The Forrest City times., 1891-07-31
YOU ALL HAVE A MISSION.
DIR. TALMAOE BREACHES IN A
 WISCONSIN DELL.
Amid Foliage And verdure he Tells the story of Beautiful Esther Divine Parallels Drawn from the Text, Esther 1: fl.

mage preached this morning at Chau tauqua Assembly on the banks of Mo mona Lake near this city. 1t is a great gathering of people from all parts ot the Northwest. His text was Esthe, 4: IA; Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?'
 Esther the Beautiful was the wife of Ahasuerus the abominable. The time had come for her to present a petition ' to her infamous husband in behalf oi the lsraelitish nation, to which she had once belonged. She was afraidto under take the work lest she should lose pr own life; but her uncle, Mordecai. who had brought her up, encouraged her with the suggestion that probably she had been raised up of God for that pe- culiar mission. "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such time as this?" Esther had her God appointed work; you and l have ours. It is my business to tell you what style of people we ought to be in order that we may meet the demand of the age in which God has cast our lot.
 In the first place, in order to meet the special demand of this age, you need to be an unmistalSably aggressive Christian. Of half-and-ha half Christians we do not want any more. The church of Jesus Christ will be better without ten thousand of them. They are the chief obstacles to the churchs advance ment. l am speaking of another kind of Christian. All the appliances for your becoming an earnest Christian are at your hand, and there is d straight path for you into the broad daylight of Gods forgiveness.
 But, my friends, you need to be az gressive Christians, and not like those persons who spend their lives in hug ging their Christian graces and wonder ing why they do not make any prog ress How much robustness of health would man have if he hid himself in a dark closet? A great deal of piety of the day is too exclusive. It hides itself. It needs more fresh air, more outdoor exercise. There are many Christians who are giving their entire life to selfexamination They are feeling their pulses to see what is the condition of their spiritual health How long would man have robust physical health if he kept all tie days and weeks and months and years O. his life feeling his pulse instead of going out into active, earnest, everyday work?
 was once amid the wonderful. be- witching cactus growths of North Caro- lima l never was more bewildered with the beauty of flowers, and yet when l would take up one of these cac- tuscs and pull the leaves apart, the bcSuty was all gone. You could hard ly tell that it had ever been flower. And there are q great many Christian people in this day just pulling apart their Christian experiences to see what there is in them. and there is nothing attractive left. This style of self-examination is n damage instead of an advantage to their Chris tian character, remember when I was q boy used to have Il small piece in the garden that 1 called my own. and planted corn there, and every few days l would pull It up to see how fast it was growing. Now there are great many Christian people in this day whose self-examination merely amounts io the pulling up of that which they only yesterday or the day before planted.
 0 my friends. if you want stall wart Christian character, plant 1t right out of doors in the great field of Chris tian usefulness and though storms may come upon it. and though the hot sun of trial may try to consume it, it will thrive until 1t becomes great tree, in which the fowls of heaven may have their habitation. l have no pa tience with these fiower-pot Christians. They keep themselves under shelter. and all their Christian experience in . small, exclusive circle, when they ought to plant it in the great garden of the Lord, so that the whole atmosphere could be aromatic with their Christian usefulness What we sswant in the church of God is more brawn of piety.
 But" says some man, II liherallv support the gospel. and the church is open and the gospel is prcached: all the spiritual advantages are spread be- fore men, and if they want to be saved, let them come to be saved: I have discharged all my responsibility" An. is that the Masters spirit? Is there not an old book somewhere that commands us to go out into the highways and the hedges and compel the people to come in? What would have become of you and me if Christ had not come down off the hills of heaven. and if he had not come through the door of the Bethlehem caravansary, and if he had not with the crushed hand of the crucifixion knocked ut the iron gate of the sepulcher of our spiritual death, crying, Lazarus. come forth?" O, my Christian friends, this Is no time for inertia, when all the forces of darkness seem to be in full blast; when steam printingprcsses are publishing infidel tracts; when express railroad trains are carrying messengers of sin; when fast clippers are laden with opium and rum; when the night-air of our cities is poll luted with the laughter that breaks up from the ten thousand saloons of dissi- patton and abandonment; when the Hires of the second death already are kindled in the checks of some who. only little while ago, were incorrupt. Never since the curse fell upon the earth has there been . time when 1t was such an unwise such a cruel, such an awful thing for the church to sleepl The great audi cnces are not gathered in the Christian churches, the great audiences are gathered in temples of sin-tears of unutterablc woe their baptism, the blood of crushed hearts the awful wine of their sacrament, blasphemies their litany, and the groans of the lost world the organ dirgc of their worship.
 Who ever noticed such style of preaching as Jesus has?' Ezekiel had talked of mysterious wings and wheels Here came man from Capernaum and Genessaret, and he drew his illus trations from the lakes, from the sand, from the ravine, from the lilies, from the cornstalks. How