Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1891-07-31
YOU ALL HAVE A MISSION.
DIR. TALMAGE breaches IN A
WISCONSIN DELL.
Amid Foliage Aud vcrduro ne Tells
the story Of Beautiful Esther-
Divine Parallels Drawn from the
Text, Esther 4; Ia.

gathering of people from all parts of
the Northwest. His text was Esther
Ala: who knoweth whether thou
art come TO the kingdom for such "a
time as this?'
Esther the Beautiful was the wife of
Ahasuerus the abominahle. The time
had come for her to PRESENT petition
to her infamous HUSBAND in behalf of
the lsraelitish nation, To which she had
once belonged. She was afraid to under
take the work lest she should lose her
own life; but her uncle, Mordecai, who
had brought her up, encouraged her
with the suggestion that probably she
had been raised up of God for that pc
culiar mission. ~ no llnowcth whether
thou art come To the kingdom for such
a time as this?" Esther had her God
appointed work; you and | have ours.
1t is my 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 east our lot.
In the first place, in order TO meet
the special demand of this age, you
need To be an Enthusiastically aggressive
Christian. OF hllf-and-half Christians
we do not want any more. The church
of Jesus Christ will be better without
ten InOuSd1U III llltllls ltl are Vic
chief obstacles To the church's advance
ment. j am speaking of another kind
of Christian. All the appliances for
your becoming an earnest Christian
are at your hand, and there Is II
straight path for you into the broad
daylight of GOD S forgiveness.
But, my friends, you need to be ag-
gressive Christians, and not like those
o,,aY1 thnit. livaa IN hnfr-
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. | 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
" tell that it had ever been "a flower.
And there are a great many Christian
people in this day just pulling apart
their Christian experiences TO see
what there is in them, md
there is nothing attractive left. This
STYLE of sclf-eXamination is a damage
instead of an advantage 10 their Chris
tian character. | remember when
was a boy used to have a small piece
in the garden that | called my own,
and planted corn there, and every few
days | would pull it up TO see how fast
il was growing. Now, there are n great
many Christian people in this day
whose tself-eXamination merely
amounts 10 the pulling up of shat
which they only yesterday or the day
before planted.
o my friends! if you want "a stall
wart Christian character, plant it right
out of doors in the great field of Chris
tian usefulness, and though storms
may come upon 1t, and though the hot
sun of trial may try to consume 1t, 1t
Will thrive until it becomes "a great
tree, in which the fowls of heaven may
have their habitation. | have no pa
thence with these flower-pot Christians
They keep themselves under shelter,
and all their Christian experience in
small exclusive circle, when they
ought TO plant IL in the great garden Of
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 is
open and the gospel is preached: all
the spiritual advantages are spread be-
fore 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 old 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 If
Christ had not come down off the hills
of heaven, and if he had not come
through the door of the Bethlehem
caravansary, ana 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?' o, 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 infidel
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 pol
luted with the laughter that breaks ur
| from the ten thousand saloons of dissi-
patton and abandonment; when the
fires of the second death already are
kindled in tho cheeks of some
who, only little while ago
were incorrupt. Never since the
curse fell upon the earth has there beer
a time when 1t was such an unwise
such a cruel. such an awful thing for
the church TO sleep! The great audi
ences are not gathered in the Christian
churches, the great audiences ar,
gathered in temples of sin-tears O.
unutterable woe their baptism, the
blood of crushed hearts the awful wine
of their sacrament, blasphemies Their
litany. and the groans of the lost world
the organ dirge of their worship.