Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-08-26
OPEN TO ALL MANKIND.
THE LORDS SHEEP FOLD IN.
TENDED FOR THE GOOD AND
THE BAD ALIKE.
Many of the Souls Most Desira-
BILE to Be Found Among the
Nom Church Goers, the In
fidels and the SEEM
ingly Lost.
Saving the shipwrecked on the Sea Of
Life,

"Other sheep have, which are not OF this
fold" He said: There Is no monopoly In re-
liglon. The grace of God is not little prop
criy that we may fence of and have all to our
selves. 1t is not a kings park at which we
| look through barred gateway, wishing that
| we might 90 In and see the deer and the
statuary, and pluck the flowers and the fruits
In the, royal conservatory. No; 1t is the
| Fathers orchard, and everywhere there are
bars that we may let down and gates that we
may swing open.
In my boyhood, next to the country school
house, there was an orchard of apples, owned
by very lame man, who although there were
apples in the place perpetually decaying and
by scores and scores Of bushels, never would
allow any of us to touch the fruit. One day,
In the sinfulness Of nature inherited iron,
our first parents, who were ruined by the
same temptation, some of us invaded that
orchards but soon retreated, for the man came
after us at speed reckless of making his
lameness worse, and cried out Boys, drop
those apples, or I'll set the dog on youp'
CHRISTIANITY FOR ALL MEN.
Well, my friends, there are Christian men
who have the church under severe guard.
There is fruit in this orchard for the whole
! world, but they have q rough and unsympa-
thetic way of accosting outsiders, as though
they had no business here, though the Lord
wants them all to come and take the largest
and the ripest fruit on the premises Have
you IN idea that because you were baptized
ut thirteen months of age, and because you
have all your life been under hallowed in
fiuences, that therefore you have a right to
y,,Nra nt1 90 4, 7
yourself out and taking up the entire rooml
i tell you no. You will have to haul In your
elbows, for shall to-day place on either side
OF you those whom you never expected to sit
there; for, as Christ said to the Jews long
ago, so He says to YOU and to me, "Other
| sheep have, which are not of this fold"
Macdonald the Scotchman has four or five
dozen head Of sheep. Some of them are
browsing on the heather. some of them are
| Tying down under the trees, some of them are
IN his yard; they are scattered around in
eight or ten different places. Cameron, his
neighbor, comes over and says: II see you
have thirty sheep; have just counted them"
mo" says Macdonald, Il have a great many
more sheep than that. Some are here and
around about | have four Or five thousand
in my focks Other sheep | have, which are
| not in this fold"
| so MANY CHRISTIAN FOLDS,
So Christ says to usi Here is knot of
Christians and there is a knot of Christians.
but they make up small part of the flock
here is the Episcopal fold, the Methodist fold,
the Lutheran fold, the Congregational fold,
| the Presbyterian fold the Baptist and the
Pcdo-Baptist foid-the only difference be-
| tween these last two being the mode of sheep
| washing; and so they are scattered all over,
| and We come with our statistics, and say there
are somany thousand Of the Lords sheep; but
| Christ responds: mo, no; you have not seen
| more than one out of thousand of my flock
| They are scattered all over the earth, and
other sheep / have which are not of this
fold.'n
Christ in my text was prophesying the con.
| version of the Gentiles with as much conf.
dence as though they were already converted
| and he is to-day, in the words of my text
! prOphesying the coming of n great multitude
OF outsiders that you never supposed would
come in, saying to you and saying to me
Other sheep l have, which are not of this
! foldn
! First-In the first place remark that the
heavenly shepherd viii find many of his sheer
| among the non church goers. There are con
gregations where they are all Christians, and
| they seem to be completely finished, and they
rcmind one of the skeleton leaves which by
| chemical preparation have had all the green
| ness and ycrdure taken off OF them ard are
left cold aud white and delicate, nothing
wanting but glass case to put over them.
| GATHERING RECRUITS EVERYWHERE.
