Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1891-07-29

1 A
| DR.. Talmage preached at a Chautau-
qua assembly on the banks of Monona
| Lake, Wis His text was Esther iv, IA,
.'Who knoweth whether thou art come
| to the kingdom tor such time as this?''
| Esther the Beautiful was the wife of
| Ahasuerns the Accountable. The time
| had come for her to present q petition to
| her Infamous husband in behalf of the
| Israelitish nation, to which she had
| once belonged. She was afraid to I'M
| dertake 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 knoweth 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 de-
mand of the age in which God has cast
our lot. Ifyou have come expecting to
| hear distractions discussed or dry tech
nicalities of religion glorified. you have
come to the wrong place; but if you
really would like to know what this age
has right to expect Of you as Christian
mon and women, then | am ready in the
! Lords name to look you in the face.
| When two armies have rushed into
| battle TIE officers of either army do not
want a philosophical discussion about
the chemical properties of human blood
or the nature ofgunpowder. They want
| some one to man the batteries and swab
out the guns. And now; when all the
- l;r~l,4 \ TT
| and hell, have plunged into the fight, it
| is no time to give ourselves to the def
| nitions and formulas and technicalities
and cOnventionalites of religion. What
we want is practical, earnest, consen-
| trated, enthusiastic and triumphant help.
| What we need in tie East you in Wis
| cOnsin need.
| 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 De better without ten thou
| sand of them. They are the chief OBJ
| stacle to the church's advancement.
am speaking of another kind of Chris
| tian. All the appliances for your be-
coming an earnest Christian are at your
Land, and there is straight path for
you into the broad daylight of Gods for
| giveneSS. You may have come here to-
day the bOndsmen of the world, and yet
before you go out of these doors you
| may become the princes of the Lord
God Almighty. You know what excite
ment there is in this country when for
eign prince comes to our shores. Why?
| Because it is expected that some day he
will sit upon throne. But what is all
that honor compared with the honor to
which God calls you-to be sons and
| daughters Of the Lord Almighty; yea, to
be queens and kings unto God? ''They
shall reign with Him forever and for
evers''
But my, friends, you need to be ag-
gressive Christians, and not like those
persons who spend their lives in hugging
their Christian graces and wondering
why they do not make any progress.
How much robustness of health would a
man have if he hid himself in dark
closet? A great deal of the piety of the
day is too exclusive. 1t hides itself. 1t
needs more fresh air, more outdoor exer-
else. There are many Christians who
are giving their entire life to self-eXami-
nation. They are feeling their pulses
to see what is the condition of their spir-
itudl ucdlGu NOW 1OUS WOuIu u man
have robust physical health if he kept
all the days and weeks and months and
years of his life feeling his pulse instead
OF going out into active, earnest, every
day work?
I 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
toll of cfn nd
pull the leaves apart the beauty was all
gone You could hardly tell that it ever
had been flower. And there are a
great many Christian people in this day
just pulling apart their Christian expert
ences to see what there is in them, and
there is nothing attractive left. This
style of differentiation is d damage in
stead of an advantage to their Christian
character. / remember when I was a
boy l used to have a small piece in the
garden that [ called my own, and I
planted corn there, and every few days
| 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 to the pull
ing up of that which they only Yesterday
or the day before planted
Oh, my friends, if you want to have a
stalwart Christian character, plant it
right out of doors in the great field of
Christian usefulness and though storms
may come upon it and though the hot
| sun OF trial may consume It, it will thrive
until it becomes a great tree, in which
| the fowls Of Heaven may have their hab-
| itation. have no patience with these
| fiowerpot Christians They keep them
selves under shelter, and ali their Chris
| tian experience in small, exclusive cir
| Gle, 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 want in the Church of God is more
Drawn of pietY.
The century plant is wonderfully sug-
| gestive and wonderfully beautiful. but I
never look at it without thinking of it's
parsimony. 1t lets whole generations go
by before it puts forth one blossom. So
| have really more heartfelt admiration
when see the dewy tears in the blue
eyes of the violets, for they come every
spring. My Christian friends, time is
going by so rapidly that we cannot afford
to be idle.
/