Connecticut western news., 1905-01-05

futile attempts t0 EClD people, for tLC more you do for some people the less those people seem to be willing to do for themselves. l do not want to lead purely selfish life, but l do not in tend to be bled for nothing The de sire not to throw away our good works is rational. When we plant seed we certainly want to reap the harvest. There are many discouragements ill philanthropic labors. The wife of a prominent New York millionaire once said to my mother: Mrs. Talmage, 1 do not like to do decd of Christian philanthropy with any one. When I do it 1 never want any one to know who is doing it. If $500 is necessary to be raised and l give $490, leaving it to some one else to give at least the other dollar, there is no surprise. The only surprise expressed is that 1 did not give the $JOO instead of the $499. The more you do for some people the less they try to do for themselves" This is unquestionably true, but, though some seed sown in Christian philan- tiIropy seems to be thrown away, that does not prove that the seed planting
 
 What would you think of a farmer who should say to you, 'I will not plant kernel of corn unless l am pos itively sure that from this kernel will grow stubble of corn, or a grain of wheat, barley or buckwheat unless from this very seed I shall get my thirty or sixty or a hundredfold re- [ turn?" Why, you would laugh such a l farmer to scorn. You would say to him: You do not know the first A B c of agriculture. A planter can afford to lose d thousand seeds if he can get d harvest from the remaining seeds he plants" Yet all through life you can find men who estimate their successes and failures not by the glorious re- turns they receive from few good seeds well planted in good ground, but by the failure of the good seed which has inadvertently fallen in bad soil. Why Not Help Hims
 Why don't you help that young man who has just landed in town and Is stranded? I grant that he has been a wayward boy, that his life is not what it ought to be, but in spite of that, why don't you help him? You know you can give him a position if you will. ''Oh," you answer, what is the use? I have tried to be friend to young men in the past, but I am done now with turning my business house into a Christian mission. I draw the line sharply between business and philan- thropy. I do my Christian work in church, but not in my store. I run the latter on business principles. When a young man corles to me for work he has to have good recommendations or I will not employ him. Why, sir, I have befriended four young men i'll the past! I even went so far as to try to send one of those young men through college because he was the son of an old chum of mine who is now dead. All four turned out badly. They were un- grateful dogs at that! You cannot make something out of nothing"
 A life of nothings. nothing worth From that first nothing ere its birth
 To that last nothing under earth. ! Yes, I grant that your good seed In the case of these four young men may have been thrown away. But would it not be worth while to have four, five or even ten such good seed plantings amount to naught if only the eleventh | "seed" took root in some young mans cert and saved just one young mani Would not the satisfaction you get from having led one young man to be saved for Christ compensate you for all your wasted labor upon nineteen young men -Whn- were not saved 2-GsA- will not reward you according to the success of your labors, but according 1 to the efforts you have honestly made, { whether they have succeeded or failed. { Do your duty and leave the result to | God ! Oh, missionary worker in the New ! York slums, what is the good of your ! rescue missions and your, testimony meetings night after night?. You know i just as well as I know that nine-tenths 1 of all your professed converts will be- come backsllders. That young woman 1 who now arises with tears in her eyes and says, "Thank God, I have been 1 saved from sin," may tomorrow be i treading again the old path of wicked 1 ness. That man who signs the pledge 1 tonight may be drunk again next week. That penitent gambler Is only penitent ! until you give him start In life again,
 and then he will gamble away his sub stance just the same as he has done in
 the past. Mrs. Maud Balllngton Booth 1 lately wrote book entitled After : Prison, What?' After prison for most eX-convicts is prison again. Two-thirds
 of the inmates of the penitentiary serve | more than one term each. Once a thief for many of them is always a thief.
 Labor Not Lost
 "All that you state is true," answers the missionary of the New York slums.
 "One-third, one-half aye, perhaps three-fourths-of all our reformed cases ! may become backsliders. But if one
 out of every four-aye, if one out of
 every ten-be saved, is not the tenth
 man worth all the effort we have be-
 slowed on the other nine? All the seed
 the farmer plants does not fall on good
 soil. Shall the farmer cease to plant?
 All our labors for Christ may not bring
 in gospel harvest but are not the re-
 wards we receive a multipotent bless
 ing for our labors, no matter how great
 they may be?" The New York mission
 ary is right.
 "1es,' some one says, that is very
 pretty talk, but it does not bear we'll
 the test of logic. If while I SOW one
 good seed nine other men are sowing
 tares, will not the nine tares increase
 just as rapidly as the one good seed? |?
 In time will not the earth, instead of
 being covered with the glory of God as
 the waters cover the sea- be covered
 with the blood of a destroyed world? |?
 Instead of the world being better, as
 we would wish, is it not morally and
 spiritually becoming more and more
 dcpraved? Have I not a right, then, to
 my new year timidities?" No, my
 brother! Mo- no! A thousand times
 no! The reports of the gospel meteorol-
 ogists do not bear out your theories.
 MoteOrOlO1V is aS rational o science