Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-08-06

| 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 crucifxion knocked at the iron
| gate of the sepulcher Of our spiritual
death, crying. Lazarus, come forths''
Oh, my Christian friends, this is no time
for inertia, when all the forces of darkness
seem to be in full blast; when steam print
ing presses are publishing infidel tracts
| when express railroad trains are carrying
messen gers o. SIT: when fast clippers are
| laden with opium and rum; when the night
air of our cites i, polluted with the laugh
ter that breaks up from the ten thousand
saloons of diss; patton and abandonment
when the fires OF the second death already
! are kindied in the cheeks of some who
! only a little while aEO were incorrupt
| Never since the curse fell upon the earth
has there been Il time when it was such an
| unWiSe, such Il cr;lci. such an awful thin .
for the church u sleep. The great audi
| ences are not gathered in the Christian
churches; 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
phemies their litauy, and the groans of the
lost world he organ dirge of their worship
| Again, If you want to be qualified t.
meet the dries which this age demands oil
you, you mist on the one hand avoid reck
4; less iconoclasEl, and on the other hand not
stick too much 10 things because they are
old. The air is full of new plans, new
projects, new t,laores of government, new
| theolOCies. and am amazed to see how sc
many Christians want only novelty in
order to recommend a thing to their conf
dence; and 50 they vacillate and swing to
and fro, and they are useless and they are
unhappy. New plans-secular, ethical
philosophical, religious cisatlantic, trans
atlantic. All, MY brother, do not adopt a
| thing merely because it is new Try it by
the realities of q judgment day.
! But, On The other hand, do not adhere to
anything merely because it is old. There
is not a single enterprise of the church or
the world but has sometimes been scoffed
at. There was a time when men deridei
even Bible societies; and when few young
men met near Il haystack in Massachusetts,
and organized the first missionary society
ever organized in this country, there went
laughter and ridcule all around the Chris
tian church. They said the undertaking.
! was preposterCus.
| And so also the work of Jesus Christ
was assailed. People cried out, ''Whoever
heard of such theories of ethics and gov
eminent? Whoever noticed such style
| of preaching as Jesus has?" Ezekiel had
| talked of mysterious wings and wheels.
Here came a man from Capernaum and
Gennesaret, and he drew his illustrations
from the lakes, from the sand, from the
ravine, from the lilies, from the constalks.
| How the Pharisees scOffed! How HerOd
derided! How Caiphas hissed And this
Jesus they plucked by the beard, and they
spat in his face, and they called him "thi.s
| fellow!" All the great enterprises in and
| out of the church have at times been
| scoffed at, and there have been a great
multitude who have thought that the
| chariot of Gods truth would fall to piece,
If it once got out of the old rut.
MILLIONS NEVER HEAR THE GOSPEL.
| 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, ana
| 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 adapt
ability of work! We must admit the sim
| pie fact that the churches of Jesus Chris
| in this day do not reach the great masses
There are fifty thousand people in Edin-
| burgh who never hear the Gospel. The-7
are one million people in London :
never hear the Gospel There are at least
| three hundred thousand souls in the city
| of Brooklyn who come not under the i'm.
mediate ministrations of Christ's truth,
and the Church Of God in this day, instead
of being place full of living epistles, read
and known of all men, is more like "dead
letter" postoffice
"But," say the people, 1.-The world is go
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 great fortress.
How shall it be taken? An army comes
and sits around about it, cuts off the sup
plies and says, Now we will just wait I'M
til from exhaustion and starvation they
will have to give up" Weeks and months,
and perhaps year, pass along, and finally
the fortress surrenders through that star
walton and exhaustion. But, my friends,
the fortresses of sin are never to be taken
in that way. If they are taken for God it
will be by storm. You will have to bring
up the great siege guns of the Gospel to tn,
very wall, and wheel the flying artillery
into line, and when the armed infantry of
heaven shall confront the battlements you
will have to give the quick command:
Forward! Charger"
All, my friends, there is work for you tc
do and for me to do in order to achieve this
grand accomplishment! Here is pulpit.
and clergyman breaches in it. Your pull
is the bank. Your pulpit is the store. Your
pulpit is the editorial chair. Your pulpit
is the anvil. Your pulpit is the house
scaffolding. Your pulpit is the mechanics
shop. | may stand in this place and,
through cowardice or through self seeking,
may keep back the word | ought to utter;
while you, with sleeve 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 ordination. Every one, go
forth and preach this 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 hypocrite; you are as bad as
ever you were" Still he kept his faith in
Christ, and after awhile, finding that they
could not turn him aside by calling him a
hypocrite, they said to him, "Oh, you are
nothing but fanatic" That did not dis
turb him. He went on performing his
Christian duty until he had formed all his
troop into Pible class, and the whole en-
campment was shaken with the presence of
God So Havelock went into the heather