The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-04-15

cent resolve, and that II the church oil
God will rise up to its full work 1t can
and his half time ten years.
Neither Isaiah, nor Ezekiel nor
Micah. nor Malachi, nor Jeremiah, nor any
of the ma or or minor prophets VIII hlhuer
us a second. Suppose the Bible mad an
nounced the millennium to begin the year
$3.50: that would be no hindrance. In one
sense God never changes his nina, oelhg
the same yesterday, to-day and forever
But in another sense he does change MS
mind and times without number every day,
and that is when his people pray. Didn't
he change his mind about Niuevehf by
Gods command Jonah, at the top or his
voice. while standing on the steps OF the
merchants exchange aud the pala-
tial residences of that city, cried
out: Yet forty days and Nlneveh
shall be overthrown. Was it over hrown
in forty days2 No. The people gave up
their sins and cried for mercy, ard though
Jonah Cot mad because his whole course OF
sermons had been spoiled and went into a
disgraceful pouting, we have the record so
sublime | cannot read it l'ithout feeling n
nervous chill running through me. God
saw their works that Trey turned from
their evil way and God repented of the
evil that he had said he would do unto
them and he did il not.n God is q father,
and some of us know what that means, and
some time when we have promised chastise-
ment and the child deserved it, the little
darling has put her arms around our
neck and expressed such sorrow and such
promises of doing better that her tears
landed on the lips of our kiss, and we held
her a half hour after on our knee aud 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 scourg-
ings, though they were to be for thousand
years OF five Thousand years, he would, If
the world repented, 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 were found
there: and, narrowing down the num-
ber if forty-ave people were found there;
if forty people; if thirty people; if twenty
people; if ten people were found there.
And each of the six times the Lord ans
wered yes On, why didn't Abraham go
on Just two steps farther and say If five De
found there and if one be found there, for
then for the sake of Lot, its one good citi-
zen, | think Sodom would have been
spared. Eight times does the Bible say that
God repented when he had promised pun
ishments and withheld the stroke. Was it
a slip of Pauls pen when he spoke Of Gods
cutting short the work of Righteousness
No, Paul's pen never slipped. There is
nothing in the way of prophecy to hinder
the crusade l have prop )sed for the last de-
cade 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
proverb that what is everybody's business
is nobody's business" might be changed a
little ana be made truthfully TO say what ia
the gospel business of all the ages is the Cos
pei business of no age. We are so consti-
tuted we cannot get up much enthusiasm
about something five hundred years from
now or a thousand years from now. We
are fighting al too long a range. That
gun called the Swamp Angeln was a
nuisance. 1t shot six miles, but it hardly
ever hit anything. 1t did its chief destruc-
tive work when it burst and killed those
who were setting it off. Snort range is the
effective kind of work, whether it be for
worldly or religious purpose. Some mau
with his eyes half shut drones out TO
me the Bible quotations: "a thousand
years are as one days" that is, ten cen
turtles are not long for the Lord But
why do you not quote the previous
sentence, which says that one day is
with the Lord as a thousand yearss 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 evangelization is away off
And we take the telescope and look on aud
ON through centuries until we see two OBJ
jects near each other and we strata our
vision and guess what 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 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 thai great
cradle of postponement and somnolence we
rock the church as though it were an inn
patient child and say, Hush, my dear
don't be inpatient! Don't get excited by
revivalsl DON'T cry Your Fathers COM
ing! Don't get uneasy He will be here in
two or three or ten or twenty Thousand
years. AID we act as though we
thought that when Macaulay's famous
New Zealander in the far distance is seated
on broken arch of London bridge, sketch
ing the ruins of St. Paul's, his grandchild
might break in and jolt his peucil by ask e
him if he thought the millennium ever
would appear. Men and women Of 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
will be done if we can persuade the people
between now and then to get ready for the
work.
What makes me think il can be done?
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
chime of bells ringing out Come, come,
come" and you need not go round the earth
to find out how much he wants the world
to come, but Just to walk around one
stripped and bare aud leahess tree with two
branches. not arched, but horizontal 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 weapoury ready to 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 gardenlze the
earth, and fountains swinging in rainbow
and Chatsworthian verdure and aromas
poured out Of the walls of heaven, while on
the other hand he has the weaponry Of de-
vastation, thunderbolt and conhagraton
and forces planetary, solar, lunar, stellar
or meteoric that with loose rein thrown on
the neck for a second would leave constel-
lations aud galaxes 50 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 10 ask me why ! think
that the world can be saved in the final
decade of the nineteenth century. reply
IaaQIIGQ G nff OF md rfa