The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-10-13

men In dlspoe ton to toll Numerically too 1
small 1t Is no more the work of the pulpit /
to convert and save the world than /
it is the work Of the pew. IL men 1
go to ruin there wiz be as much blood /
on your skirts as on mine. Let Us quit this /
grand farce OK trying to E-ve the world by
few clersymen, and Let all hands lay hold Of !
the work. Give US In ell our churches two
or three aroused and qualified men ard
women TO help In most churches to-day Eve |
or ten men are compelled TO do all the work
A vast majority OF churches are Gt their
wits end how TO carry on q prayer meeting
II the minister Is rot there, when there
ought to DO enough pent up energy
and religious force to make O. meet /
ing 20 on with such power that the
minister would never be missed. The church
stands working the pumps Of few ministerial
cisterns until the buckets are dry and cholcd, |
while there are thousands Of fountains from
which might be dipped up the waters Of
eternal lifei Before you and have the sod
pressing our eyelids we VIII, under God de-
eide whether our children shall grow up amid
the accursed surroundings of vice and shame, /
or come to an inheritance Of righteousness /
Long, loud, bitter win be the curse that
scorches our grave if, holding within
the church to-day enough men and wo-
men to save tho city, we act the
coward or the drone. wish I could put
enough moral explosives under the conven-
tionnlities and majestic stupidities Of the day
to blow them to atoms and that then with
fifty thousand men and women from all the
churches, knowing nothing but Christ and q
desire to bring all the world to Him, we
might move upon the eDemy's works. For a
little while Heaven would not have trumpets
enough TO celebrate tho victories.
7 - - -.
we sometimes do well TO take advantage OF
the worlds sharpening instruments. These
Israclites were reduced to a file, and so they
went over 70 the garrison of the Philistines
20 get their axes and their goads and their
plows shaTpened. The Bible distinctly states
1.-THE text which read at tho beginning of
the services-that they had no other instru-
ments now with which to do this work, and
the Israelites did right when they went over
TO the Philistines to use their gTindstones
Ny friends, is it not right for US TO employ the
worlds grindstones9 If there he art, if there
be logic, if there be business faculty on the
other side, let US go over and employ it for
Christs sake The fact is, we fight with too
dun weapons and we work with too dun i'm
plements. We hack and we maui when we
ought to make keen stroke. Let us 20 over
among sharp business men and among sharp
literary men and find out what their tact is,
and then transfer it to the cause of Christ
II they have science and art it win do us good
To rub against it,
In other words, let us employ the worlds
grindstone We win listen to their music,
and we viii watch their acumen, and we viii
use their grindstones, and win borrow their
philosophical apparatus to make our expert
mcnts, and we VIII borrow their printing
presses to publish our Bibles, and we VIII
a.
tan literature, and we viii borrow their
ships to transport our missionaries. That was
what made Paul such master in his day. He
not only got all the learning he could
get of DIR. Gamaliel, but afterward,
standing on MFRS hill and in crowded
thoroughfare, quoted their poetry, and
grasped their logic, and welded their
eloquence, and employed their mythology I'M
til Dionysius, the Areopagite, learned in the
schools Of Athens and Hehopolis, went down
under his tremendous powers. That was
what gave Thomas Chalmers his power In his
day. He conquered the worlds astronomy
and compelled it TO ring out the wisdom and
greatness of the Lord, until for the second
time the morning stars sang together and all
the sons of God shouted for joy. That was
what gave to Jonathan Edwards his influence
in his day. he conquered tho worlds meta
physics and forced it into the service Of
God, until not only tho old meeting
house at Northampton, Massachusetts,,
but all Chris5endom felt thrilled by his
Christian power. Wen, now, my friends, we
all have tools of Christian power. Do not let
them lose their edges. We want no rusty
blades in this fight. We want no coulter
that cannot rip up the glebe. We want no
az that cannot fell tho trees. We want no
goad that cannot start the lazy team. Let
49,.
though they may be in possession of the
Philistines, compelling them to turn the
crank while we bear down with all our might
on the swift revolving wheel, until all our
energies and faculties shall be brought up to
bright, keen, sharp, glittering edge.
