The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1889-04-25

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God is a Father, and some OF US know what
that means, and some time when we have
promised chastisement and the child
deserved il, the little darling has put her
arms around our neck and expresses such
sorrow and such promises OF doing better,
that her tears landed on the lips OF our
kiss, and we held her half hour after on
our knee, and would as soon think OF
Shaping an angel in the face as Of even
striking her with the weight OF orr little
finger. God is a Father. and while He
has promised His world scourgiugs, though
they were to be for a thousand years or
five thousand years, He would, il the
world repented, substitute benedietion
and Divine caress.
God changed His mind about Sodom six
times. He had determined on its destruc-
ton. Abraham asked Him if He would
not spare it Il fifty righteous people were
found there; and, narrowing down the
number. If forty-five we're found there;
II forty people; if thirty people; il twenty
people; IL ten people were found there.
And each Of the six times the Lord an
swered yes. Oh, why didn't Abraham go
on just two steps further and say If five
be found there and IL one be found there,
for then for the sake OF Lot, its one good
citizen, l 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 slip OF Pagl'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 propkesy to hinder
the crusade have proposed for the last
decade Of the nineteenth century. The
whole trouble is that we put off the CON-
pletion OF the worlds redemption to such
long and indefinite distances. The old
proyerb that "what is every body's BUSH
ness is nobody's business" might be
changed little and be made truthfully
TO say " hat 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 one thousand
years from now. We are fighting at too
long range. That gun called the Swamp
Angem was a nuisance. 1t shot six miles,
but it hardly ever hit any thing. 1t did
it's chief destructive work when it burst
and killed those who were setting it off.
Short range is the effective kind of work,
whether il be for worldly or religious pur-
pose.
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
sentence, which says that one day is with
the Lord as a thousand years, That is,
He could do the work Of ten centuries in
twenty-four hours. The mightiest OBJ
stacle to Christian work is the impress
sion that the worlds eyangelization 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 we get down
our heaviest theological works and bal
ance our telescope on the lid and look and
look, and finally conclude that they are
two beasts that we see. and the one has
hair and the other has wool. and we guess
it must be the lion and the lamb lying
down together. In that great cradle of
postponement and somnolence we rock
the Church as though it were an i'm
patient child, and say: Hush, my dear,
don't be impatient! Don't get excited by
REVEALS! Don't cry! Your Fathers
coming! Don't get uneasy! He will be
here in two or three or ten or twenty
thousand years" And we act as though
we thought that when Macaulay's fam Gus
New Zealander in the far distance is seat
ed on a broken arch of London bridge
sketehing the ruins of St. Paups his
grand child might break in and jolt his
pencil by asking him if he thought the
millennium ever would appear. Men and
women of the eternal God Sons and
daughters OF the Lord Almighty We
may have it start in the decade 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 donei
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 leafess tree with two branches, not
arched, but horizontal. But He is waiting,
as He said He would, for the CO. operation
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 other hand the Gospel, and sun
shine, and power to orchardize and gar
denize the earth, and fountains swinging
in rainbow, and Chatsworthian yerdure,
and aromas poured out of the walls of
Heaven, while on the other hand He has
the weaponry OF devastation, thuuderbolt
and conhagration, and forces planetary,
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 shiyered wheels on the
boulevards of Heaven. And that God is
on our side, all on our side. Blessed be
His glorious namel Blessed was the hour
when through Jesus Christ my sinful soul
made peace with Him!
II you continue to ask me why think
the world can be saved in the final decade
of the nineteenth century, reply because
1t is not great undertaking, considering
the number Of workers that will 90 at it, if
once persuaded that il can be done We
have sifted the five hundred million work
ers TO four hundred million, and three
hundred million, and two hundred mill
ion, and one hundred million and fifty
million. | went TO work to cipher out
how many souls that number could
bring to God in ten years If each
brought one soul every year, and il each
soul so brought should bring another
each succeeding year. l found out,
aided by professor in mathemat-
les, that we did not need any
any thing like that number Of workers en-
listed. You see it is simply question Of
mathematics and in geometrieal progress
sion. Then | gave to the learned profess
sor this problem: How many persons
would it require to start with If each one
brought a soul into the Kingdom each year
for ten years and each one brought an
other each succeeding year, ia order 10
have one billion four hundred million
people saved, or the population Of the
earth at present? His answer was two
.,.iIlI-. -.-.r. E..-.L.l Ia CO.. 90. -.