The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-04-06

nominations said to me the other day in
Dakota: You were wrong when you said
our denomination averaged q new church
every day of the year; they established
in one week, so you are far within the
truth" A Clergyman of our own denom-
nation said: 81 have just been out estab-
fishing five mission stations" l tell you
Christianity is on the march, while inf
deity is %dwindliug into imbe cility. While
inhdelity is thus dwindling and dropping
down into imbecility and indecency, the
wheel of Christianity is making about a
thousand revolutions in a minute. All the
copies of Shake speare and Tennyson aud
Disraeli and of any ten of the most popu-
lar writers of the day, less in number thar
the copies of the Bible going out from our
printing presses. A few years ago, In SIX
weeks, more than 1000. 900 copies of the
New Testament purchased, not given
away, but purchased because the world
will have II.
More Christian men in high official posi-
ton to-day in Great Britain and in the
United States than ever before. Stop that
falsehood going through the newspapers
Il rave seen it in twenty-that the judges
of the Supreme Court of the United States
are all infdels except one. BY personal
acquaintance I know three of them to be
old fashioned evangelical Christians, sit
ting at the holy sacrament OF our LORD
Jesus Christ, and l suppose that the ma
jority Of them are stanch believers in our
Christian religion. And then hear the dy-
ing words of Judge Black, a man who had
been Attorney-General of the United
States, and who had been Secretary of the
United States. no stronger lawyer of the
century than Judge Black-dying, his
aged wife kneeling by his side and he ut
tered that sublime and tender prayer:
90, Lord God, from whom l derived my
existence and in whom L have always
trusted, take my spirit to Thyself and let
Thy richest blessing come down upo my
Mary" The most popular book to-day is
the Bible, and the mightiest institution is
the Church, and the greatest name among
the nations and more honored than any
other Is the name of Jesus.
Wonders of self-sacrifice. A Clergyman
told me In the Northwest that for six
years he was a missionary at the extreme
North, living 400 miles from a post-ofice,
and sometimes he slept out of doors in
winter, the thermometer 60 and 60 degrees
below zero, wrapped in rabbit skins
woven together. l said: "Is it possiblel
You do not mean 60 and 65 degrees below
xero?" He said: Il do, and l am happy"
All for Christ. Where is there any other
being that will rally such enthusiasm
Mothers sewing their fingers off to edu-
cate their boys for the gospel ministry.
For nine years no luxury on the table I'M
til the course through grammar school
and college and theological seminary be
completed. Poor widow putting her mite
into the Lords treasury, the face Of Em-
peror or President impressed upon the
coin not SO conspicuous as the blood with
which she earned it. Millions of good
men and women, but more women than
men, to whom Christ is every thing.
Christ first and Christ last, and Christ
forever.
Why, this age is not so characterized by
invention and scientific exploration as 1t
is by gospel proclamation. You can get
no idea Of it unless you can ring all the
church bells in one chime, and sound all
the organs in one diapason, and gather all
the congregations of Christendom in one
gloria in excelsis. Mighty camp meetings.
Mighty Ocean Groves. Mighty Chautau-
quas. Mighty conventions of Christian
workers. Mighty general assemblies OF
the Presbyterian Church. Mighty con-
ferences of the Methodist Church Mighty
associations of the Baptist Church. Mighty
conventions Of the Episcopal Church. ]
him before long the best investments
will not be in railroad stock or Western
Union, but in trumpets and cymbals and
festal decorations, for we are on the eve
of victories wide and world-uplifting.
There may be many years Of hard work
yet before the contamination, but the
signs are to me SO encouraging that ]
would not Do uubelieving If I saw the
wing OF the apocalyptic angel spread for
its last triumphal flight in this days sun
set; or il tomorrow morning the ocean
cables should thrill US with the news that
Christ the Lord had alighted on Noun
Olivet or Mount Calvary to proclaim uni
versal dominion.
you dead churches wake upl Throw
back the shutters of stiff ecclesiaticism
and let the light Of the spring morning
come in. Morning for the land. Morning
for the sea. Morning Of emancipation.
Morning of light and love and peace.
Morning of a day in which there shall be
no chains to break, no sorrows to aSsuage,
no deception to shatter, no woes to com.
passionate. o Christ, descendl Scared
temple, take the crownl Bruised hand,
take the scepterl Wounded foot, step the
thronei thine is the kingdom"
These things I say because I want you
to be alert. / want you to be watching al
these wonders unrolling from the heaven
and the earth. God has classified them,
whether calamitous or pleasing. The di.
vine purposes are harnessed in traces that
can not break, n in girths that can moi
slip, and In buckles that can not loosen
and are driven by reins they must answer.
I preach no fatalism. A swarthy On.
gineer at one Of the depots in Dakots
said: "When will you get on the loco
motive and take a ride with us?" "Well,'
I said, "now il that suits your" So ]
got on one side the locomotive, and q
Methodist minister. who was also invited
got on the other side, and between US
were the engineer and the stoker. The
train started. Tn engineer had his hand
on the agitated pulse of the great engine.
The stoker shoveled in the coal and shut
the door with a loud clang. A vast plain
slipped under us and the hills swept by,
and that great monster ON which we rode
trembled and sounded and snorted and
ragged as 1t hurled US on. / said to the
Methodist minister on the other side the
Locomotives: my brother why should
Presbyterians and M~ethodists quarrel
about the DEGREES and free agency? You
see that track, that iron track; that is the
decree. You see this engineers arm.
That Is free agency. How beauti-
fully they work together. They are
going to take US through. We could
not do without the track. and we could
not do without the engineer" So |
rejoice day by day. Work for US all to do.
and we may turn the crank of that Christ
ian machinery this way or that, for we
are free agents; but there is the track laid
30 long ago no one remembers it, laid by
the hand Of Almighty God in sockets that
no terrestrial or satanic pressure can ever
affect. And along that track the car Of
the worlds redemption will roll and roll
to the Grand Central depot Of the millen-
ium. l have no anxiety about the track.
l am only afraid that for our Incidence
God will discharge us and get some other
engineer. The train is going through,
with us or without us. So, my brethren,
watch all the events that are going by.
liz thinna aaau. IN turn ont rinht niun