Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-02
CARRY THE GOSPEL.
The Lesson in Philips Appeal is to
Come and See.
CHRISTIANITY Is AGGRESSIVE.
The Church Isn't a Spiritual Life Insur-
ance Institution.
OUR STERN DUTY TO OUR BROTHERS
WRITTEN FOB THE DIsPATcH.1


race in its zeal for making converts. It will
never stop till it has discovered every
Nathaniel and brought him in. It will
never stop till the whole world is Christian.
And it will not rest even then till every
Christian is good Christian. That will be
good while. The millennium will be here
by that time.
This aggressive spirit marks the temper
of every Christian who has learned the
mind of the Master, and has caught the
actual meaning of His religion. The Chris
tian does rot imagine that his work is done
when he has worked out his own salvation.
BE does not imagine that the chief part of
his work consists in working out his own
salvation. He finds higher task in help
ing, uplifting, trying to save somebody else.
William Wilberforee was good kind Of
Christian. He was puzzled how to answer
the question of good brother who asked
after the condition OF his soul. He said
that he had been SO busy trying to save the
souls and bodies of some half dozen mil
lions of enslaved negroes that he had almost
forgotten that he had any soul himself,
Some people seem to have an idea that
the Christian religion is kind of spiritual
life insurance company, and that the chief
end OF man is to get to heaven. But the
Christian-the genuine Christian-has no
such selfish spirit. He remembers that he
who will save his life shall lose it, and that
he only who is content to lose his lite for
Christ's sake, and his brothers sake, shall
find it. We are good Christians Just in
proportion as we follow the apostle who,
having himself found Christ, lost no time
till he should bring his brother also.
THE SPIRIT OF EARNEST MEN.
This aggressive spirit, this longing to
reach out and bring some brother in, this
feeling in mans heart that he must make
someone else acquainted with his truth, and
sharer in his blessing-this marks not
only the Christian but the earnest man, the
world over. 1t fired the heart of one earn
est man, a camel driver in an Arabian
desert, and made him a prophet for a sixth
part of the human race. ''Tho' the sun
stand upon my right hand and the moon
upon my LETT, said Mohammed, land both
command me hold my peace, yet must
speakP'
1t stirred the soul of another earnest
man, simple German schoolmaster, and
made of him a mighty lever for oVerturn-
ing nearly all the established institutions Of
his day, and building them over again bet
ter. He stood firm, that honest Luther.
Nothing could shake him. "God help me-"
he said, 81 can do no other, speak must"
All the priests and popes, all the curses,
civil and ecclesiastical, all the flames and
taggots in the world notwithstanding, he
must utter forth the truth that was in HIM,
Were he confronted by as many devils as
there were tiles on all the roofs of all the
cities Of all Europe, yet must he break
through, and tell his message.
This aggressive spirit makes all earnest
men akin. The earnest man can never be
contented to be right all alone. He will
have no monopoly of truth. He will not
have his brain a prison, but treasure
house. What he sees he wants the whole
world to see. His desire is that of the
apostle who stood before Agrippa: 81 would
to God that not only thou, but also all
that hear me this day, were both almost and
altogether such as I am" And that
all men may be such as he is, possessors of
the same truth, travellers in the same path,
sharers in the same blessing-to bring that
about he must speak. Necessity is laid
upon him. 'Woe is me-" he cried, ''if I
preach not the gospel"
PHILIP FINDETH NATHANIEL.
1t is interesting and instructive to notice
how this aggressive spirit, which is the
quality of greatness, marks in Holy Scrip
ture even the humblest Christians "The
day following Jesus would go forth into
Galilee and 6ndeth Philip, and saith to
him: Follow me"-and so Philip became a
Christian. And what next? "Philip find
eth Nathaniel He cannot rest till ne has
found his friend and brought him.
1t is the same in Samaria. "The woman !
saith unto Him, know that Messiah COM
eth, which is called Christ. Jesus saith unto
her: l that speak unto thee am He." What
q revelation was therei That was the |
very plainest word yet To no one anywhere |
had he told that great truth so fully and dis
tinctly. 81 am the Christ" What does the |
woman do with this word from heaven?
''The woman then left her waterproof, and |
went her way into the city, and saith unto
the men, come, see man which told me all |
things that ever did. Is not this the |
Christi"
Always this word "come." "Come,"
cries Andrew to his brother Simon; come"
says Philip to Nathaniel; "come," entreats |
this woman of Samaria, stopping every one |
she meets in the street. These people must |
speak. They must get somebody else. They |
must tell what great things Christ has done |
for their souls.
The Master heals demoniac in Gadara |
"And he went his way and published |
the whole city how great things |
Jesus had done unto him."
Matthew leaves his custom house and fol- |
lows Christ. He gives up good business;
he abandons q chance to make fortune. |
He brings his money, no doubt, but that is |
not enough-he must bring his friends, too
He makes great supper, and gets all the
publicans together to meet Him whom
hencelorth he proposes to follow.
SILENCE IS IMPOSSIBLE.
The authorities seize hold of Peter and
II
this name. If you do, we will put YOU in
prison, and worse afterward.'' And the
Apostles answered: "Whether it be right in
the sight of God 70 hearken unto you more
than unto God, you are as good judges as
we are. For we cannot but speak the things
which we have seen and heard"
They simply could not help it. The
great truth of the Christian faith had
flashed in upon the souls of
these men, and to keep silence
about it was impossible. Better be put in
a thousand prisons--better die first, rather
than be still. st. Stephen did die. They
might stone him, if they would, but while
breath was in him, speak he must.
This aggressive spirit, this impulse of the
Christian Philip to find Nathaniel, this
luty, this DESIRE this necessity, OF open tes-
.imony and personal appeal, ought to char
acterize every Christian. Every Christian
IN this world ought to be making somebody
Else Christian.
know that it is not easy to sneak to peo-
ole in private conversation about the sub
ect of religion. One reason is that we dis
ike to make ourselves disagreeable We
IRE afraid that the subject may not be
pleasant one. It is, indeed, true that
Philip can make himself intensely dis
agreeable. He can speak in an unnatural
one of voice, and with a constrained
manner, and in cant phrases. He can dis