Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-27

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presses are publishing infidel tracts; when
express railroad trains are carrying mes
| sengerS 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 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
it was such an unwise, such cruel, such
an awful thing for the church to sleep.T The
great audiences are not gathered in the
Christian churches, the great audiences are
gathered in temples of sin-tears of I'M
| utterable woe their baptism, the blood of
| crushed hearts the awful wine of their
sacrament blasphemies their itany, 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
I iconoclasm, and on the other hand not stick
| too much to things because they are old
The air is full of new plans, new projects,
! new theories of government, new theOlo-
| gies, 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 arc useless and they are unhappy.
| New plans-secular, ethical, philosophical,
| religious, cisatlantic, transatlantic. All,
my brother, do not adopt thing merely
| because it is new. Try it by the realities
| OF judgment day.
| But on the other hand, do not adhere to
anything because it is old. There is not
| 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 HAY-sTACE IN MASSACHUSETTS
| and organized the first missionary society
| ever organized in this country, there went
| laughter and ridicule all around the
| Christian church. They said the undertake
| ing was prepoSterous And SO also the
| work of Jesus Christ was assailed. People
| cried out, ''Whoeyer heard Of such theories
| of ethics and government Who ever no.
| ticed such style of preaching as Jesus
| has?'' Ezekiel had talked of mysterious
| wings and wheels. Here came man from
| Capernaum and Gennesaret, and he drew
| his illustrations from the lakes from the
sand, from the raYinc, from the lilies, from
| the corn-staks. How the Pharisees scoffed
| How Herod derided How Caiaphas Kissed.
| And this Jesus they plucked by the beard,
| and they Spat in his face, and they called
him this fellow!" All the great enter
| prises i'll and out of the church have at
| times been scoffed at. and there have been
| the chariot of Gods truth would fall to
| pieces if it once got out of the old rut.
And so there are those who have no pa
| thence with anything like improvement 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 everyday
| men rather than that which makes an ex
| cursion on rhetorical stills. Oh, that the
| church of God would wake up to an adapta-
| bility of work. We must admit the simple
fact tlat the churches of Jesus Christ in
| this day do not reach
THE GREAT MASSES.
There are fifty thousand people in Film
burgh who never hear tho gospel. There
are one million people in London who never
hear the gospel. There are at least three
hundred thousand souls in the city of
Brooklyn who come not under the immedi-
ate mnistration of Christ:S TRUTH and the
church of God IN this day, instead of being
a place fun of living epistles, read and
known of all men, is more like a'dead-
letter" postofTice.
But" say the people, ''the world is 60
ing to be converted You must be patient:
the kingdoms of this world are to become
the kingdoms of Christ" Never, unless
the church of Jesus Christ puts ON more
speed and energy. Instead of the church
converting the world, the world is convert
ing the church. Here is a great fortress.
How shall it be taken2 An army comes
and sits around about it, cuts off the sup
plies, and says: "Now We will just wait
until from exhaustion and starvation they
will have 10 give up" Weeks and months.
and perhaps year, pass along, and finally
the fortress surrenders through that starVa-
ton and exhaustion. But my friends, the
fortresses of sin are never 10 be taken in
that way. If they are taken for God it will
be by storm: you viii have to bring up the
~ Cia Of no rO
wall and wheel the tiving artillery into
line and when the armed infantry of
heaven shall confront the battlements you
will have TO give the quick command,
FORWARD! CHARGED
All, my friends, there is work for you to
do and for me to do in order to this grand
accomplishment! Here is a pulpit, and
clergyman breaches IN it. Your pulpit is
the bank. Your pulpit is the store Your
pulpit is the editorial chair Your pulpit is
the anvil. Your pulpit is the hOuse-scaf
folding. Your pulpit is the mechanics shop.
l may stand in this place and, through cow
ardice or through self-seeking, may keep
back the word | ought to utter; while you,
with sleeves rolled up and brow besweated |
with toll may utter the word that will jar |
the foundation of heaven with the shout of |
a great victory. Oh, that to-day this whole |
audience might feel that the Lord Almighty |
Is putting upon them the hands of Orlind- |
y
Gospel. You have as much right to preach |
as have or as any man has. Only find out |
the pulpit where God will have you preach, |
and there preach. Hedley Wears was a |
wicked man in the English army The |
grace of God came to him. He became an |
earnest and eminent Christian. They !
scoffed at him, and said: You are hypo- |
crit; you are as bad as ever you We're - |
Still he kept his faith in Christ, and after 4 |
while, finding that they could not turn him |
aside by calling him hypocrite, they said |
TO him: ooh, you are nothing but a IA |
matte" Tint did not disturb him. He
went on performing his Christian duty IN
til he had formed all his troop into a Bible
class, and the whole encampment was |
shaken with the presence of God So Have
lock went into
THE HEATHER TEMPLE
in India while the English army was there,
aud put candle into the hand of each of /
the heather gods that stood around
in the neathen temple and by the light of |
these candles, held up by the idols, Gen.
Havelock preached righteousness, temper
ance and judgment to come. And who will
say, on earth or in heaven, that Gen. Have
lock had not the right to preacna
In the minister's house where prepared
for college there was man who worked by
the name of Peter Croy. He could neither
read nor write but he was a man of God.
Often theologians would stop in the house
grave theologians-and at family prayers
Peter Croy would be called upon to lead;s4