The minister of Christ has nothing to Dc
| with such Christians but to come once week
| and with an ostrich feather dust Off the accu
| mutation of the last six days, leaving the n
| bright and crystalline as before. But the 9th
err kind Of a church is an armory with perpetu
al sound Of drum and fife, gathering recruits
for the Lord of hosts. We say to every appli
| cant: do you want to be on Gods side, the
safe and happy side! If so, come in the armory
and get equipped. Here is bath in which t
get cleansed. Here are the sandals to put Up
On your feet Here is a helmet for your brow
| Here is breast plate for your heart. Here ii
sword for your right arm, and yonder is tn,
| battle field. Acquit yourselves like men,"
There are some here who say: 81 stopped
gong to church ten or twenty years ago
| My brother, is it not strange that you should
be the first man / should talk to to-days
know all your case; | know it very WELL Yor
have not been accustomed to come into re
ligious assembly, but have a surprising an
| nouncement to make to you. You are goin!
to become one of the Lords sheep. ''Or
you say, lit is impossible; you don't know how
far / am from anything of that kind"
know all about it have wandered up ant
down the world, and | understand your case
have still more startling announcement I,
make in regard to you. You are not onl
going to become one of the Lords sheep bu
you will become one to-day. You will g
from this service to talk with some one abou
your soul. People Of God, pray for that man
Other sheep have, which are not Of thi
fold"
| SAVING sHIPwRECKED SOULS.
When the Atlantic went to pieces on Mar
Rock and the people clambered up on tn
beach, why did not that heroic minister c
the Gospel of whom we have all read, s.
down and take care of those men on tn
beach, wrapping them in tannels, kindlin
fire for them seeing that they got plenty c
food' All, he knew that there were other
| xrbn rnt1lI do hat ,Iaro
men and women freezing in the rigging {
that wreck Boys, launch the boatr' An
now i see the oar-blades bend under tn
strong pull, but before they reached tn
rigging women was frozen and dead Sh
was washed off, poor thingl But he says
There is a man to save" and ne cries out
Hold on five minutes longer and / will say
you. Steady! Steady! Give me yor
hand. Leap into the life boat. Thank Coz
he is savedw So there are those here t,
day who are safe on the shore of God
mercy, but I see there are some who al
freezing in the rigging of sin, and su
rounded by perilous storms. Pull ava,
my lads! Let US reach them. Alas, one
washed off and gonel There is one more I
be saved. Let us push out for that on
as with a death-grip Steady now on th
, slippery places. Steady! There Saved
SavedW just as | thought. For Christ hi
declared that there are some still in ii
breakers who shall come ashore 10Th,
: sheep have which are not of this fold.n
) FISHING IN THE WORLDS SEA.
Christ commands his ministers to be fshe
men, and when | go fishing do not want
: 60 among other churches but into the vic
, world; not sitting along small creek whei
= eight or ten other persons are sitting wit
] hook and line, but, like the fishermen Of Ney
, foundland, sailing off and dropping net avs
. outside forty or fifty miles from shore. Ye
there are non-church- goers here who will con
, In. Next Sabbath they will again be in Il
religious service. They are this moment
Y ing swept into Christian associations. The
a voice will be heard in public prayer. Tn,
y will die IN peace, their bed surrounded /
Christian sympathies, and be carried out
= devout men to be buried, and on their graz
be chiseled the words: precious In the sigl
Of the Lord is the death Of His saints" Al
on resurrection day you will get up with Il
dear children you have already buried, ar
with your Christian parents who have alrea,
, won the palm. And all that grand al
glorious history begins now. ''Other sheep
! have which are not Of this fold"
= Second-I remark again: The heaven
shepherd is going to find great many Of
sheep among those who are positive rejecto
OF Christianity. do not know how you car
. to reject Christianity. II may have be,
] through hearing Theodore Parker preach
through reading Remains Life Of jesus