The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1886-10-15


der strata of indifference. and under
whole mountains Of sloth. Now, Is 1t not
time for the mining to begin. and the pick
axes TO plum &c, and for this buried metal
to be brought out and ru. into the fur
naces, and he turned into howitEers and
carbines for the Lords host! The vast
majority OF Christians in this day are
useless. Tue 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 II not time for the church of God to
rouse up and understand that We want all
the energies, all the talent and ali the
wealth enlisted for Christ,s sake? ] like
the nickname that the English soldiers
gave 10 Butcher, the commando. They
called him "Oli Forwards We hsve
had enough retreats in the church OF
Christ; let us have glorious advance.
ana say TO You as the General said
WI en- MS troops were affrigbted; rising
up in his stirrups, his hair fying in the
wind, be lifted up his voice until twenty
thousand troops heard him. crying out:
Forward, the whole liuen,
We want all the lsymen enlisted. Minis
tiers are numerically too small. They do
the best they can. They are the most
overworked class on earth. Many of
them OF die of dyspepsia because they can
not get the right kind of food toeai, or get
ting she right kind are so worried thatthey
take II down in chunks. They die of con-
sumption coming from early and late ex-
oosnre. II a novelist OF historian publishes
one book a year be is considered indus
trious. But every fruitfal pastor must
originate enough thought for three or four
volumes year. Ministers receive enough
calls in wear from men who have maps,
and medicines, and lightning rods, and
pictures TO sell, to exhaust their vitality
They are bored with agents of all sorts
Th4y are set in draughts at funerals, and
poisoned by unventilated rooms or inval-
ids, and waited upon by committees who
want addresses made, until lie becomes a
burden 10 bear. IL is not hard study that
makes ministers look pale 1t is the in
fnity of Interruptions and botherations to
which they are subjected. IL die before
NV time, il will lie at the hand of commit
tees that want an address or lecture. A
man lied on me 10 give him a lecture by
which he might pay the expenses
of his wed ling trir. II there were
tifty hours in each day of the year. and
| worked forty Of then, ! could not
do the work of this one parish, and am
not behind most cler2ymen in disposition
TO toll. Numerically too small, it is no
more the work of the pulpit to convert and
save the world than it is the WORK II the
pew. If men go to ruin there will be as
much Hood on your skirtS as on mins
lie, us quit this grand farce of trying to
save the world by few cieE5 ymen, and
,e' all hands lay hold of the work. Give
Vs in all our churches two or three aroused
and qualified men and women to help. In
most churches to-day five or ten men are
compelled 70 do all the work A vast ma
jority of churches are at their wits end
bow to carry ON a prayer-meeting il the |
minister is not there, when there ought TO
be enough pent-up energy and religious
force TO make meeting 60 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 drv and choked. while
there are thousands of fountains from
which there might he dipped up the waters |
of eternal life! Before you and have the |
sod pressing our eyelids we viii, under |
God, decide whether our children shall |
grow up amid the accursed surroun 1iuss |
Of vice AMI shame come TO an in |
heritance of Righteousness. Long, loud |
bitter viii be the curse that scorches our |
grave il, holding within the church to-
day enough men and We men to save the |
city, we act the coward or the, drone. | /
wish could put enough norskkrpIos ives |
under the conventionalties ana majestic |
stup idlties of the day to blow them &c |
atoms, and that then, with fifty thousand |
men and women from ell the churches,
knowing nothing but Christ and desire |
to bring all the world to him, we might |
move upon the enemy's works. For a lit. /
tie while Heaven would not have trumpets |
enough to celebrate the victory.
Again, learn from this subject that
we sometimes do well to take ADVANTAGE
of the worlds sharpening instruments.
These I,raelites were reduced to a file.
aud so thew went over TO the garrison of
the Philistiues to get their axes. and their
goads and their plows sharpened. The
Bible distinctly states 1.-THE text which
read az the beginning of the service
that they had no other instruments now
with which to do this work, and the Is
-aeli;es did right when they went over TO
the Pliiistines to use their grndstones.
D. friends is II not right for Us 20 en-
ploy the wo-ii's grin 'stones: If there be
art, if there be logic, if there be business
faculty on the other side. let us go over and
employ il for Christ's sake. The fact is, we
fisht with too dull " apons, and we work
with TOO dull implements. We hack and
we maui when we ought to make keen
stroke. Let US go over among sharp bust
ness men, and among sharp literary men,
and find out what their tact Is, and then
transfer / { TO the cause of Christ. II they
have science and art it will do us good to
ru b against it.
In other words, let US employ the worlds |
grindstone. We will listen 10 their music. |
and we will watch their acumen. and we
will use their grindstone; and will borrow
their philosophical apparatus TO make our
experiments. and we will borrow their
printing presses 10 publish our Bibles, and
We will borrow their rail trains ia carry
our Christian literature, and We will hor-
row their ships 70 transport our mission
aries. That was what made Paul such
master in his day. Henot only got all the
learning he could get of DIR. G amaliel, but
afterward, standing on Mars Hill, and in
crowded thoroughfare quoted their poetry.
and graspel their logic, and welded their
eloquence, and employed .heirmythoIogy,
un I'll Dionysius, the Are3pagte, learned
in the schools of Athens and Hesiopolis,
went down under his tremendous
powers. That was what gave
Thomas Chalmers his power
in his day. He conquered the worlds as
trouomy and compelled It to ring out the
wisdom nj greatness of the Lord, until
for the second time the mcrning 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 the world, meta
physics, and forced it into the service of
'od, until not only the old meeting house
at Northampton. Mass, but all Cnris,en-
dom, 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 couiter that can
not RIP up the glebe. We want no axe tn at