The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-01-18

!, and throw us into the battle. An sternit
of work-an eternity of work to do in tel
years. Ay, perhaps in one ear perhaps il
one month perhaps 10 one day; perhaps il
one hour. perhaps in one minute; perhsp
in one second, and this the last. But q,
one drops down, and so l think God 10 goinI
to spare Us to wake up out of our indolenc'
and realize the truth that the greatest neet
of the church to-day is
GREAT AWAKENING.
i / need not rehearse IN this presence wha
! God has done for us as an individual church
i You have heard with your own ears tn,
cries for mercy, and you have seen the rain
ing tears Of repentance. | do not believe
that there is any church in this land tina
owes God more gratitude than this church
owes Him to-day. But who can count thu
number of our permanent congregation who
are not Christians? And what about the
81, 600 or 10000 souls of strangers that, dur
ing the last year, hoated in and out our as
semblages; and what about the eternity Of
those who are now and will be this year In
our permanent congregation; and the sc. 0Ot
or 100 900 souls that during this coming
twelve months will float in2 IL John Liv
ingston in a small church in one service had
800 souls brought to God, why may you not,
In larger church, have 3 600 souls a. easily
as he had 500? 1t is the same Gospel. John
Livingston did not save them. 1t is the same
Holy Ghost. Ii is the same great Jehovah
Ii John Knox could put the lever of prayer
under Scotland until he moved it from end
to end, shall you not by the lever of impor-
Brooklyn from tae East river to New
Utrecht, and from New Utrecht to Long
Island City. God can do it He will do it,
II you nightly and relentlessly ask Him to
do it. Oh, fling body, mind, soul, and eter-
nal destiny into this one thing. Swing out
and enlarge in your prayerful expectations.
You asked God for hundreds of souls, and
de gave them to you, and l sometimes
heard you ask for thousands and am very
certain that il you had asked for thousands
with the same faith that you asked for hun.
dreds, God would have given you Thousands.
There is no need, in this presence, of bring
ing the old stereotyped illustrations of the
fact that God hears prayer, nor telling you
about Hezekiah's restored health, and
about Elijah and the great rain and
about the post mOrtem examina-
ton of the Apostle James, which found that
his knees had become callous by much pray
ing; nor of Richard Baxter, who stained the
walls of his study with the breath of prayer
nor of John WEIGH and the midnight plaid
nor of George Whitfield fat on his face before
God. No need of my telling you OF these
things l turn in on your own conscious
ness and / review the memory OF that time
when your own soul was sinking and God
heard your cry; and of that time when
your child was dying and God heard your
petition; and of that time when your fortune
failed and God set in your empty pantry the
cruise of oil and the measure of meal.
want no illustration at all.
just take a ladder with three rungs and
set 1t down at your feet. On that you can
NJ nd loo h.
salqation of ten thousand of your fellow
citizens: Ask and it shall be given you
seek and ye shall find; knock and it will be
opened unto you" Put your right foot on
the lower rung of that ladder and your left
on the second rung OF it, and that will bring
yoIr right foot on the top rung. Then
hold fast and look out and see the wave of
the divine blessing dsshing higher than the
top ga lants of your ship Oh, yes; God ie
ready to hear. think the Lord put on as Q
church of great responsibility. We set our
hauds to the work of evangeiization. We
are doing nothing else here. We do not want
to do anything else here but this work of
evangelization. That is, We want to bring
men and women to Christ and bring them
brethren, but my heart Is breaking with q
longing that have for the redemption OF
this people. If God does not give me my
prayer 1 can not endure it. I offer myself, /
offer my life to this work. Take it. o Lord
Jesus. and slay me if that be best. Whether
oy my life or by my death. may agreot null
titude of souls here be born to God. II from
the mound OF my graue more can step into
the Kingdom of God than through my life,
let me now lie down to the last sleep. But
only let the people be saved. Lord Jesus 1t
is sweet to live for Thee: methinks it would
be sweeter to die for Thee. If in the Napol-
comic wars six million fell, if in the wars OF
the Roman Empire one hundred and eighty
millions fell shall there not he great man y
! in our day who are willing to sacrefice, not
any worldly ambition, but sacrifice all for
Oh rist