The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-08

80 work tor God. Oh, my soul, wake up! how
aarest thou sleep in harvest time, and with SO
rs simple fact that all the time that the vast
majority of you will have for the exclusive SER
vice of God will be less than one year!
But says some man: 81 literally support the
gospel; and the church is open, and the gospel is
preached all the spiritual advantages are spread
before men, and if they want to be saved. let
them come to be saved have discharged all my
responsibility All, is that the Masters spiritl
Is there not an old book somewhere that COM
mands us to go out into the highways and the
hedges, and compel the people to come inl What
would have become of you and me if Christ had
not come down off the hills of heaven, and If He
had not come through the door Of the Bethlehem
carayansara aud if He had not with the
crushed hand of the crucifxion, knocked at the
iron gate of the sepulchre of our spiritual DEATH
crying: Lazarus come forth2" o, my Chris
tian friends this is no time for inertia, when all
the forces of darkness seem to be IN full blast,
when steam printing presses are puolsnlng
iniidel tracts, when express railroad trains are
carrying messengers of sin, when fast clippers
are laden with opium and rum, when the night
air of cities is polluted with the laughter that
breaks up from the ten thousand saloons OF dissi-
patton and abandonment, when the fires Of the
eecond death already are kindled in the cheeks of
some who only a little while ago were
incoTrupt. Oh. never since the curse fell upon
the earth has there been time when it was such
an un Wise such A., cruel. cruel such .,.s an
The great audiences are not gathered in
the Christian churches; the great audiences are
gathered in temples of sia-tears of unutterabie
woe their baptism the blood of crushed hearts
the awful wine of their sacrament, blasphe,m ,
their litany and the groans of the lost world the
organ dirge of their worship!
THINGS TO AVOID.
Again, if you want to be qualified to meet the
duties which this age demands of you, you must
L nd
on the other hand, not stick too much to things
because they are old. The air is full of new
plans, new projects, new theories of govern
ment, new theologies, and am amazed to see
how so many Christians want only novelty in
order to recommend thing to their confidence;
and so they vacillate, and swing TO and fro, and
they are useless and they are unhappy. New
pIans-secular. ethical, philosophical, religious,
cisatlantic, transatlantic, long enough to make
line reaching from the German universities to
Great Salt Lake City. All, my brother. do not
take hold of a thing merely because 1t is new.
Try it by the realities of a judgment day. But,
on the other hand do not adhere to anything
merely because it is old. There is not single
enterprise of the church or the world but has
sometimes been scoffed at
There was a time when men derded even BIZ
BILE societies; and when few young men met
near q haystack in Massachusetts, and organ
lied the first missionary society ever organized
In this country, there went laughter and ridicule
oil around the Christian church They said the
undertaking preposterous. And so. Also
the work of Jesus Christ was assailed People
cried out 'Who ever heard of such theories of
ethics and government Who ever noticed such
a style of preaching as Jesus hasF Ezekiel had
talked of mysterious wings and wheels. Here
came man from Capernaum, and Genessaret
and he drew his illustrations from the lakes
from the sand, from the ravine, from the lilies
from the cornstalks. How the Pharisees scoffed!
TI - IT L. I. Al
this Jesus they plucked by the beard,
and they spat in his face, and they called
him ''ths fellow" All the great enterprises in
and out Of the church have at times been
scoffed at, and there have been great multi
tude who have thought that the chariot OF Gods
truth would fall to pieces if it once got out of
the old rut. And so there are those who have
no patience with anything like improvement in
church architecture, or with anything like good,
hearty. earnest church singing, and they deride
any form of religious discussion which goes
down walking among everyday men rather than
that which makes excursion on rhetorical
stills. Or that the church of God would wake
ND to an adaptibility of work! We must admit
the simple fact that the churches OF Jesus Christ
In this day do not reach the great masses There
are fifty thousand people in Edinburg who never
hear the gospel There are one million people
in London Uho never hear the gospel There
are at least three hundred thousand souls in the
city of Brooklyn who come not under the i'm
mediate ministrations of Christ's truth and the
church of God in this day, instead Of being a
place full of living epistles, read and known of
all men, is more like a "dead-letter' postoffice.
"But, say the people, 1.-THE world is going to
be converted; you must be patient the kingdoms
of this world are to become the kingdoms of
Christ" Never unless the church of Jesus
Christ puts on more speed and energy. Instead
of the church converting the world, the word IS
converting the church. Here is great fortress
How shall it be taken9 An army comes and
sits around about it, cuts off the supplies and
says: ''Now we will just wait until from ex-
haustion and starvation they will have to give
up" Weeks and months, and perhaps year
pass along. and finally The fortress surrenders
through that starvation ard exhaustion. But
my friends, the fortresses of sin are never to be
taken in that way. If they are taken for God
It will be by storm. You will have to bring up
the great seige guns Of the gospel to the very
wall, and wheel the flying artillery into line, and
when the armed infantry of heaven shall con-
front the battlements, you will have to give the
quick command-"Forward charged"
Oh my friends there is work for you to do,
and for me to do IN order to this grand accom-
plishment Here is my pulpit and preach in it.
Your pulpit is the bank. Your pulpit is the
store Your pulpit is the editorial chair Your
pulpit is the anvil. Your pulpit is the house
scaffolding Your pulpit is the mechanics shop.
I may stand in this place, and through cowardce
or through self seeking may keep back the word
ought TO utter; while you, with sleeve rolled
up and brow besweated with toll may utter the
word that will jar the foundations of heaven
with the shout of great victory. Oh, that this
morning this whole audience might feel that the
Lord Almighty was putting upon them the
hands of ordination. tell You every one 60 forth
and preach the gospel You have as much right
to preach as | have, or as any man has. Only
find out the pulpit where God will have you
preach. and there preach.
NOTABLE EXAMPLES.
Headley Wears was wicked man in the En-
glish army. The grace of God came to him.
He became an earnest and eminent Christian.
They scoffed at him, and said: 'You are hyp-
ocrite. you are bad as ever you were" Still he
kept his faith in Christ and after awhile finding
that they could not turn him aside by calling
him hypocrite, they said to him: ''Oh, you
are nothing but a Methodist" That did not dis
turb him. He went on performing his Christian