Milford chronicle., 1889-04-19
MILFORD, DEL, FRIDAY, APRIL 49, 1889

palatlal residences OF tnab clJy, cried out,
''Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be over
thrown" Was it overthrown in forty days!
No. The people gave up their sins and cried
for mercy, and though Jonah got mad be-
cause his whole course of sermons had been
spoiled and went into a disgraceful pouting,
we have the record so sublime, cannot read
it without feeling nervous chill running
through me "God saw their works that
they turned from their evil way, and God re-
pented of the evil that he had said he would
do unto them, and he did it not" God is a
father, and some Of US know what that means,
and some time when we have promised chas-
tisement and the child deserved it, the little
darling has put her arms around our neck
and expressed such sorrow and such prom
ises 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 thousand
years or 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 Abraham asked him if he would
not spare it if fifty righteous people were
found there, and, narrowing down the num-
Der, if forty-five people were found there; If
forty people if thirty people; if twenty peo-
pie; If ten people were found there. And
each of the six times the Lord answered, Yes
Oh, why didn't Abraham 60 on just two steps
further and say if five be found there and if
one be found there, for then for the sake of
Lot its one good citizen, | think SOdom
would have been spared. Eight times does
the Bible say that God repented when he had
promised punishments and withheld the
stroke Was it a slip of Paul's pen when he
spoke of Gods cutting short the work in
Righteousness No, Paul's pen never slipped.
There is nothing in the way Of prophecy to
hinder the crusade / have proposed for the
last decade of the Nineteenth century
PRoCRAsTINATIoN Is THE THIEF OF TIME
The whole trouble is that we put off the
completion of the worlds redemption to such
long and indefinite distances. The old pro-
verb that "what is everybody's business is
nobodys business" might be changed a 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
cannot get up much enthusiasm about some
thing five hundred years from now or a thou
sand years from now. We are fighting at
too long a range. That gun called the
"Swamp Angel" was a nuisance 1t shot six
miles, but it hardly ever hit anything. 1t did
its chief destructive work when it 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 no. quote
the previous sentence which says that one day
is with the Lord as thousand yearsl 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 and on
through centuries until we see two
objects near each other, and we strain
our vision and guess what they are,
and we call great conventions to guess
what they are, and VIC get down our heaviest
theological works and balance our telescope
ON the lid and look and look and finally con-
clude that they are two beasts that we see
and the ono has hair and the other has WOOL
and we guess it must be tho lion and the
lamb lying down together In that great
rock the church as though it were an impa-
tient child and say, Flush, my dear, don't
bo inpatient Don't get excited by revivalsl
Don't cry Your Fathers coming Don't
get uneasyl He will be here in two or three
or ten or twenty thousand years" And we
act as though we thought that when Ma
caulay's famous New Zealander in the far
distant is seated on q broken arch of London
bridge sketching the ruins Of st. Paul's his
grandchild might break in and jolt his pencil
asking him if he thought the millennium ever
would appear Men and women Of the eter-
nal Godl Sons and daughters Of the Lord
Almighty We may have it start in the de-
caie 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 it can be donea
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 a
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 and lealless tree with two branches
not arched but horizontal But ho is wait
ipg, as he said he would, for the cooperation
of the church When we are ready God is
ready And he certainly has all the weap-
onry ready to capture this world for the
truth, all the weapons Of kindness or devas-
tation. On the one hand, the Gospel and sun
shine and power to orchardize and gardenize
the earth and fountains swinging in rainbow
aDd Chatsworthian verdure and aromas
poured out Of the vials Of heaven, while on
tho other hand he has the weaponry Of dc
vastation, thunderbolt and conhagration and
forces planetary, solar, lunar, stellar or mo
teoric, 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 sin
ful soul made peace with himl
THERE Is NOTHING niPRAcTICABLE ABOUT IT
II you continue to ask me why think that
tho world can be saved in the final decade o,
tho Nineteenth century, reply, because it is
no5 a great undertaking, considering the
number Of workers that will go at it, if once
persuaded it can be done We have sifte
tho five hundred million Of workers down to
four hundred million and three hundred mil
lion and two hundred million and one hum
dred million and to fifty million. | went to
work to cipher out how many souls that num-
Der could bring to God in ten years, if each
one brought a soul every year, and if each
soul SO brought should bring another each
succeeding year. | found out, aided by
professor in mathematics, that we did not
need anything like such a number of workers
enlisted. You see it is sinIly a question Of
mathematics and in geometrical progression.
Then gave to the learned professor this
problem: How many persons would it re-
quire to start with if each one brought
soul into the kingdom each year for ten
years, and each one brought another each
succeeding year, in order to have fourteen
hundred million people saved, or the popula-
ton of the earth at PRESENT. His answer was
two million seven hundred and hfty-four
thousand three hundred and seventy-ive
workers. So you see that when | sifted the
Eve hundred million nominal Christians Of