Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-05-28


and looked At by s.,sse one who seemed to
say in the look: sMove onI What are you
doing here looking ct picturesr
Yet many Of them live on mountains OF
transAguration. At their rough table He
who fed the Eve Thousand breaks the bread
They talk often Of the good times that are
coming This world has no charm for them,
bot heaven entrances their spirit They
often divide their scant crust with some for
lorn wretch who knocks at their door at
night, and on the blast of the night wind, as
the door opens to let them In, Is heard the
voice of Him who said: Il was hungry and
ye fed ma No cohort OF heaven will be too
bright to TRANSPORT them By Gods help
they have vanquished the Assyrian host
They have divided amoug them the spoils
Lame. lame, yet they took the prey.
| was riding along the country road one
day, and saw q man on crutches | over
took him He was very old He was going
very slowly At that rate it would have
taken him two hours to 60 mile said:
"Wouldn't you like to rider he said:
"Thank you, would God bless you"
When he sat beside me he said: "You see,
am very lame and very old, but the Lord has
been a good Lord to me- I have buried all
my children. The Lord gave them and the
Lord had q right TO take them away. Blessed
be his name | was very sick and l had no
money, and my neighbors came in and took
care Of me- and wanted nothing. l suffer
a great deal with pain. but then have so
many mercies left The Lord has been a
good Lord to me-" And before We had got
far was in doubt whether was giving him
a ride or he was giving me a rideI He said:
Snow, If you please, III get out here Just help
me down on my crutches, If you please. God
bless you. Thank you, sir. Good morning.
Good morning. You have been feet TO the
lame, sir, you have Good morning"
Swarthy men had gone the road that day
I do not know where they came out, but
every hobble Of that old man was toward
the shining gate With his old crutch he
had struck down many q Sennacherib Of
temptation which has mastered you and me.
Lame, 80 fearfully lame. 30 awful,y lame;
but be took the prey.
A step further There are in all communi-
ties many orphans. During our last war and
in the years Immediately following, how
many children we heard say: "Ohi my
father was killed In the war" Have you
ever noticed-l fear you have not-how wei!
those children have turned QUIT Starting
under the greatest disadvantage, no orphan
asylum could do for them what their father
would have done had he lived The skir-
misher sat one night by the light of fagots
In the swamp, writing letter home. when a
sharfshooter's bullet ended tae letter, which
was never folded. never posted and never
read
Those children came up under great disad-
vantages No father to fight their way for
them Perhaps there was In the old family
Bible an old yellow letter, pasted fast, which
told the story of that's fathers long march
and how he suffered in the hospital, but they
looked still further on In the Bible, and they
came to the story Of how God is the Father
of the fatherless and the widows portion,
and they soon took their fathers place in
that household They battled the way for
their mother. They came on up. and many
of them have In the years since the war
laken positions In church and state.
While many of those who suffered nothing
during those times have had sons go out into
lives of Incidence and vagabondage, those
who started under 30 many disadvantages
because they were so early bereft, these are
the lame who took the prey
A step further. There are those who would
like to do good. They say: "Ohi if only
bad wealth, or il had eloquence, or If had
high social position, how much would &C
complish for God and the churchp l stand
here today to tell you that you have great
opportunities for usefulness
Who built the Pyramidsi The king who
ordered them builtf No; the plain workmen
who added stone after stone, and stone after
stone. Who built the dikes Of Hollandi The
government that ordered the enterprisei
No; the plain workmen who carried the
earth and rung their nowel on the wall
Who are those who have built these vast
ci,iesf Tbs capitalistsf No; the carpenters,
the masons, the plumbers, the plasterers, the
timers, the roofers dependent on a days
wages fora livelihood And 30 In the great
work Of ass,aging human suffering and en-
tightening human ignorance and halting hui
man iniquity. In that great work the chief
part is to be done by ordinary men, with or.
dinary speech, in an ordinary manner and by
ordinary means. The trouble Is that In the
army Of Christ we all want to be CAPTAINS
and colonies and brigad'er generals We are
not willing to march with the rank and file,
and to do duty with the private soldier. We
want to belong to the reserve corps, and read
about the battle while warming ourselves at
the camp fires or on furiough at home, our
feet upon an ottoman, We sagging back into
an armchair.
As you go down the street, you see an ex-
cavation and four or Eve men are working.
and perhaps twenty or thirty leaning on the
rail looking over at them That Is the way
it is in the church Of God today; where you
find one Christian hard at work, there are
fifty men watching the job
Obi my friends, why do you not go to
work and preach this Gospel You say: al
have no pulpit" You have 1t may be the
carpenters bench, It may be the mason's
wall The robe in which you are to proclaim
this Gospel may be a shoemakeris apron But
woe unto you II you preach not this Gospel
somewhere, somehowi II this world is ever
brought tc Christ. it will be through the unan-
imous and long continued efforts of men
who, waiting for no special endowment, con-
secrate to God what they aave. Among the
most useless people in the world are men with
ten talents, while many a one with only two
talents, or no talent at all, is doing a great
work, and SO .'the lame take the prey"
There are thousands of ministers Of whom
you have never heard-in log cabins at the
west, in mission chapels at the east-who are
warning against the le:.ions OF darkness-suc-
cessfully warning Tract distributors. month
by month undermining the citadels of sin
You do rot know their going or their coming,
but the footballs Of their ministry are heard
in the palaces OF heaven. Who are the
workers in our sabbath schools throughout
this land todayi Men celebrated, men bril-
liant. men Of vast estatess For the most part,
not that at all I have noticed that the