Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1891-08-01

we can not afford TO be Idle.
A recent statlstician says that human
life now has an average OF only thirty
two wears. From these thirty-two years
YOU must subtract all the time you take
for sleep and the taking OF food and re-
creation; that will leave you about SIX
teen years. From those sixteen years
YOU must subtract oil the time you are
necessarily engaged In the earning oil
livelihood: that will leave you about
eight wears. From those eight years
YOU must take all the days and weeks
and months-all the length OF time that
Is passed in childhood and sickness,
leaving you about one year in which to
work for God. o. my soul, wake up.
How darest thou sleep In harvest time
and with so few hours in which to
reap? So that state 1t as simple fact
that all time that the vast majority OF
YOU will have for the exclusive service
OF God will be less than one year!
But" SAYS some man, ~ literally
support the gospel, and the church Is
open and the gospel is preached, all the
spiritual advantages are spread before
men. and IL they want to be saved lot
them come TO be saved, have dis
charged all my responsibility" All, is
that the Masters spirit? Is there not
an old book somewhere that commands
us to 90 out into the highways and
hedges and compel the people to come
in? What would have become OF you and
me II Christ had not come down oil the
hills OF heaven and II he had not come
through the door of Bethlehem cara
vansary. and If he had not, with the
crushed hand OF the crucifix, knocked
at the iron gate of the sepulcher oil 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 b. In full
blast: when steam printing presses are
publishing intidel 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 polluted with the laughter
that breaks up from the 10000 saloons
OF dissipation and abandonment: When
the fires OF the second death already
are kindled in the cheeks OF some who,
only little while ago. were incorrupt.
Never since the curse fell upon the
earth has there been time when II
was such an unwisa such cruel, such
an awful thing for the church to sleep:
The great audiences are not gathered
in the Christian churches, the great
audiences are gathered in temples OF
sin-tears OF unutterable woe their bap-
tism, the blood OF crushed hearts the
awful wine of their sacrament. blasphe-
mics their litany. and the groans oil the
lost world the organ dirge OF their wor-
ship.
Again. il you want to be qualified to
meet the duties which this age demands
of YOU. YOU must on the one hand
avoid reckless iconoclasm, and on the
other hand not stick 100 much to things
because they are old. The air is full OF
new plans. new projects, new theories
OF government. new theOlogies, and L
am amazed to see how so many Chris
tians want only novelty in order to
recommend q thing TO their confidence,
and so they vacillate and swing to and
fro, and they are useless, and they are
unhappy. New plans-secular. ethical,
philosophical, religious. cisatlantic,
transatlantic. All, my brother, do not
adopt thing merely because 1t Is new.
Try it by the realitiaes OF Judgment
day.
But. on the other iland, do not adhere
to anything merely because it is old.
There is not a single enterprise OF the
church or the world but has sometimes
been scoffed at. There was a time
when men derided even Bible societies;
and when few young men met near a
haystack in Massachusetts, and organ
lied the first missionary society ever
organized in this country there went
laughing and ridicule all around the
Christian church. They SAID the I'M
dertaking was prepOsterous. And so
also the work OF Jesus Christ was as
sailed. People cried out, "Who ever
heard OF such theories OF ethics and
government? Who ever noticed such q
style of preaching as Jesus has,"
And so there are those who have no
patience with anything like improve
ment in church architecture, or with
ANYTHING like good, hearty, earnest
church singing, and they deride any
form of religious discussion which goes
down walking among every day men
rather than that which makes an excur-
sion on rhetorical stills. o that the
church of God would wake up to an
adaptability OF work! We must admit
the simple fact that the churches OF
Jesus Christ in this day do not reach
the great masses. There are $4,000
people in Edinburg who never hear
the Gospel. There are 1000, 900 people
in London who rever hear the Gospel.
There are at least 300, 900 souls In the
city of Brooklyn who come not under
the immediate ministrations OF Christ's
truths; and the church Of God in this
day, instead OF being place full OF liv-
ing epistles, read and known Of all men,
is more like dead letter" pOstOffice.
But" say the people. ''the world is
going to be converted; you must be
patient; the kingdoms OF this world are
TO become the Kingdoms Of Christ. "
No,,a, ,,nlaaa fha church Of Jesus