St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-02-02

are creeping up all over the world and
l do not fear them as | do this GOODNESS
that is creeping into the church. Inf
dels cannot hinder God from working.
God can work in spite of all the inf
dels and all the devils, but unbelief is
the great obstacle. We want to drive
it out, to bury it so deep that it never
will come up again, and then we shall
see how quick God will work through
us. | wish sometimes that we could
begin in a city just where we left off in
the last city. We would like to have
the same people here that we had in
Chicago, quickened by the same faith
and zeal. But we have to begin the
work all over again; we have to keep
butting away, at the same unbelief
When we left Scotland said E,
"They can't expect great results in Ire
land. The Irish are peculiar. They
could account for the success of the
work in Scotland, because there all the
people were familiar with their Bibles
and needed only to have the Gospel
truths brought before them. But we
found in Ireland the same old human
nature, and the same power converted
men there the same God was at work
in the same way.
When we were going to England
they said we would meet a check, es-
pecially in Liverpool, for there is a
great mercantile centre, with a great
many taveTns and such evil influences.
But l don't know that we ever had a
better time than we had in Liverpool.
When we were going to London we
were told the same thing; that the
London people were peculiar and we
would meet with difficulties. Then
when we were starting for America we
were told that we could not expect to
do much here, because people were
used to our manner of working and
would not be affected much by it. They
were all the time attributing the sue
cess of the work to human agencies.
But we found in New York and Phil
adelphia that the same old gospel had
the same effect on the people, and that
men were convicted of sin and convert
ed there as elsewhere. So in Chicago
we found great many Christian men
who did not believe that Chicago was
going to be reached, because they said
it was peculiar city and we had lived
there and would not be able to stir the
people up.
have been amused in Boston since
| came here by people saying: "You
must remember that Boston is a pecu-
liar place, and you cannot expect to do
in Boston as elsewheren Well, my
friends, this is the same old gospel and
the same old story. Boston human
nature is the same old human nature,
and these lions and walled cities and
giants are the same. The enemy can
not hinder God from working if we
have faith. This unbelief must be got
out of the way. He can shake Boston
as a mother shakes little child. Let
us be like Caleb and Joshua, and 90
and take the land. If we have Paul's
God, and Caleb's God, and Joshua's
God, are we not able to bring down a
| blessing upon Boston and all New
England, and can we not say that here
in Boston we shall see revival and
quickening Is it presumption to say
that we can do that, with all the prom
ises of the Bibleq
You remember how these words hap
pened to be uttered by Caleb. They
had been sent out forty days before to
look over the land of Canaan. They
were gone forty days and the twelve
men returned, one from each tribe, and
they brought back what Congress
would call minority and majority re-
ports. They all had to report that
Gods word was true, that it was land
flowing with milk and honey. They
all had to admit that it was good
land, but ten of them were full of I'M
belief. We saw giants there, they
said; we saw the Amalekites, and the
Amenities, and the Canaanites; they
great giants in the land-the valleys
are full of them; and we saw walled
city that looked as if the walls reached
to Heaven. They brought maps and
charts and described Jericho, and said
we cannot take it. There are great
walls and great giants; we are not able
to do it; we are a defenceless people
without weapons. ! can imagine one
of those men saying, II looked up at
those giants and they looked down at
me as if were a grassbopper; if you
could have gone and seen those giants
you would have been full of fear. 1t
is good land, but we are not able to
possess it." Then they began to muir
muir. 1t will not take unbelief very
long to find cause for murmuring. But
Caleb said, "Let us go up at once and
take the land" Then Joshua Joined in |
and there were two of them. They |
say, "the Lord will be with us and we
are able to take the land" They |
wanted to cross right there and take |
the land. But the people took up
stones and would have stoned them to
death if God had not appeared and
stood by those men of faith, and they
were turned back to the wilderness and
stayed there for forty years, and every
man except Caleb and Joshua, who
were twenty years old at the time,
found his grave there.
So four-fifths of the church are wan
dering about when they might go up
and possess the land. The trouble
with the church is that they are always
looking at obstacles, and l have yet to
ind successful man or woman in the
church that is looking at the obstacles.
Ten men were looking at the giants
md walls and obstacles, and the two
men of faith looked up yonder and saw
jhe God in Heaven and remembered
now he had brought them through in
safety.
Mr.. Moody used for another illustra-
ion, the case of Gideon, who had his
lrmy of $4,000 men whitfield down to
700, before the Lord would let him go
lgainst the enemy, and drew the les
on that God did not wish us to rely on
human aid in doing his work.
In the evening the tabernacle was
gain filled to oyerhOWinp before near