Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1891-08-20
YOU ALL HAVE A MISSION.
DR.. TALMACE breaches IN A
. WISCONSIN DELL.
Amid Foliage And vcrdure he Tells
the Story OF Beautiful Esther
Divine Parallels Drawn from the
Text, Esther 4: IA.


MADISON, Wis, July ?6.-Dr. Ial-
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:l4: "Who knoweth whether thou
art come to the kingdom for such
| time as this?" .
Esther the Beautiful was the vile OF
Ahasuerus the abominable. The time
| had come for her to present petition
| to her infamous husband in behalf OF
| the Israelitish nation, to which she hao
once belonged. She was afraid.to under
| take the work lest she should lose her
| own life; but her uncle. Mordecai, VINO
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 l have ours.
| It IS nv 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.
n 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 ut your hand, and there is q
straight path for you into the broad
daylight of Gods forgiveness.
But, my friends, You need to be ag-
pressive Christians, and not like those
persons who spend their lives in hug
cling 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
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
and weeks and months and years of 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 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 a flower.
And there are 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 a damage
/ instead of an advantage to their Chris
tian character. l remember when l
was boy used to have a small piece
: in the garden that l 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 Iself-eXamination merely
t amounts 10 the pulling up of that
t which they only yesterday or the day
l before planted.
o my friends! if you want stall
WdTV PAaho ~ ~ IA
a 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, il
+ will thrive until it becomes grea,
$ tree, in which the fowls of heaven may
q have their ha bitation. l have no pa
thence with these tiowcr-pot Christians
They keep themselves under shelter
and all their Christian experience in a
. | small, exclusive circle, when they
:, ought to plant it in the great garden O.
. 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
= But" says some man, Il literally
support the gospel, and the church il
p. open and the gospel is preached al
the spiritual advantages are spread be
a fore men, and if they want to b,
. saved. let them come to be saved;
have discharged all my responsibility.
g All. is that the Masters spirit? Is Their
not an old book somewhere tina
% commands us to go out int
70 the highways and the hedges an,
compel the people to come in? VIVA
V would have become Of you and me i
r Christ had not come down off the hill
OF heaven. ana IL ne naU not com
y through the door of the bethlehem
n caravansary, and if he had not with TIL
crushed hand of the crucitixion knoclse
~ at the iron gate of the sepulcher of on
20 spiritual death. crying, Lazarus, com
- forth?' O, my Christian friends
~ this is no time for inertia
when all the forces of darkness
4 seem to be in full blast: when stcar
d printing-presses are publishing intide
u tracts; when express railroad trains ar
II carrying messengers of sin; when fas
clippers are laden with opium and run
% when the night-air of our cities is poi
he luted with the laughter that breaks IL
t. from the ten thousand saloons of dissi
a. patton and abandonment; when tn
~ fires of the second death already ar
kindled in the cheeks of som
10 who, only a little while agt
Sc were incorrupt. Never since tn
al curse fell upon the earth has there bee
ID q time when it was such an unwis,
e. such cruel. such an awful thing fc
y. the church to sleep. The great aud
cnces are not gathered in the Christia