scripture Means.
 But how Is Christian sympathy to enter truly into the existence of an others life? First, my text says, Re joice with them that do rejoice" Do you know what that means? Why, the interpretation is simple enough to un- derstand. It means when you see an old school friend getting ahead in life, when you see brother succeeding at the law or in medicine or in the pulpit, when you see q sister living in a finer house than yours or driving in car riage while you walk, or when you know that your brother-in-law is able to take his family and children to the country to get back the flush of health to their pale cheeks, while you cannot afford to go, that you must not be jeal- ous of their successes. If you are and you hear of another church holding a great revival and gathering i'll new converts by the scores, you are to go to the minister of that church with warm, loving gos- per fNYr1sraik aifd sHy -; Ere +T0tlef7 you! We are praying for you and the great good you are doing. May God bless your new members and make them mighty agents for Christp' It means that If you are a candidate for some office and another is elected to the presidency of that society ill your stead then you are to pitch in and work Just as hard for the successful outcome of your successful rivals ad- as you would have work ed for your own, and, furthermore, not only work just as hard for the new man, but be just as happy in his sue cesses as you would have been in your own successes.
 "Oh" says some one, with q quick gasp, q did not know this text meant as much as that. That is pretty bitter medicine for an average disciple to swallow. I cannot understand how George B. Mcclellan would feel very kindly toward Major General Burn side, who superseded him after the battle of Antietam. Neither is it nat ural for a Seward or q Chase to be enthusiastic over the election of a Lincoln. Of course there have been some great, big hearted, noble men, like Samuel Adams, who were ready to stay in the background and push other men to the front, as Samuel Adams did Hancock and John Adams and Otis and Joseph Warren and Quin- cy. But, for the most part, men work best In any great cause when individ- ually they are working for themselves. It Is not natural for young lady at reception to be particularly pleased when most of the young men are hoy ering about her rivals chair as a swarm of bees might circle about beautiful flower. Neither is it natural for any one to truly rejoice in another's success when that success in one sense seems to undermine his own success"
 Yes, my friend, you are right. It is not natural for q sinful man to Ere joice with those that do rejoice" But the gospel of Jesus Christ can make what is unnatural for sinful man nat ural for a redeemed man. "The hard est act of life is to get any man to be willing to completely sink his indiyid- uality in a cause" once wrote General Samuel Armstrong, the founder and first principal of the Hampton insti- tute. Tt is comparatively easy to get rich men to endow a scholarship or to erect a building or to do this or that for which their names will be known far and wide, yet it Is almost impossi- ble to get any man to give his money to help out the ordinary running eX- penses of q college, which have to be met and must be met right away" Difficult, Is 1t, to rejoice with a man when he rejoices and to help on his success? Yes, but I believe the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is even able to accomplish that wonder, and 1t can accomplish 1t, o man, In your heart, Sp tlOt uOn pup on tn yot1r f1I