Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-04-25
THE CLOSING CENTURY.
Christians Exhortsd to GoodDeeds
During the Next Decade.
U,,,sd Christian Work Sure to Result in
.h. Worlds salyation-The Lord Ready
,oassist-The Power of Prayer
The Next Ten Years Work.

The Next Ten Years work.
1.,.+a sermon at Brooklyn Rev. I. De
Wit Talmage took his text from Revela-
tions viz 4 Amen; Allelula." lie
said:
The nineteenth century Is departing.
Altar If has taken a few more steps, ii
each wear be step, it shall be gone into
the sternities. In a short time we shall be
J in the last decade of this century, which
fact makes the solemuest book outside the
Rible the almanac. and the most suggest
i've and the most tremendous piece Oh
machinery in the earth the clock. The
last decade of this century upon which we
shall soon enter will be the grandest,
mightiest and most decisive decade in all
chronoIogies. am glad it is not to come
Immediately. for we need by new baptism
| Of the Holy Ghost to prepare for 1t. The
| last ten wears of the nineteenth century,
NAV we all live to see them! Does any
one saw that this division of time is arbi-
trary? Oh, no; in other ages the divisions
| of time may have been arbitrary, but
| our wears date from Christ Does any one
say that the grouping of ten together is
an arrangement arbitrary? o, no; next
to the figure seven, ten is with God a
favorite number. Abraham dwelt ten
years in Canaan. Ten righteous men
would have saved Sodom. In the ancient
| tabernacles were ten curtains, their pillars
| ten and their sockets ten. In the ancient
temple were ten LAYERS and ten candle
sticks, and ten tables and a molten sea of
ten cubits. And the commandments
| written on the granite of Mount Sinai
were ten, and the kingdom of God was
likened to ten virgins, and ten men should
lay hold of him that was a Jew, and the
reward of the greatly faithful is that they
shall reign over ten cities, and in the eff
fort to take the census of the New Jeru-
salem the number ten swings around the
thousands, crying ten thousand times
ten thousand" So come to look toward
the closing ten years of the nineteenth
century with an intensity of interest can
hardly describe.
have also noticed that the favorite time
in many of the centuries for great events
was the closing fragment of the century.
Is America to be discovered it must be in
the last decade of the fifteenth century,
namely, 1892 Was free constitutional
Government to be we'll established in
America, the last years of the eighteenth
century must achieve it. Were three
cities to be submerged by one pitch of
scoriB, Herculaneum and StrabiB and
Pompeii in the latter part Of the first GEN.
tuary must go under. The fourth century
closed with thu most agitating ecclesias-
tical war Of history. Urban the Sixth
against Clement the Seventh. Alfred the
Great closes the ninth century and
Edmund Ironsides the tenth century
with their resounding deeds. The six
tenth century closed with the establish
ment of religious independence in the
United Netherlands. Aye, almost every
century has had its peroration of overflow
ering achievements. As the closing years
of the centuries seem a favorite time for
great scenes of emancipation or disaster,
and as the number ten seems q favorite
number in the Scriptures written by divine
direction, and as we are soon to enter up
on the last ten years of the nineteenth
century, what does the world propose?
What does the Church of Christ propose?
What do reformers propose? know not;
but now in the presence of this consecrated
assembly propose that we make ready,
get all our batteries planted and all our
plans well laid in what remains of this
decade and then in the last decade of the
nineteenth century, march up and take
this round world for God.
When l say we, mean the five hundred
million Christians now alive. But as
many of them will not nave enough heart
for the work let US copy Gideon, and as he
had thirty two thousand men in his army
to fight the Midianites but many of them
were not made of the right stuff and he
promulgated a military order saying:
"WhoSoever is fearful and afraid let him
return and depart early from Glead," and
twenty-five thousand were afrai d of get
ting hurt and went home and only ten
thousand were left and God told them that
even this reduced number was too large
number, for they might think they had
triumphed Independently of divine help,
and so the number must be still further re-
duced and only those should be kept in the
ranks who in passing the river should be
so in haste for victory over their enemies
that, though very thirsty, they would
without stopping a second just scoop up
the water in the palm of their right hand
and scoop up the water in the palm of
their left hand, and only three hundred
men did that, and those three hundred men
with the battle shout. The sword of the
Lord and of Gideon" scattered the Mid
ianites like leaves in an equinox.
So out of the five hundred million NOM
inal Christians of to-day let all unbelev-
ers and towards go home and get out of
the way. And suppose we have only four |
hundred million left; pose only two |
hundred million left; suppose only one !
hundred million left; yea, suppose we |
only have fifty million left; with them we |
will undertake the divine crusade, and |
each one just scooping up a painful |
of the river of Gods mercy in one hand |
and a painful OF the river of Gods |
strength in the other, let us with the cry,
"The sword of the Lord and of Gideon" |
the sword of the Lord and of John Knox, |
the sword of the Lord and of Matthew
Simpson, the sword of the Lord and of |
Bishop McIlvaine, the sword of the Lord
and of Adoniram Judson, the sword of
the Lord and of Martin Luther, go into the
last decade of the nineteenth century.
Is it audacious for me to propose it? o,
no; a captive servant in the kitchen of
Naaman told the commanderin-chief
where he could get rid of the blotches of
his awful leprosy and his complexion be-
came as fair as a babes.
And so l, "who am less than the least of
all saints" propose a short cut to victory
and am willing to be the expectoration on
some blind eye and tell some of the brig
of the Lord of hosts how
this leprosied world may in the final de-
cade of the nineteenth century have its
flesh cCms again as the flesh of little
child.
Is there any thing in prophecy to hinder
this speedy consummation? No. Some
one begins to quote from Daniel about
i'times time and half time" and takes
from Revelations the seven trumpets,