The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-09-26
TIE TRANCE EVANGELIST.
Mrs. Maria Woodwork Holds a Single
Gospel Meeess;:snO in indianapolis.
The Services Unmarked by Any Unusual
Scenes or Incidents-The Substance and
Character Of Her Discourse,

MRS. MARIA Wooow..rrh, the trance evangelist,
spoke last nig.-sa at the W. c. T. U. mission on
fanoes street. The room, which is not large,
..as crowded. $50 persons being inside. many of
them standing. while nearly half as many more
were outside, trying to see and hear. Mrs. Wood
worths talk is not sermon; it may be called an
exhortation, and is made up largely of gospel
texts without logical arrangement, strung to-
gether with connecting threads Of ungrammati-
cal commonplace mixed metaphors and faulty
SMILES.
She gavs out last night that her theme was
Conversion" She said that conversion was not,
as many explain it, to cease to do evil and
to do good. "It is Gods plan to change
that things we once loved we will
hate. The moral man wants it. The inside
must be changed, 80 that we shall have spiritual
discernment. This change takes place in all of
us, and we receive Gods nature Even the
moral man delights in singing and praising God.
He thinks this enough; that he has received the
pearl of great price. There are many who teach
that salvation is merely to join the church. But,
oh, my dear brothers and sisters, you may spend
all your days in church, and then go down and
make your bed in hell. It IS when we get into
Christ that this change takes place. Thank the
Lord! There is time when we feel and know
that we are born again. Yes, there is. Many
speak of conversion as the happiest hol lest mo-
ment of their lives 1 have heard PEG pie who
have been Christians thirty, forty or fifty years,
look back to the time Of their conversion. and
say this. Don't you think that this
life and upon the Christian religion6
They ought to be happier and happier as they go
on. 1t is like climbing Jacobs ladder; every day
getting nearer and nearer to Christ-nearer and
spirit of the living God in our hearts or we will
never see heaven. You will never be permitted
to pass the beautiful gates into the golden city
unless you are born again; born of the spirit
drifting around in the church, depending upon
the preacher. The Holy Ghost is similar to the
wind. Sometimes it tears up great forests
sometimes it is the gentle breeze. Like the
wind. you never see it. You feel it. If any
man or woman have not the spirit of God he is
not of Him. Many have a form of godl
ness yet deny the power of conversion.
Blind leaders of the blindl Jesus says turn away
from them; they ara blind leaders, leading the
blind down to hell. Every minister who denies
this spirit of God in the heart is blind leader
When we feel the spirit of Christ in US we are
converted. Then we step out in the faith of
Gods promise and expect Him to do the rest for
US. Our sins are gone and the temple is
CleduDcO LIEU tuo uOly OuOSI Cdu 20 lutO tue
heart for there is no sin there. We 60 to
Christ; He pardons our sins and He sends His
influence into our hearts, and then we love God.
You must become personally acquainted with
Christ before you can love Him."
Mrs Woodwork continued: 1--WE must be
born of the spirit, my dear friends and dying
travellers upon the road with me. If we are not
converted men and women, we will every last
one 60 to hell We may never commit SIM
and yet, if we neglect to have the love of God
in our hearts, we shall be damned to all eter
nifty. Arrange your hearts, and not your gar
ments God does not see us man sees u.s.
God help us to look in our hearts. There
thousands in the church who were never con-
verified. God help them. Oh. let US heed His
call, or as sure as God lives we shall be dashed
to pieces potter's vessel. There are millions
who will be-as the man who came to the mar
ment-cast into outer darkness, where
there will be weeping and wailing
and crashing of teeth. There was a
time when God winked at the ignoran ce of the
people, but to-day he calls upon all to repent and
be converted, and woe to those who do not heed
His call.
II feel God is leading me in every word / am
saying. God help you to receive it. expect in
a short time to say farewell and go up and wear
the robe and the crown. will go up from the
battlefield. I work for God even in my Sleep
l know that l will not have starless crown.
Many have saved will meet me on the other
shore. We shall meet in heaven and strike glad
hands in the gold paved streets" etc.
Mrs. Woodwork spoke of her i'll health,
whacked the churches and the ministers, and
said she was going to Louisville in the morning
There were no frances.