Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-07-30
YOU ALL HAVE A MISSION,
DIR. TALMhGE breaches IN a
WISCONSIN DELL.
Amid Foliage Aud Verdure he Tells
the story of beautiful Esther.
Divine Parallels Drawn from ihs
Text, Esther 4: II.

MADISON, Wis, July 2G-Dr. Tai.
mage preached this morning at a Chau.
tauqua Assembly on the banks of Mo.
mona Lake near this city. 1t is great
gathering of people from all parts OF
the Northwest His text was Esther
4: II: who lSnoweth whether thou
art come to the kingdom for such q
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 OF
the Israclitish nation, to which she had
once belonged. She was afraid. to under
! take the work lest she should lose her
| 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 pc
| culiar mission. "Who inoweth whether
! thou art come to the kingdom for such
a time as this?" Esther had her God
appointed work; you and | have ours.
1t 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 east our lot.
In the first place, in order to meet
/ the special demand of this age, you
need to be an Enthusiastically aggressive
| Christian. OF half-and-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 church's advance
ment. ! am speaking of another kind
of Christian. All the appliances for
your becoming an earnest Christian
are at your hand, and there is a
straight path for you into the broad
daylight of GODS forgiveness.
But, my friends, you need to be ag-
grcssive 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. 1t hides
itself. 1t needs more fresh air.
more outdoor exercise. There are
many Christians who are giving their
entire life to determination. They
are feeling their pulses to see what is
the condition of their spiritual health.
How long would a man have robust
physical health if he kept all the days
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. ! never was more bewildered
with the beauty of flowers, and yet
when would take up one of these cac-
fuses and pull the leaves apart, the
beauty was all gone. You could hard
ly tell that it had ever been flower.
And there are a 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 determination is damage
instead of an advantage to their Chris
tian character. remember when !
was boy | used to have a small piece
in the garden that | called my own,
and planted corn there, and every few
days would pull il up to see how fast
it was growing. Now there are great
many Christian people in this day
whose self-examination merely
amounts 10 the pulling up of that
which they only yesterday or the day
before planted.
o my friends. il You want stall
wart Christian character, plant it right
out of doors in the great field of Chris
tian use fuiEeSs and though storms
may come upon it, and though the hot
sun of trial may try to consume it. it
will thrive until il becomes a great
tree, in VIII ch the fowls of heaven may
have th"ir habitG ton. | have no pa
thence with these hower-pOt Christians.
They keep themselves under shelter,
and ali their Christian experience in a
small, exclusive circle. when they
ought to plant it in the great garden of
the Lord, that the whole atmosphere
could Cc aromatic with their Christian
usefuluc-E. What we want in the
,hurch Of God is more Drawn of piety
But, says some man. Il literally
support the gospel, and the church is
open and the gospel is preached: all
the spiritual advantages are spread be
fore Ecen, and if they want to be
saved, let them come to be saved: |
have discharged all my responsibility.
All 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
| Thirst had not come down off the hills
| of heaven. and If he had not come
! through the door of the Bethlehem
caravan sary. and if he had not with the
| crushed hand Of the crucifixion knocked
! ct 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
| Beem to he in full blast: when steam
! printing-presses 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 pol
! Iuted With the laughter that breaks up
! from the ten thousand saloons of dissi-
| patton and abandonment: when tho
| fires of the second death already are
! llindled in the cheeks of some
who, only little while ago,
we're incorrupt. Never since tho
curse fell upon the earth has there been
n time when il was such an unwise,
such cruel, such an awful thing for
the church to sleep. The great audi
ences are not gathered in the Christian
churches, the great audiences are
| gathered in temples of sin-tears of
| uhuGbtTdbit woe bHtlf DdpllSln, bnt
blood of crushed hearts the awful wine
of their sacrament, blasphemies their
| litany and the groans of the lost world
the organ dirge of their worship.
| Who ever noticed such "A style of
preaching as Jesus has," Ezekiel had
talked of mysterious wings and wheels.
Here anne a 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
the Fharisees scoffedl How Herod
derided! How Caiaphas Missed,
And this Jesus they pluclxed by the
beard, and they spat in his face, and
they called him this fellow All the
great enterprises in and out of the
church have ut times been scoffed at,
and there have been great multitude
who have thought that the chariot
of Gods truth would fall to pieces
if it once got out of the old rut.
An SO there are those who have nc
patience with anything like improve.
ment in church architecture, or with
ANYTHING like good, hearty. earnest