Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-10-11

what a large amount OF the church's re-
! sources is actually hidden, and buried,
and undeveloped. The Bible intimates
that that was a very rich land, this
land of Israel. 1t says: "The
stones are iron, and out OF
the hills thou shalt dig brass" and yet
hundreds and thousands ofdollarsworth OF
this metal was kept under the hills, Well,
that is the difficulty with the Church OF
God at this day Its talent is not de-
yeIOped. II one-half of its energy could
be brought out it might take the public
inlquities of the day by the throat aad
make them bite the dust, If human elo'
quence were consecrated to the Lord Je-
sus Christ, it would in a few years per-
suade this whole earth to surrender to
God. There is enough undeveloped en-
| ergy in this one church to bring all
| Brooklyn to Christ-enoug undeveloped
Christian energy in the city Of Brooklyn
to bring all the United States to Christ
enough Of undeYeloped Christian energy
in the United States to bring all the
whole world to Christ; but it is buried
under strata of Indifference, and under
whole mountains OF sloth. Now
is 1t not time for the mining to
begin, and the pickaxes to plunge, and
| for this buried metal to be brought out
and put into the furnaces, and be turned
into howitzers and carbines for the Lords
host? The vast majority OF Christians in
| this day are useless. The most of the
Lords battalion belong to the reserve
corps. The most OF the crew are asleep
in the hammocks. The most of the metal
is under the hills. Oh is 1t not time for
the Church of God to rouse up and under
stand that we want all the energies, all
the talent and all the wealth enlisted for
Christs sake? | like the nickname that
the English soldiers gave to Blucher, the
commander. They called him "Old For
wards" We have had enough retreats
in the church of Christ; let us have
glorious advance. And / say to you as
the general said when his troops were
| affrightened; rising up in his stirruDs, his
hair flying III the wind, he lifted up his
voice until twenty thousand troops heard
MIN. crying out: Forward, the whole
linew
We want all the laymen enlisted. Mn
listers are numerically too small. They do
| the best they can. They are the most
OVerwOrked class on eaIth. Many of
them die Of dyspepsia because they can
not get the right kind Of food to eat, or
getting the right kind are so worried that
they take it down in chunks. They die
| from consumption coming from early and
late exposure. II a novelist or historian
publishes one book year he is consid-
cred industrious. But every faithful pas
tor must originate enough thought for
three or four volumes a year. Min sters
| receive enough calls in a year from meu
who have maps and medicines, and light
ming rods, and pictures TO sell, co exhaust
their vitality. They are bored with agents
of all sorts, They are set in draughts at
funerals, and poiso2ed by the unveEti-
lated rooms of iuyallds, and waited upon
by committees who want addresses made,
until lie becomes burden TO bear. 1t is
not hard study that makes ministers look
pale. 1t is the infinity of Interruptions
and botherations to which they are sub
jected. If die before my time it will be
at the hand of committees that want an
address or a lecture. A man called on
me TO give him lecture by which ho
might pay the expenses of his wedding
trip. If there were fifty hours in each
day of the year, and | worked forty OF
them, ! could not do the work of this one
parish, aud am not behind most clergy
men in disposition to toll. Numerically
TOO small. 1t is no more the work OF the
pulpit to convert aud save the world than
it is the work Of the pew. If men go to
ruin there will be as much blood
Oh your skirts as on mine. Let us quit
This grand farce OF trying to save the
world by few clergymen, and let all
hands lay hold OF the work. Give us in
all our churches two or three aroused and
qualified men end women 10 help. In
most churches to-day five or ten men are
compelled TO do all the work. A vast ma
Ority of churches are at their wits end
now to carry on prayer meeting If the
| minister Is DOJ there, when there ought to
be enough pent up energy and religious
force to make a meeting go 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 choked, while
| there are thousands OF fountains from
which might he dipped up the waters
Of eternal litel Before you
and have the sod pressing our eyelids we
will, under God, decide whether our chill
dren shall grow up amid the accursed
surroundings OF vice and shame, or come
| to an inheritance OF righteousness. Long,
| loud, bitter will be the curse that scorches
| our grave if, holding within the church
today enough men and women to save
the city, we act the coward or the drone.
| wish L could put enough moral ex-
plosives under the c0nventionalities 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
a desire to brlng all the world to Him, we
might move upon the enemy'5 works. For
little while Heaven would hot have
trumpets enough to celebrate the victors.
III, Again: | learn from this subject
that We sometimes do well 10 take adVan-
tage OF the worlds sharpening Instru-
ments. These lsraeites were reduced TO
a file, and 50 they went over TO the garri-
son OF the Pnilstines TO get their axes,
and their goads, and their pl0ws sharp
eue1. The Bible distinctly states 1.-THE
text which read at the beginning Of the
service-that tney had no other instru-
mants now with which 10 do this WORK,
and the Israelites did right when they
went over TO the Phillstines to use their
grlndstOnes. My friends, Is It not right
for us TO employ the worlds grindstonesi
II there be art, II there be logic, If there
be business faculty on the other side, lot
us 20 over and employ 1t for Christs sake.
The tact is, we fight with too duh weap-
ons, and we work with too duh imple-
ments. We hack ana we maui whel we
ought to make a 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 IL TO
the cause or Christ. Ii they have science
and art it Will do us good 10 rub against it.
Iu other words, let us employ the
worlds grindstone. We will listen 10
their music, ana we Will watch tneir
acumen, and will use their grindstones,
and will borrow their philosophical ap-
paratus to make our experiments, and we
will borrow their printing presses TO pub
lish our Bibles, and we will borrow their
rail trains 20 carry our Christian litera-
ture, ana we will borrow their ships TO