The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1891-01-15

graphcd to Fulton Street prayer meet
/ ing in New York, saying: What hath
. God wrought?'' and a telegram went
! back, saying: Two hundred souls
saved at one meeting to-day" A ship
! came through the Narrows into our har-
/ Dor, the captain reporting himself and
Z all the crew had been converted to God
+ between New Orleans and New York.
| In the busiest marts of our busiest
/ American cities, where the worshippers
/ of Mammon had been counting their
/ golden beads, men began to CALCULATES:
what shall it profit a man If he
gain the whole world and lose his
soul" The walters in restaurants after
I the closing of their days work knelt
among the tables where they had
/ served. Policemen asked consent OF
/ the commissioner of police to be per
mitted to attend religious meetings. At
Albany members of the New York
| Legislature assembled in the room Of
the Court of Appeals at half-past eight
o'clock in She morning for prayer
and praise. Printed invitations were
sent out to tee firemen of New York,
! saying: Come as suits your conven-
ience best, whether in fire or citizens
dress, but come! Gomez Quarrymen
knelt among the rocks. Fishermen
| knelt in their boats. Weavers knelt
among the looms. Sailors knelt among
the hammocks. Schoolmasters knelt
among their classes. A gentleman
travelling said there was line of prayer
meetings from Omaha to Washington
City, and, he might have added, line
! -, Tn
the Pacific coast, and from the st.
Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico.
In those days, what songs, what SER
mons, what turnings to God, what re-
cital of thrilling experiences, what
prodigals brought home, what burning
tidings of souls saved, what serfdom Of
sin emancipated, what wild rout of the
forces of darkness, what victors foE the
truth. What millions on earth and in
Heaven are now thanking God for 1s57'
which, though the year of worst fnan'
cial calamity, was the year of Americas
most glorious blessing. How do you ac-
count for 1857, its spiritual triumphs on
the heels of its worldly misfortune? 1t
was what my text calls the Power from
| on High.
That was thirty-three years ago, and
though there have been in various parts
of the land many STRINGS of the Holy
Ghost, there has been no general awak-
| ening Does it not seem to you that
we ought to have, and may have, the
scenes of power in 1857 eclipsed by the
scenes of power in 1891? The circum-
stances are somewhat similar. While
we have not had Natiopal panic and
universal prostration as in 1857, there
has been a stringency in the money
market that has put many of the
families of the earth to their
wits end. Large commercial in
terests collapsing have left null
titudes of employees without means of
support. The racked brains of busi-
ness men have almost or entirely given
way. New illustrations all over the
lane of the fact that riches have not
only feet, on which they walk slowly as
| they come, but wings on which they
speed when they go. Eternal God!
| Thou knowest how cramped, and Sc
we're. and solemn time it is with many.
And, as the business ruin of 1857 was
followed by the glorious triumps of
grace, let the awful struggles of 1890 be
| followed UN tHc HdllC1uJ JdllS VI q AoeAOh
| saved in 1891,
Brethren in the Gospel ministry! If
we spent half as much time in prayer as
we do in the preparation of our sermons
nothing could stand before us. We
would have the Power from on High as
we never have had it. Private member
ship of all Christendoml If we spent
half as much time in positive prayer for
| this influence as we do in thinking about
it and talking about it, there would not
| be secretaries enough to take down the
names for enlistment We would have
hundreds of cases like those recently
reported, when man said to an
evangelist: Il am lost sinner. Pray
for me. My wife has been professor
of religion for years, but L knew
she did not enjoy religion, and said IL
that was all there was in religion, did
not want it. But for the last few days
she has looked and acted in such an
elevated and glorious spirit that 1
can not stand it, away from God.
want the same religion that inspires
her. Come! Come all through the
United States, and all through Christen-
dom, and all around the world let us
join hands in holy pledges that we will
call upon God for the Power. Oh, for
the Power on High, the Power that came
on Pentecost, yea, for ten thousand
Pentecosts. Such times will come, and
they will come in our day if we have
the faith and the prayer and the conse-
Grafton.
Good and gracious God! What will
become of us if, after having such de-
vout and praying parentage, we never
pray for ourselves? We will pray. We
will begin now. Oh, for the Power
from on High, power to move this as
semblage, power to save Brooklyn and
New York, power of evangelism that
shall sweep across this continent like an
ocean surge, power to girdle the
round earth with a red girdle
dipped in the blood of the'cross. If this
forward movement is to begin at all,
there must be some place for it to be-
gin, and why not this place? And there
must be sometime for it to begin, and
why not this time? And so sound for
your ears a rythmic invitation, which,
until few days ago, never came under
my eye, but it is so sweet. so sobbing
with pathos, so triumphant with joy.
that whoever chimed it, instead of being
anonymous, ought to be immortal:
Thy sins bore on Calvary's tree;