Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-07-31


will have for the exclusive service OF
God will be less than one year
..But,' SAYS some man. 81 Literally
support the Gospel, and the church Is
open and the Gospel is preached: all the
spiritual advantages are spread before
men, 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 ola
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 II
Christ had not come down off the hills
of Heaven, and if He had not come
through the door of the Bethlehem cara
vansary, and if He had not with the
crushed hand of the crucifiXion knocked
at the iron gate of the sepulcher OF our
spiritual death, crying, Lazarus, come
forth?"
Oh. my Christian friends. this is no
time for inertia, when all the forces OF
darkness seem to be in full blast; when
steam printing presses are publishing M
Idcl 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 ten thousand saloons OF dis
sipation and Abandonment: when the
fires of the second death already are
kindled in the checks of some who, only
a little while ago, were incorrnpt.
Never since the curse fell upon the
earth has there been a time when it was
such an unwise, such cruel, such an
awful thing for the church to sleep! The
great audiences are gathered in temples
of sin-tears of unutterable woe their
baptism, the blood of crushed hearts the
awful wine of their sacrament, bias
phenlics their litany, and the groans of
the lost world the organ dirge OF their
worship.
Again, if 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 too much to things be-
cause they are old. The air is full of
new plans, new projects, new theories OF
government, new theologies, and | am
amazed to see how SO many Christians
want only novelty in order to recommend
thing to their confidence; and so they
vacillate and swing to and fro, and they
are useless, and they are unhappy. New
plans-seculer, ethical, philosophical,
religious, cisatlantic, transatlantic. All,
my brother, do not adopt thing merely
because it is new. Try it by the realities
of a judgment day.
But, on the other hand, do not adhere
to anything merely because it is old.
There is not single enterprise of the
church or the world but has sometimes
been scoffed at. There was time when
| md
when a few young men met near a hay
stack in Massachusetts and organized
the first missionary society ever organ
lied in this country, there went laughter
and ridcule all around the Christian
Church. They said the undertaking was
preposterous
And so, also the work of Jesus Christ
was assaulted. People cried out, "Who
ever heard of such theories of ethics and
government? Whoever noticed such q
style of preaching as Jesus has?'
Ezekiel has talked of mysterious wings
and wheels. Here came man from
Capernaum and Gennesaret, and he drew
his illustrations from the lakes, from the
lilies. from the sand, from the ravine
from the cornstalks. How the Pharisees
scoffedl How Herod derided. How
Caiaphas Kissed. And this Jesus the,
plucked by the beard. and they spat il
His face, and they called Him, ''this fel
LOWE All the great enterprises in ant
out of the church have at times beef
scoffed at, and there have been grea
multitude who have thought that TIL
: chariot of Gods truth would fall t.
pieces if it once got out of the old rut
: And so there are those who have n
! patience with anything like improve
I ment in church architecture. or wit
! anything like good, hearty, earnes
church singing, and they deride any forl
: of religious discussion which goes dow
walking among everyday men rattle
than that which makes an excursion OF
: rhetorical stills. Oh, that the Church o
l God would wake up to an adaptability Q
[ work. We must admit the simple fac
that the churches of Jesus Christ in thi
! day do not reach the great masses
r There are fifty thousand people in Edir
a burgh who never hear the gospel. Their
Y are one million people in London VIII
: never hear the gospel. There are "a
4 least three hundred thousand souls j.
S the city of Brooklyn who come not unde
: the immediate mnistratons of Christ
n truth; and the Church Of God in this day
a instead of being place full of Twin
V CPloV4Co, 1Cuu dIlu hllOWu VI All lucL, !
1 more like dead letter. postof1ice.
s But" say the people, ''the world
$ going to be converted; you must be pa
y tient; the Kingdoms Of this world are t
f become the Kingdoms of Christ" Never
l. unless the Church Of Jesus Christ put
y on more speed and energy. Instead {
the church converting the world, til
a world is converting the church. Here
it great fortress. How shall it be taken
If An army comes and sits around about i
IS cuts off the supplies, and says, ''Now "
IT will just wait until from exhaustion an
'e starvation they will have to give up"
h Weeks and months, and perhaps ye;
D. pass along, and finally the fortress su
Sc renders through that starvation and e,
n haustion. But my friends, the fortresst
s. of sin are never to be taken in that wa,
r. If they are taken for God it will be
lie storm. You will have to bring up tt
1T great siege guns of the gospel to tt
ic very wall and wheel the flying artllel
at into line, and when the armed infant1
re of Heaven shall confront the battlemen
you will have to give the quick cor
g. mand, Forward! Charger
l All, my friends, there is work for W
is to do and for me to do in order to ACHE