The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-05-31

timers. the roofers. dependent on a DAYS
wages for livelihood. And so in the
great work of assuaging human suffer-
ing and enlightening human ignorance
and halting human iniquity. In that
great work, the chief part is to be done
by ordinary men. with ordinary speech,
In an ordinary manner, and by ordinars
means. The trouble is that in the army
of Christ we all want to be captains and
coIonels and brigadier generals Weare
not willing to march with the rank and
file and to do duty with the private SOL
dier. We want to belong to the reserve
corps. and read about the battle while
warming ourselves at the campfires, OF
on furlo,gh at home, our feet upon an
ottoman, we sagging back into an arm
chair.
AS you go down the street you see an
excavation. and four or FIVE men are
working, and perhaps twenty or thirty
leaning on the ral and 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.
Oil my friends. why do you not 20 to
work and preach this Gospelf You say:
Il 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 q
shoemaker's apron But woe unto you
If you preach not this Gospel somewhere,
somehow If this world Is ever brought
to Christ. it win bs5t the the unanim-
-~ho. vds saS sSsitiSs tG1s "a endowment : sp
consecrate to G0a wss they have.
Among the most useless people in the
world are men with ten talents, while
many one with only two talents, or no
talent at all, is doing great work, and
SO 1.-THE lame take the prey"
There are thousands of ministers of
whom you have never heard-in log
cabins at the west, in mission chapes at
the east-who are warning against the
legions of darkness, successfully warning.
Tract distributors, month by month un-
dermining the citade1s of sin. You do
not 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 today7 Men cele-
brated, men brilliant, men of vast es-
tate? For the most part, not that at all.
have noticed that the chief characters
tics of the most of those who are success
full in the work is that they know their
Bibles, are earnest in prayer, are anxious
for the salvation of the young, and Sab
bath by Sabbath are willing to sit down
or,1 toll ~f I,r,ck ~
resurrection. These are the humble
workers who are recruiting the great
army of Christian youth--not by might,
not by power. not by profound argument.
not by brilliant antithesis, but by the
blessing of God on plain talk. and humble
story, and silent tear, and anxious look.
THE lame take the prey"
Oh! this work of saving the youth of
our country-how few appreciate what
| it isl This generation tramping on to the
grave-we will soon all be gone. What
next?
An engineer on a locomotive going
across the western prairies day after day,
saw little child come out in front of a
cabin and wave to him; so he got in the
habit of waving back to the little child,
and it was the days joy to him to see
this little one come out in front of the
cabin door and wave to him, while he
answered back.
One day the train was belated and it
came on to the dusk of the evening. As
the engineer stood at bis post he saw by
the headlight that little girl on the track.
wondering why the train did not come,
looking for the train, knowing nothing
of its peril. A great horror seized upon
the engineer. He reversed the engine
He gave it in charge of the other man on
| board, and then he climbed over the en-
| gine, and he came down on the cow
catcher. He said, though he had re-
versed the engine, it seemed as though
it were going at lightning speed, faster
and faster, though it was really slowing
up. and with almost supernatural clutch
he caught that child by the hair and
lifted it up, and when the train stopped
and the passengers gathered around to
see what was the matter, there the old
engineer lay, tainted dead away, the
little child alive and in bis swarthy
| arms.
''Oh!' you say, .sthat was well done. +"
But want you to exercise some kind
ness and some appreciation toward those
in the community who are snatching the
little ones from under the wheels OF
temptation and sin-snatching them from
under laundering rail trains of eternal
disaster, bringing them up into respecta-
bility in this world and into glory for the
world to come. You appreciate what
the engineer did; why can you not ap-
preciate the grander work done by every
Sabbath school teacher this afternoon2
Ohl my friends, want to impress
upon myself and upon yourselves that it
is not the number of talents we possess,
but the use we make of them.
God has royal family in the world.
Now, if l should ask: ''Who are the
royal families of history2" you would
say: "House of Hapsburg, house OF
Stuarts, house of Bourbons." They lived
in palaces and had great equipage. But
who are the Lord 8 royal family? Some
of them may serve you in the household,
some Of them are in unlighted garrets,
some of them will walk this afternoon
down the street, on their arm basket Of
broken food; some of them are in the
almshouse, despised and rejected OF men,
yeI III tlo ldSC STett ddy, "Hlio ~ "AA ~
; found that some of us who Jared sumpt
uously every day are hurled back into
discontinue, there are the lame that vii
take the prey.
, One step further: There are a grea,
many people discouraged about getting
, to heaven. You are brought up in gooc
families, you had Christian parentage
but they frankly tell me that you are
thousand miles away from the righ
| track.
My brother, you are the one, want t.
preach to this morning. ! have beer
looking for you. will tell you how yo'
got astray. It was not maliciousness OF
your part. It was perhaps through th'
, geniality and sociEaity OF your natur
, that you fell into sin. You wandere'
/ away from your duty, you unconsciousl.
, left the house Of God; you admit tn
! Gospel to be true, and yet You have s
> grievously and so prolongedly wandered
, you say rescue is impossible.
: 1t would take week to count up tn