The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-12

that he would not have been lost. How sorry
/ feel about it' But oh, to msdirect the eternal
| interests of large congregation How cold
and stolid we stand in our puipts,
actually sometimes priding ourselves on our de-
ought to be almost frantic with the perils that
| threaten our ,hearecs. So much so, that some
/ OF us give no warning at all, and we stand, Sab
/ bath after Sabbath, talking about human de-
velopment," and we pat men on the back and
we please them, and we sing them all down
| through the rapids to the last plunge Or, as
( the poet has it,
Smooth down the stubborn text to polite
| And snugly keep damnation out of sight,
WARNING TO THE MINISTRY.
| o. my brethren in the ministry-for see them
always liz the audience-my brethren in the
ministry. we cannot afford to do that way. If
| you prophesy good things, smooth things, to your
people, without regard to their character what
chance will there be for you in the day when
you meet them at the bar of Code You had
better stand clear of them then. They will
tear you to pieces. They will say: 81 heard you
/ preach five hundred times, and admired your
philosophic disquisition. and your graceful
| gestures, and your nicely nodded sentences,
| curvilinear and steliiform. and | thought you
| were the prince of proprieties; but you didn't
| help me prepare for this day. Cursed be your
rhetoric, cursed be your art. am going down,
and FL take you with me. 1t is your fault
witness all the hosts of heaven and all the hosts
! OF darkness. 1t is your fault sir" And the
| chorus will come up from all worlds His
| fault! His fault" All of us who preach this
| gospel need to speak as though the pulpit
| quaked with the tramp of eternal realities as
| though beneath US were the bursting graves OF
| the resurrection morn; as though rising above
| us, tier above tier were the myriads of heaven
| looking down, ready to applaud fidelity, or
hiss at our stolidity while coming through the
| Sabbath air were the long, deep, narrowing
groans of the dying nations that are never dead
| May God with torch from heaven set all the
| pupts of England, and Scotland, and Ireland and
| the United States on fire. As for myself stand
| ing here in this presence this morning | feel as
| if had never begun to preach. If God will for
| give me for the past, l will do better for the
| future.
'"Tis not a cause of small import
The pastors care demands;
But what might fill an angels heart.
It filled Savior's hands
| They watch for souls for which the Lord
| Did heavenly bliss forego;
| For souls that must forever live
In raptuPeS or in woe.
| Still further: I see a need for great awaken
| ing In the fact that the kingdom of God is max
| ing such slow progress / simply state fact
| when say that in many places the church is
| surrendering and the world is conquering
| Where there is one man brought into the king
|
| there are ten men dragged down by designations
| Fifty grog- shops built to one church established
Literary journals in different parts of the coun-
| try filled with scum, and dandruff and Stag, con-
trolled oy the very scullions of society
hands on Three hundred and ten
| newspapers, and journals, and magazines
in New York, and more than two hundred of
them are depraving to the public taste, if not
| positively inimical TO our holy Christianity
| Look abroad and see the surrender, even on the
| part of those that pretend to be Christian
| churches, to spirltualism and humanitarianism,
| and all the forms Of devilism. If man stand
| in his pulpit and say that unless you be born
again you will be lost do not the tight kid gloves
| of the Christian, diamonds bursting through, go
| up to their foreheads in humiliation and shame?
1t is not elegant. A mighty host in the Christ
! ian church, positively protesting Christianity do
not believe in the Bible, out and out, in and in
| from the first word of the first verse of the first
| chapter of the book of Genesis down to the last
word of the last verse of the last chapter of the
| book of Revelation. Oh we have magnificent
church machinery in this country: we have sixty
| thousand American minister's we have costly mu-
sic; we have great Sunday schools; and yet give
| the facEthat while the great cause of God is march
| ing on, there are many regiments falling back
| and If the army does not come TO complete rout
| aye, to CHASTITY Bull Run defeat-it will be be-
| cause. some individual churches hurl themselves
| to the front, and ministers of Christ trampling
on the favor of this world, and sacrificing every
| banner of Emanuel, and rush ahead, crying
| "On. On! This is no time to run; this is the
| time to advance"
| see still further the need of a great awaken
| ing in the multtudinous going down of unfor-
| given souls. Since many OF you came on the
stage OF action, whole generation has gone into
| the gates Of eternity. Your opportunity to act
| upon them is gone. They have disappeared from
the churches from the stores, the Shops the
streets, from the homes You, O Christian man
had an opportunity of meeting them. You did
| meet them You talked with them or other
subjects You had an opportunity of saying the
saving word and you did not say that saving
word just think of that Oh, where is the
| fountain where with sleeves rolled up we may
| wash our hands from the blood of souls9 The
| only question is, whether, as Christian men and
women, we can now interrupt the other pro
cesslon that IS marching down and will, after
| awhile. i Iuparrested by Gods grace, fall off.
: mere are going out from our stores hundreds Of
| thousands OF clerks; going out from our fartto-
| rtes hundreds Of thousands of operatives; there
are going out of our colleges hundreds of
thousands of students; there are going out Of
! our fields hundreds of thousands of husbandmen
| to join the ranks of death They are fighting
| theirway down. They storm and take every
| impeachment put In their way, and who will
throw himself in the way Of this stampede of
| diving men and women-whos crying Halt!
| Hatm
| A TIME FOR ACTION.
Is it not time for something desperate9 In
animate solicitation will not do. They will not
| stop for that. You need momentum gathered
| by whole nights wrestle with the omniporent
| God Oh, rn,,c diving souls! these dying souls
What shall we say to them9 What gnan we do
for them? Catch them before they make the
| last spring. Put down everything else and run
for the rescue. Tomorrow may be too late:
o'clock this afternoon may be too late