The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-09-02


alton; that will leave you about sixteen
years. From those sixteen years you
must subtract all the time you are nee
essarily engaged in the earning OF llVe'
lihood; that will leave you sbout eight
years. From those eight years you NUT
take all the Jays and weeks ana months
of sickness, leaving you about one year
in which to work for God. 0, my soul,
wake up! How darest thou sleep In
harvest time, and 80 few hours In Wnlch
to reap? So l state it as simple fact,
that all the time the vast majority of
von will have for the exclusive service
of God, will be less than one year
"But," SAYS some man, ~ literally
support the Gospel, and the church is
open; and tie Gospel is preached; all the
spiritual advantages are spread before
men; and if they want to be saved, let
them come to be saved; have discharg-
ed my responsibility" Ah, is that the
Masters spirit? Is there not an old
book somewhere that commands us to 60
out into the highways and hedges and
compel the people to come in? What
would have become of you and me If
Christ had not come down off the hills
of heaven, and if he had not come thro'
the door Of the Bethlehem caravansary.
and had not, with the crushed hand OF
the crucifixion, knocked at the iron gate
of the sepulcher of our spiritual death,
crying. "Lazarus, come forth" 0, my
Christian friends, this is no time for in.
ertia, when all the forces of darkness
seems to be in full blast, when steam
printing presses are publishing infdel
tracts; when express railway trains are
carrying messengers of sin; when fast
clippers are laden with opium and rum;
when the night air Of our cities is pollu.
ted with the laughter that breaks up
from the ten thousand saloons of dlssi'
patton an3 abandonment; when the fires
of the second death are already kindled
in the cheeks of some who only a little
while ago were incorrupt! Oh, never
since the fall of man has there ever been
a time when it was such an unwise, such
a cruel, such an awful thing for the
church to sleep. The great audiences
are not gathered in the Christian chur.
ches; the greater audiences are gathered
in temples of sin-tears Of unutterable
woe, their baptism; the blood of crushed
hearts, the awful wine of their sacra'
ment; blasphemies, their litany; and the
groans of the lost world, the organ dirge
of their worship!
Again, if you want to be qualified to
meet the duties which this age demands
of you, you must on the one hand avoid
reckless iConoclasm, and on the other
hand, not stick too much to things be-
cause they are old. The world is full of
new plans, new projects, new theories of
government, new theologies; and l am
amazed to see how many Christians only
want novelty in order to recommend a
thing to their confidence; and 30 they
vaCilate, and swing to and fro, and are
useless, and they are unhappy, New
plans-seCular, ethical, philosophical, re-
ligous, CisatlantiC, transatlantic, long
enough to make line reaching from
the German Universities to great Salt
Lake City. All, my brother, do not take
hold of a thing merely because it is new.
Try it by the realities of judgment
day. But, on the other hand, do not
adhere to anything merely because it is
old. There is not single enterprise Of
the church or the world but has some.
times been sCofed at. There was time
when men derided even Bible SOCIETIES
and when few young met near hay.
stack in Massachusetts, and organized
the first missionary society ever organi.
zed in this country; there went laughter
and ridicule all around the Christian
church; they said the undertaking was
preposterous, and 80 also the ministry Of
Jesus Christ was assailed. People cried
out; "Who ever heard of such theories
of ethics and of government? VINO
ever noticed such a style of preaching as
Jesus has2 Ezekiel had talked Of mys.
terious wings and wheels. Here cane
man from Antioch, and Capernaum, and
Gennesaret, and He drew His illustra.
tions from the lakes, from the sand, from
the lilies How the Pharisees scofedl
How Herod derided! How Judas hiss
edl And this Jesus they pluCked by
the beard, and spat in his face, and call.
ed him this fellow All the great enter
prises in and out of the church have at
times been scofed at, and great many
have thought the chariot of Gods truth
would fall to pieces if it once got out of
the old rut. And 30 there are those who
have no patience with anything like i'm.
provement in church architecture, or
anything like good, hearty, earnest,
church singing, and deride every form
of religious discussion which goes down
walking with every day men, rather
than that which makes an excursion on
rhetorical stills. Oh, that the church of
God would wake up to an adaptability of
work. We must admit the simple but
stern fact, that the church of Jesus Christ
in this age does not reach the great mass.
es! There are fifty thousand people in
Edinburgh who never hear the Gospel.
There are two hundred thousand people
in Glasgow who never hear the Gospel.
There are at least three thousand souls
in Brooklyn who come not under the
immediate ministrations of Christs truth
and the church of God in this city, in
stead of being full of living epistles for
Christ, known and read of all men, is
more like dead letter" postofiCe.
But" say people, "the world is going
to be converted; you must be patient; the
kingdoms of this world are to become
the kingdoms of Christ" Never, unless
the church of Jesus Christ becomes more
sincere, earnest and active!
Instead Of the church converting the
t1Orld, the world is converting the church,
Here is great fortress; how shall it be
taken2 An army comes and sits around
about it, cuts off the supplies and says:
snow we will just wait until, from starv-
alton and exhaustion, they will have to
give up" Weeks and months, and per.
haps year passes along, and finally the
fortress surrenders through that exhaus.
ton and starvation. But, my friends,
the fortresses of sin are never to be ia
ken in that way. If they are taken for
God, it will be by storm. You will have
to bring up the great siege guns of the
Gospel to the very wall, and wheel the
flying artillery into line, and when the
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