The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1888-11-23

stand that you might this afternoon
90 into your place Of prayer, and kneel
before God, and bring down upon your
soul, and the souls OF others, q
blessing so vast that it would take
eternal ages to compute it9 "Oh. y
YOU say, II haven't fleetness Of speech
| I can't talk we'll. can't utter what /
want to say" My brother, can YOU
not quote one passage of Scripturel
Then, take that one passage Of Script
ure; carry it with you everywhere
quote it under all proper circum.
Stances With that one passage Of
Scripture you may harvest thou
sand souls for God. / am glad that
the chief work Of the church in this
day is being done by the men
of one talent. Once in a while,
when great fortress is to
be taken, God will bring out great
field piece and rake all with the
fiery hail of destruction. But com
mon muskets do most of the hard
fighting. It took only one Joshua,
and the thousands of common troops
under him, to drive down the walls Of
cities, and, under wrathful strokes. to
make nations fly like sparks from the
anvil. 1t only took one Luther for
Germany, one Zwinglius for Switzer-
land, one John Knox for Scotland,
one Calvin for France, and one John
Wesley for England. Dorcas as GER
tainly has q mission to serve as Paul
has a mission to preach. The two
mites dropped by the widow into the
poor box will be as much applauded
as the endowment of college,
which gets q mans name into
the newspapers. The man who
kindled the fire under the burnt Offer
ing in the ancient temple had duty
as imperative as that of the high priest,
in magnificent robes, walking into the
Holy of Holes under the cloud of
Jehovah's presence. Yes, the men
with one talent are to save the world,
or it will never be saved at all. The
men with five or ten talents are
tempted to toll chiefly for themselves,
to build up their own great name, and
work for their own ACKNOWLEDGEMENT,
and do nothing for the alienation of
the worlds woes. The cedar of
Lebanon standing on the mountain
seems to hand down the storms out Of
the heavens to the earth, but it bears
no fruit, while some dwarf pear tree
has more fruit on its branches than it
can carry. Better to have one talent
and put it to full use than five hundred
wickedly neglected.
THE INEVITABLE DAY OF RECKONING.
My subject teaches me that there is
going to come day Of solemn settle
ment. When the old farmer of the
text got home he Immediately called
all the servants about him and said:
''Here is the little account have been
keeping. Iwant to see your account
and we will first compare them; and
I'll pay you what I owe you and
you'll pay me what you owe me. Let
us have settlement. The day will
come when the Lord Jesus Christ will
appear and will say to you: What
have you been doing with my prop
erty9 What have you been doing
with my faculties9 What have you
been doing with what I gave you for
accumulative purposesG" Theirs will
be no escape from that settle
ment. Sometimes you cannot get
settlement with man, especial - az
owes YOU He pesss6aes a4sd ia
tinates and says: m1'l see you next
week, or "I'll see you next month.
The fact is, he does not want to settle.
But when the great day comes of
which am speaking there will be no
escape. We will have to face all the
bills. I have sometimes been amazed
to see how an accountant will run up
or down a long line of figures. If /
see ten or fifteen figures in line, and
l attempt to add them up, and I add
them two or three times, / make them
different each time. But I have ad-
mired the way an accountant will
take a long line of figures, and with
out a single mistake, and with
great celebrity, announce the aggre-
gate. Now, in the last great settle
ment, there will be correct account
presented. God has kept long line
Of sins, long line of broken Sabbaths,
a long line Of profane words, long
line Of discarded sacraments, long
line OF mlSlmprOVeO privileges. 1Qey
will all be added up, and before angels,
and devils, and men, the aggregate
will be announced. Oh, that will be
the great day of settlement. I have to
ask the question: "Am ready for It'll"
It is one Of more Importance to me
to answer that question in regard to
myself than in regard to yon; and it
is of more importance for you to an
swer it in regard to yourself than in
regard to me. Every man for him
self in that day. Every woman
for herself in that day. IF thou
be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself;
If thou soonest, thou alone shalt bear
it." We are apt to speak Of that Last
day as an occasion Of vociferation-a
great demonstration of power and
pomp; but there will be on that day, !
think, few moments of entire silence.
! think a tremendous, an overwhelm-
ing silence. think it will be such o
silence as the earth never heard. It
will be at the moment when all nations
are listening for their doom.