The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1889-04-25

never has and never will stop conse-
Grated effort and holy determination
and magnificent resolve, and that if
the church of God will rise up to its
full work it can make Daniels time
twenty years and his half time ten
years. Neither Isaiah, nor Ezekiel. nor
Micah, nor Malachi, nor jeremiah,
nor any of the major or minor proph-
cts will hinder US a second. Suppose
the Bible had announced the millen-
MUM TO begin the year $3.50, that would
be no hindrance. In one sense God
never changes his mind, being the
same yesterday, today and forever.
But in another sense he does change
his mind and times without number
every day, and that is when his peo-
pie pray. Didn't he change his mind
about Nineveh2 BY Gods COM
mand Jonah, at the top of
his voice, while standing on the
steps of the merchants exchange and
the palatial residences of that city,
cried out, "Yet forty daysand Nineveh
shall be overthrown. Was it over
thrown in forty days2 No. The peo-
pie gave up their sins and cried for
mercy, and though Jonah got mad be-
cause his whole course of sermons had
been spoiled and went into a disgrace
full pouting, we have the record so
sublime | cannot read it without feel
ing a nervous chill running through
me. "God saw their works that they
turned from their evil way and God
repented of the evil that he had said
he would do unto them, and he did it
not" God is father, and some of us
know what that means, and some time
when we have promised chastisement
and the child deserved it, tho little
darling has put her arms around our
neck and expresses such sorrow and
such promises of doing better that
her tears landed on the lips of our
kiss, and we held her q half hour
after on our knee and 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 thousand years or
five thousand years, he would, if the
world rcpented, substitute benediction
and divine caress. God changed his
mind about Sodom six times. He had
determined on its destruction. Abra-
ham asked him if he would not spare
it if fifty righteous people wero found
there; and, narrowing down the num-
Der, if forty-hve people were found
there; if forty people; if thirty peo-
pie; if twenty people; if ten people
We're found there. And each of the
six times the Lord answered yes. Oh,
why didn't Abraham 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 say that God repented when he
had promised punishments and with
held the stroke. Was it slip of Paul's
pen when he spoke of Gods cutting
short the work i'll righteousness? No,
Paul's pen never slipped. There is
nothing in the way of prophecy to
hinder the crusade | have proposed for
the last decade of the Nineteenth cen
tury.
PR0CRAsT1NATIoN is THE THIEF OF TIME
Tho whole trouble is that we put off
the completion OF the worlds redemp
ton to such long and indefinite dis
tances. The old proverb that what
is cverybody's business is nobody's
business" might be changed a little
and be made truthfully to say what
is the gospel business of all the ages is
the gospel business of no age. We
arc so constituted we cannot get up
much enthusiasm about something
five hundred years from now or a
thousand years from now. We are
fighting at too long a range. That
gun called the Swamp Angel" was a
nuisance. 1t shot six miles, but it
hardly ever hit anything. 1t did its
chief destructive work when it burst
and killed those who were setting il
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: IA thousand
years are as one day." that is, ten cen
turies are not long for the Lord. But
why do you not quote the previous
sentence, which says that one day is
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 cyan
gelization is away off. And we take
the telescope and look on and on
through centuries until we see two
objects near each other and we
strain our vision and guess Whist they
are and we call great conventions to
guess what they are, and we get down
our heaviest theological works and
balance our telescope on tho 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 hon
and the lamb lying down together. In
that great cradle of postponement and
somnoence we rock the church as
though it were an impatient child ano
say, flush, my dear, don't be impa
tientl Don't get excited by revivals
Don't cry! Your Fathers coming
Don't get uneasyl He will be here II
| two or three or ten or twenty thousanC
wears" And we act as though We
| thought that when Macaulay's famous
| New Zealander in the far distance u
seated on n broken arch of Londor
| bridge sketching the ruins of st
Paul's his grandchild might break il
and Jolt his pencil by asking him if h
thought the millennium ever woul'
appear. Men and women of the etep
nal God Sons and daughters of tn
Lord Almighty We may have
start in the decade that IS soon to com
mence and it will be done if we cal
persuade the people between now ant
then to get ready for the work.
What makes me think it can b
done2 First, because God is ready
He needs no long persuasion to do M
work, for if he is not willing that an
should perish, he is not willing tina
any of the people of the next decad
shall perish; and the whole Bible Is
chime of bells ringing out "Com'
come, come" and you need not g
round the earth 10 find out how niue
he wants the world to come, but jus
TO walk around one stripped and bar
and leafless tree with two branches
not arched, but horizontal. But he
waiting, as he said he would, Tor IN
cooperation of the church. When W
are ready God is ready. And he ce
tainly has all the weaponry ready
capture this world for the truth, a
the weapons of kindness or devast;
ton. On the one hand the Gospel an
sunshine and power TO orchardize an
. gardenize the earth, and fountain
SWINGING in rainbow and Chat
worthian verlure and aromas poure
, out of the vials of heaven, while O
the other hand he has the weaponry I
, devastation, thunderbolt and eonii'
grafton and forces planetary, sola
, lunar. stellar or meteoric. that WI
loose rein thrown on the meek Tor
! second would leave consultations an
: galaxies so many split and shivert
2 | IL - L. ~, iho hon lnvatalS of leaNcl