Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-04-25

1 kiss. and we held her half hour after ON olir
knee ana would as soon think of slapping an
angel in the face as Of even striking her with
the weight of our little finger God is a
father and while He has promised this world
scourgings though they were to be for a
thousand years or five thousand years He
would. if the world repented, substitute bene-
dIctlon and dlvlne cares. God CHANGED
MS mlnd ABOUT 5odom SIX times. He had
determined on its destruction. Abraham
asked Him if He would not spare it il fifty
righteous people were found there: and mar
rowing down the number. if forty-five neonla
were found there; if forty people; if thirty
people; II twenty people; II ten people were
found there. And each of the six times the
Lord answered yes. Oh, why didn't Abra-
ham go on Just two steps further and say If
five be found there and if one be found there
for then for the sake of Lot, its one good
citizen, / think Sodom would have
been spared. Eight times does the Bible saw
that God repented when He had promised
punishments and withheld the stroke Was
1t slip OF Paurs pen when he spoke OF Gods
cutting short the work In righteousness No
Paurs pen never slipped There is nothing
in the way Of prophecy to hinder the crusade
have proposed for the last decade of the
Nineteenth century.
The whole trouble is that we put Off the
completion OF the worlds redemption to such
long and indefinite distances The old nro
verb that what is everybodv's business Is
nobody's business" might be changed a little
and be made t-uthfully to say what is
the gospel business of all the ages
is the gospel business of no age. We
are SO constituted we cannot get up
much enthusiasm about something five hum
dred years from now or a thousand years
from now. We are fighting at too long a
range. That gun called the "Swaiup
Angel was a nuisance. 1t shot six miles
but it hardly ever hit anything. 1t did its
chief destructive work when il burst and killed
those who were setting it off Short range is
the effective kind of work. whether it be for
worldly or religious purpose Some man
with his eyes half shut drones out to me
the Bible quotations "a thousand years are
as one day." that is, ten centuries are not
long for the Lord. But why do YOU not
quote the previous sentence. which saws that
one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years. That is. He could do the work of ten
centuries IN twenty-four hours. The
mightiest obstacle TO Christian work
Is the impression that the worlds evan
geliZation is away off. And we take the tele-
scope and look on and on through centuries
until we see two objects near each other and
we strain our vision and guess what they are
and we cal great conventions TO guess what
they are, and we get down our heaviest theo-
logical works and balance our telescope on the
lid and look and look and finally conclude
that they are two beasts that we see, and the
one has hair and the other has wool and We
guess it must be the lion and the lamb
lying down together. In that great cradle
of postponement and somnolence we rock the
church as though il were an impatient child
and say: Hush my dear, don't be inpa-
tent! Don't get excited by revivalsl Don't
cry! Your Father comingl Don't get I'M
easyl He win be here in two or three or ten
or twenty thousand years. And we act as
though we thought that when Macauley's
famous rev zoalander IN the FAR distance Is
seated ON broken arch of London
bridge stretching the ruins of st
Paul's his grandchld might break in
and jolt his pencil by asking him if he
thought the millennium ever would appear.
Men and women o. the eternal God Sons
and daughters of the Lord Almighty We
may have it start in the decade that is soon
to commence and it viii be done if we can
persuade the people between now and then to
get ready for the work.
What makes me think it can be dones
First, because God is ready. He needs no
long persuasion to do His work for If He is
not willing that any should perish. He is not
willing that any of the people Of the next
decade shall perish; and the whole Bible is a
chime of bells ringing out Come, come.
come and You need not 90 round
the earth to find out how much
He wants the world to come but Just TO walk
around one stripped and bare and leafess
zontal But He is waiting, as He said He
would. for the cooperation of the church.
When we are ready God is ready. And He
certainly has all the weaponry ready 10 cap
ture this world for the truth, all the
weapons of kindness or devastation
On the one hand the Gospel and
sunshine and power to orchardize and gard
enize the earth, and fountains swinging in
rainbow, and Chatsworthian verdure and
aromas poured out of the walls of heavens,
while on the other hand he has the weaponry
of devastation, thunderbot and conhagra-
lunar. stellar, or meteoric, that with
loose rein thrown on the neck for
second would leave consultations and
galaxies so many split and shlvered wheels
on the boulevards of heaven. And that God
is on our side all on our side Blessed be
His glorious namel Blessed was the hour
when through Jesus Christ my sinful soul
made peace with Himl
II you continue TO ask me why think that
the world can be saved in the final decade OF
the Nineteenth century, / reply because IL Is
not great undertaking, considering tine num-
Der of workers that will go at u, II once
persuaded it can be done. we nave
sifted the five hundred million OF work
ers down to four hundred million ana
three hundred million and TWO nun
dred million and one hundred million and 10
fifty million. / went to work TO cipher out
how many souls that number could prlng 70
God in ten wears, if each one brought a soul
every year and if each soul so brought snouia
bring another each succeeding year. found
out, aided by a professor in mathematics that
we did not need anything like such numbero oil
workers enlisted. You see it is SIMPLY ques-
tion of mathematics and in geometricai pro-
erosion. Then / gave to the learned pro
fessor this problem: How many persons
would it require to start wlth II eacn one sls.
brought soul into the kingdom each year LOT
ten wears and each one brought another each
succeeding year, in order to have 1otrIeen
hundred million people saved or the population
of the earth at present. His answer Wa W.
million seven hundred and fifty-four thousaila
three hundred and seventy-hve workers. 90
YOU see that when l sifted the lve hunureo
million nominal Christians of the earth uo"1
10 fifty million and stopped there retained
for this work fortv-seven million people TOO
many There il is in glorious mathematics
quod erat DEMONSTRATE" 10 W" 'e'' ''''
that God does not care for matnen 1s (
Then YOU have never seen the Glanss cause
way where God shows His regard LOT 1he
hexagonal in whole ranges OF rocky columns columns
-. 1 Then YOU nave