The national leader., 1889-05-04
dustp And who showed Blucher q


| up in time to save Waterloo and
Europe? Was it not un unknown lad.
who perhaps could not write his own
name2 And SO 1, ''who am ess than
the least of all saints" propose
SHORTCUT TO VICTORY,
and am willing TO be the expectoration
on some blind eye. and tell some Of the
brigadier-generals of the Lord of hosts
how this leprosied world may in the
final decade Of the Nineteenth century
have its flesh come again as the flesh OF
little child.
The whole trouble Is that we put on
the completion of the worlds redemp-
tiOn to such long and indefinite dis.
tances. TIE 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
lighting at too long range. That gun
called the Swamp Angel" was nuis-
ance. 1t shot six miles, but it hardly
ever hit anything. 1t did It's chief
F! destructive work when 1t burst and
killed those who were setting it 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 quotation, "a thousand years
are as one day." that is, ten centuries
are not long for the Lord. But why
do you not quote the previous SEN
tence, which says that one day Is with
the Lord as thousand yearsp That
| is, He could do the work Of ten CEN
| turtles in twenty-four hours. The
mightiest obstacle to Christian work
is the impression that the worlds evan
gelization is away off. Many Of us
act as though we thought that when
Macaulay's famous New Zealander In
the far distance is seated on broken
arch of London bridge sketching the
ruins of st. Paul's, his grandchild
might break in and jolt his pencil by
asking him if he thought the milen-
mum ever would appear. Men and
women Of the eternal GOdl sons and
daughters Of the Lord Almighty we
may have 1t start In the decade that Is
soon to commence, and 1t will be done
if we can pursuade the people to get
ready for this work.
What makes me think it 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 "Comel
comel comel' 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 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 swinging in rain
bow and Chatsworthian verdure, and
aromas poured out of the vials Of heaven.
while on the other hand He has the
weaponry Of devastation, thunderbolt
and conflagration, and forces planetary,
solar, lunar, stellar, or meteorlc, 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. Blessed
| be His glorious namel
II. If you continue to ask me why
| think that the world can be saved in
the final decade of the Nineteenth CEN
tury, l reply, Because 1t is not a great
undertaking, considering
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 hun
dred million, and two hundred million,
and one hundred million, and to fifty
million. 1 went to work to cipher out
how many souls that number could
bring to God in ten years, if each one
brought soul every year, and If each
soul so brought should bring another
| each succeeding year. l found out,
aided by professor in mathematics,
that we did not need anything like
such number OF workers enlisted.
You see it is simple ques.
tion of mathematics and In geome-
trical progression. Then gave to the
learned professor this problem: How
many persons would it require to start
with If each one brought soul into
the kingdom each year for ten years,
and each one brought another each sue
ceeding year. in order to have fourteen
hundred million people saved. or the
population of the earth at presentI
His answer was, Two million seven
hundred and fifty-four thousand three
hundred and seventy-flve workers. So
you see that when l sifted the Ave
hundred million nominal Christians of
the earth down to fifty million and
stopped there. retained for this work