The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-04-26

WOrkS ana tu0y luIu0O from tueif 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 has deserved II, the little darling
has put her arms around our neck and ex-
pressed 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 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 scourg-
ings, though they were to be for a thou.
sand years or i've thousand years, he
would, If the world repented, substitute
benediction and divine caress. God
changed His mind about Sodom six times.
The whole trouble is that we put of 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 little and be made truthfully to
say what is the Gospel business Of all the
ages is the Gospel business of no age. We
are so constituted we can not get up much
enthusiasm about something five hundred
years from now or q thousand years from
now. We are fighting at too longs range.
That gun called a Swamp Angel" was a
nuisance. 1t shot six miles, but 1t hardly
ever hit any thing. 1t did its chief de-
structive work when it burst and killed
those who were setting it off. Short
range is the effective tind Of work,
whether 1t be for worldly or religious
purpose. Some man with his eyes half
shut drones out to me the Bible quotation !:
"a thousand years as one day." that is
ten centuries 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 q thousand years: That is,
he could do the work Of ten centuries in
twenty-four hours. The mightisst OBJ
stacle to Christian work is the impression
that the worlds evangelization is away
of.
What makes me think it can be done:
long persuasion to do his work, for il 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 q chime of bells ringing
out "come, come, come" and you need
not 60 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 tree with two branches, not
arched, but horizontal. But He is waiting,
as He said He would, for the corporation
of the Church. When we are ready God
is ready. And He certainly has all the
weaponry ready to capture 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
gardenize the earth, and fountains swing
ing in rainbow Chatsworthian verdure
and aromas poured out of the walls OF
Heaven, while on the other hand He has
the weaponry Of devastation, thunder.
bolt and conflagration and forces plane
tary, solar, lunar, stellar or meteoric,
that with loose rein thrown on the neck
for a second would leave consultations
and galaxies so many split and shivered
wheels on the boulevards of Heaven.
And that God is on our side, all on our
side. Blessed be His glorious name!
Blessed was the hour when through Jesus
Christ my sinful soul made peace with
Him!
IL
that the world can be saved in the final
decade Of the nineteenth century, l reply
because it is not a great undertaking, con-
the number Of workers that will
go at it, if once persuaded it can be done.
We have sifted the five hundred million
Of workers down to four hundred million
and three hundred million and two hun
dred million and one hundred million and
to fifty million. l went to work to cipher
out how many souls that number could
bring to God in ten years if each one
brought q soul every year, and if each
soul so brought should bring another each
year. / found out, aided by
professor of mathematics, that we did not
need any thing like such number of
workers enlisted. You see it is simply a
question of mathematics and in geomet-
rical progression. Then l gave to the
learned professor this problem: How many
persons would it require to start with il
each one brought soul into the kingdom
each year for ten years and each one
brought another each succeeding year, in
order to have l, 400, OOO, 600 people saved or
the population Of the earth at present?
His answer was ., 754 1878 workers. So you
see that when Isitted the 900 0C0, 900 nominal
Christians of the earth down to 50,00O,CO0
and stopped there, l retained for this work
II, 100000 people to many. There it is in
glorious mathematics, qaOd erdt demon
strdndum.
Do you tell me that God does not care
for mathematics: Then you have never
seen the Giants Caussway, where God
shows His regard for the hexagonal in
whole ranges of rocky columns with six
sides and six angles. Then you have not
studied the geometry of a bees honey
comb with six sides and six angles. Then
you have not noticed what regard God
mas for the square; the altar of the an
Gent tabernacle, four square; the breast
plate four square; the court of the temple
in Ezekiel's vision. four square; the New
Jerusalem laid out four square. Or you
have not noticed His regard for the circle
by making it His throne. "sitting on the
circle of the EARTH" and fashioning sun
md moon and stars in a circle and send
ng our planetary system around other
systems in circle. And as to
His regard for mathematical num-
,erS He makes the fourth book
n His Bible the Book of Numbers, and
numbers of the hosts Of Israel and num-
)ers Tue uoops Vi oeHhacnelio' anu NUM-
Ders Solomon's hewers in the forest, and
numbers the spearmen, and numbers the
and numbers the converts at
and numbers the chariots of God
-olling down the steps of Heaven. So l
nave a right to enlist mathematics for the
Of the easy possibility Of
bringing the whose world to God in the
coming decade by the simple process of
ZACH one only having to bring
me year; although / want to take in
10 900 and know men now alive who, l
.hink, by pen or voice, or both. directly or
Indirectly, will take hundreds of thou.
lands each. So you see that that will dis.
charge some of the 295i,315 from the
necessity of taking any.
Another reason why know it can be