Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-01-12

d
But oh, to misdirect the eternal interests of
q large congregation.
How Geld and stolid . <
We stand in our pulpits. actually sometimes
priding ourselves on our deliberation, when
We have no right to be cold and ought to bo
almost frantic with the perils that threaten
our hearers. So much, that soAe of rs give /
no warning at all, and we stand Sabbath
AFTER Sabbath talking about human devsL
opment, and we pat men on the back and
We please them and we sing them all Gown
through the rapids to the last plung. Or,
as the poet has it
'smooth down the stubborn teIt 70 s.n petite
And snugly keen damnstion out Of sight"
Oh, nv brethren in the ministry-for /
see them always in the audience-my
brethren in the ministry, We cannot afford
TO do that way. If you prophesy good
things, smooth things to your people with
out regard to their character, what chance
will there be for you in the day when you
meet them at the bar Of God2 You had
better stand clear of them then, they will
tear you 10 pieces. They viii say: Il heard
you preach FIVE hundred times and
I admired your philosophic disquisitions,
and your graceful gestures, and your nicely
moulded sentences, curviinear and stelli
form, 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 an going down and
III take you with me. Its your fault; W.T.
ness all the hosts Of heaven and oil the
hosts of darkness. 1t is your fault sur.
And the chorus will come up from all
worlds: His fault! bis faultf AL OF US
who preach this gospel need to speak .:
though the pnlpit quaked with the tramp o.
eternal realities, as though beneath us were
the bursting graves Of the resurrection
morn, az though rising above US, tier above
tier were tue myisds ot heaven looking
down, ready to applaud our fidelity, or hiss
at our stolidity. while crossing through the
Sabbath sir were the long, deep, narrowing
proan Of the dying nations that are never
dead. May God with torch from heaven
set all the pulpits OF England, and Scotland,
and Ireland, and the United States on ire.
As for myself standing here in this presence
this morning, feel as if had never begun
10 preach. If God will forgive me for the
past will do better Cor the future.
=" IT'S not a cause Of small import
The PASTOR care demands;
But what might fill an angels heart,
II filled Sayior's hands.
They watch for souls for which tle Lord
Did heavenly bliss foregoi
For souls that must forever live
In raptures or In woe
Still further, see q need for q great
awakening in the fact that the kingdom OF
God is making such slow progress. l sim
ply state q fact when say that IN many
places the church is surrendering and the
world is conduerng. Where there is one
man brought into the kingdom OF God
through Christian instrumentality there are
ten men dragged down by dissipahons.
Fifty prop shops are built to one church es-
tablis6ed. Literary journals in some parts
ofthe country are filled with scum and dan
druff and Stag controlled by the very
sculIiors of Society,
depraying everything they put their hands
ON, Three hundred and ten newspapers
and journals and magazines in New York
and more than two hundred Of them de-
praving to the public taste, if not positively
inimical TO our holy Christianity. Look
abroad and see the surrender, even on the
part of thote that pretend - be Christian
churches, 10 Spiri,ualism and Hu nanita-
rian and ain the forms Of deyilism. j a
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 Christians diamonds
bursting through, go up,o their foreheads in
humiliation ana shame. II is not elegant.
A mighty host in the Christian church, pos
itively protesting christianity, do not be-
lieye in the Bible, ont and out, in and in,
from the first word OF the first verse Of the
first chapter OF the book Of Genesis, down
10 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 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 regi-
ments falling back and if the army does not
come TO complete rote-aye, to ghastly Bull
| Run defeat-it will be because some indi-
yidual churches hurl themselves to the
front; and ministers Of Christ, trampling on
the favor of this world and sacrifc ng every
thing, shall snatch up the torn and shatter-
ed banner of Emsnual, and rush ahead,
CRYING: "Onl On! This is no time 10 run;
his is
tbs Time to Advance"
see still, further the need Of great
awakening in the multitudinous going
| down Of uniorgiyen souls Since many Of
YOU came upon the stage Of action whole