" Again, my subject teaches US on what
a small allowance Philistine iniquity puts
man. Yes; these Philistnes shut up the mines,
and then they took the spears and the
swords; then they took the blacksmiths,
then they took the grindstones, and they
took everything but q file. Oh, that is the
way sin works; it grabs everythings 1t be-
gins with robbery and ends with robbery.
1t Cespoils this faculty and that faculty, and
keeps ON until the whole nature is gone.
Was the man eloquent before it gem
orally thickens his tongue Was he
fine in personal appearance, it mars his Wis
age. Was he afluent, it sends the sheriff to
sell him out. Was he influential it DESTROYS
his popularity. Was he placid. and genial,
and loving, it makes him splenetic and cross;
and so utterly is he changed that you can see
he is sarcastic and rasping, and that the Phil
fstines have left him nothing but file.
Oh, "the way of the transgressor is harl!"
His cup is bitter. His night is dark His
pangs are deep His end is terrific Philis-
tine iniquity says to THAT man: "Now, surren-
der to me, and / win give you all you want
music for the dance, swift steecls for the race,
imperial couch to slumber on, and you shall
be refreshed with the rarest fruits in baskets
of golden filagree." He lies The music
turns out to be groan. The fruits burst the
rind with rank poison. The filagree is made
up of twisted reptiles. The couch is grave.
Small allowance of rest, small allowance of
peace, small allowance of comfort Cold,
hard, rough-nothing but file SO it was
with Voltaire, the most applauded man of his
day.
The Scripture was his est-book, whence he drew
Bon mots to gall the Christian and the jew.
An infidel when well, but what when sickf
on, then text would touch him to the quick
Seized with hemorrhage of the lungs in
Paris where he had gone to be crowned as the
idol of all France, he sends messenger to get
apriest that he may be reconciled TO the church
before he dies A great terror falls upon him
He makes the place all round about him so
dismal that the nurse declared that she would
not for all the wealth of Europe see another
infidel die, Philistine iniquity had promised
him all the worlds garlands, but in
the last hour of his life. when he
needed a solacing, sent tearing across
his conscience and his nerves a file, a file. So
it was with Lord Byron. His uncleanness in
England only surpassed by his uncleanness in
RFalr hon -
misery at Missolonghi, fretting at his nurse
Fletcher, fretting at himself fretting at the |
world, fretting at God; and he who gave the |
world "Childe Harold" and ASarrlanapalus. - |
and THE Prisoner OF Chiilon,n and @The |
Siege of Corinth," reduced to nothing but a
file oh, sin has great facility for making |
promises; but it has just as great facility for
breaking theml
A Christian life is the only cheerful life, |
while n life of wicked surrender is re- I
morse, ruin, and death. Its painted glee is |!
sepulchrai ghastliness. In the brightest DAYS |
of the Mexican empire, Montezurna said he /
felt gnawing at his heart some thing like a |
canker Sin, like monster wild beast of the 1
forest. sometimes licks over his victim in /
order that the victim may be more easily |
swallowed; but generally sin rasps, and 1
gals, and tears and Hpbraids and files Is it
not so, Herodl Is it not so, Hildebrands Is |
it not so, Robespierres Aye, ayei 1t is so,
1t is SO. ~The way of the wicked He
turneth upside down. History tells us /
that when Rome was founded on
that day there were twelve vul-
lures flying through the air; but when a /
transgressor dies the sky is black with whole /
Hooks of them Vulturesl vulturesi vul-
lures When see sin robbinr so MANY of /
my hearers, and see them going down day |
by day ard week by week, must give a !
plain warning. dare not keep it back lest /
risk the salvation Of my own soul Rover !