Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-01-12

machinery in this country: we have 60. .0O(
/ American ministers, we have costly music
! we have great Sunday schools, and yet | give
/ the fact that while the great cause Of God is
/ marching on, there are many regiments fall
/ ing back, and if the army does not come Il
I complete route aye, to chastity Bull Run de-
| feat-it will be because some individual
( churches hurl themselves to the front, ano
ministers of Christ, trampling on the favor oil
/ this world and sacrificing everything. shall
snatch up the torn and shattered banner ol
Emanuel, and rush ahead, crying: "On
on! This is no time to run: this is the time t
advance"
see still further the need of a great awak-
ening in the multitudinous going down of un-
forgiven souls. Since many of you came on
the stage OF action, whole generation has
gone into the gates of eternity. Your Opp0r-
tunlty to act upon them is gone. They have
disappeared from the churches. from the
stores, the shops, the streets, from the homes
lou, % Christian man, had an opportunity of
meeting them. You did meet them. You
/ talked with them on 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 souls The only
question is, whether, as christian men anu
women, we can now interrupt the other pro-
ceSSlOn that IS marching down and will after
awhile, If unarrested by Gods grace, fail off.
There are going out from our stores hundreds
of thousands of clerks; going out from our
factories hundreds of thousands of operatives;
there are going out from our colleges hun
dreds of thousands of students; there are go
ing out of our fields hundreds of thousands of
husbandmen, to join the ranks of death.
They are lighting their way down. They
storm and take every lmpedlment put in their
way, and who Will throw himself in the way
of this stampede of dying men and women
who crying, "Halt, haiti"
Is it not time for something desperate? In
animate solicitation Will not do. They will
not stop for that. You need momentum
gathered by whole nights wrestle with the
0mnipotent God. Oh, these dying souls these
dying souls What shall we say to them /?
What shall we do for them? Catch them be-
fore they make the last spring. Put down
everything else and run for the rescue. To-
morrow may be too late. Three o'clock this
afternoon may be too late. Now reach over
the pew and seize that soul before it flashes
out of your sight forever. Their house is TN
nre and no ladder to the WINDOW. Their ship
Is going down and no life boat, Oh, men and
women of God, awake! awake! On, that
all rewards and punlshments, all
joys and SORROWS, and the agOnizing ami
rapturOus vociferation of three worlds would
arouse you to-day! o God, flame upon us
these overwhelming realities. Kill our sto-
idity. Knock from under us our couches of
ease. Consume our Indifference and throw
us into the battle. An eternity of WOrk-an
eternity of work to do in ten years. Ay, per-
haps IN one year, perhaps in one month, per-
maps IN one day, perhaps in one hour, perhaps
IN one minute, perhaps IN one second, and this
the last. But no one drops down. and so
think God is going to spare us to wake up out
of our Incidence, and realize the truth that
the greatest need of the church to-day Is a
great awakening.
l need not rehearse in this presence what
God has done for us as an individual church.
You have heard with your own ears the cries
for mercy, and you have seen the raining tears
of repentance. J do not believe that there is
any church In this land that owes God more
OF gratitude than this church owes Him to-
day. But who can count the number of our
n0rmAnnnt nnnUFnT4fInn w ~ ora NOT rI,-5s
Ulans? And what about the eighty or hundred
thousand souls of strangers that during the
last year tloated in and out our assemblages.
and what about the eternity of those who are
now and Will be this year in our permanent
congregations; and the eighty or one hundred
thousand souls that during this coming twelve
months Will float in? If John Livingston IN
small church in one service had five hundred
souls brought to God, why may you not in
larger church have three thousand souls as
easily as he had five hundred? 1t is the same
Gospel. John Livingston did not save them.
1t is the same Holy Ghost. 1t is the same great
Jehovah. If John Knox could put the lever
of prayer under Scotland until he moved it
from emu TO end, shall you not by the lever of
mpOrtunate petition move this whole city of
Brooklyn from the East river to New Utrecht
and from New Utrecht to Long Island CITY?
God can do it and He viii 90 it, if you might
lily and relentsssly ask Him to do it, On
fling body, mind and soul, and eternal desti-
ny into this one thing. Swing out and en-
large IN your prayerful expectations. You
asked God for hundreds of souls, and He
gave them to you, and sometimes heard YOU
ask for thousands; and | am very certain that
If you had asked for thousands with the same
falth that you asked for hundreds, God would
nave given you thousands. There is no need.
IN thlS presence, OF bringing the old StereO-
typed illustrations of the fact that God hears
prayer, nor telling you about HeZekiah's re-
stored health, and about Elijah and the great
ram and about the post mOrtem examination
OF the Apostle James, which found that his
knees had become callous by much prayinp:
nor Of Richard Baxter, who stained the walls
OF his study with the breath of prayer; nor OF
John Welch and the midnight plaid; nor of
George Whitfield fiat on his face before God
No need of my telling you these things. /
turn IN on your own consciousness and | re-
view 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
mount up, and, if you will look of, see the
salvation 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
Tu1g OF that ladder and your left on the sec
ond rung OF 1t, and that viii bring
your right foot on the top rung.
Then hold fast and look out and see the
wave OF the divine blessing dashing higher
God is ready to hear. | think the Lord put
on us as church great responsibility. We
set our hands to the work of evangelizatiOn.
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
now, do not know how you feel, my breth-
rem, but my heart is breaking with longing
that l have for the redemption of this people
If God does not give me my PRAYER, l cannot
endure it. offer myself, offer my life to this
work. Take IL, 0 Lord Jesus, and slay me If
that be best. Whether by my life or by my
death, may great multitude Of souls here be
borne to God. If from the mound of my
grave 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, it is sweet to live for
Thee; methinks it would be sweet to die for
Thee. If in the NapoeOnIc wars six millions
fell; if IN the wars of the Roman Empire one
hundred and eighty millions fell, shall there
not be great many in our day who are will
ing to sacrifice, not only worldly ambition
but sacrifice all for Christi