Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-07-13

/ whom never saw before and never will
! see again in this world. choose Il very
/ practical theme In the days of George
/ Stephenson, the perfector of the lomo-
motive engine, the scientists proved
/ concIusively that a railroad train could
never be driven by steam power sue
cessfuIly without peril; but the rushing
express trains from Liverpool to Edin-
burgh and from Edinburgh to London
/ have made ;lll the nation witnesses OF
the splendid achievement.
/ Machnists and navigatOrs proved
/ conclusively that 81 steamer could never
cross the Atlantic ocean, but no sooner
had they successfully proved the i'm
possibility of such an undertaking than
the work was done, and the passengers
on the Cunard, and the Inman, and
the National, and the White Star lines
are witnesses There went up a guffaw
of wise laughter at Professor Morse
proposition to make the lightning of
heaven his errand boy, and it was
proved conclusively that the thing
could never be done, but now all the
news of the wide world put in your
hands every morning and night has
made all nations witnesses.
WITNESSES OF THE RESURRECTION.
So in the time of Christ it was proved
concIusively that it was impossible for
him to rise from the dead. 1t was
shown logically that when man was
dead, he was dead, and the heart, and
the liver and the lungs having ceased
to perform their Offices, the limbs would
be rigid beyond all power of friction or
arousaI They showed it to be an alb
solute absurdity that the dead Christ
should ever get up alive; but no sooner
had they proved this than the dead
him. heard his voice and talked with
him. and they took the witness stand
to prove that to be true which the wise
acres of the day had proved to be i'm
possible; the record of the experiment
and of the testimony is in the text,
"Him hath God raised from the dead,
whereof we are witnesses.
Now, let me play the skeptic for a
moment. There is no God" says the
skeptic, for | have never seen him
with my physical eyesight. Your Bi-
BILE is pack of contradictions There
never was a miracle Lazarus was not
raised from the dead, and the water
was never turned into wine Your re
ligion is an imposition on the credulity
of the ages" There is an aged man
moving in that pew as though he would
like to respond. Here are hundreds of
people with faces a little flashed at
these announcements and all through
this throng there is u suppressed feeling
which would like to speak out in be-
half Of the truth of our glorious Chris
tianity, rs 10 the days of the text, cry
ing out We are witnessesl'
The fact is, that if this world is ever
brought to God it will not be through
argument, but through testimony. YOu
might cover the whole earth with apol-
ogies for Christianity, and learned
treatises in defense of religion; you
would not convert a soul Lectures on
the harmony between science and re-
ligion are beautiful mental discipline,
but have never saved q soul and never
will save soul Put q man of the world
and u man of the church against each
other, and the man of the world will.
in all probability. get the triumph
There are a Thousand things in our re-
ligion that seem l. zeal to the world
and always will seem Illogical
TRIUNPHs OF THE GOSPEL.
Our weapon in this conflict is faith,
not logic; faith, not metaphysics; faith,
not profundity faith, not scholastic
exploration But then, in order to have
faith, we must have testimony, and if
five hundred men, or one thousand
men, or five hundred thousand men, or
five million men get up and tell me
that they have felt the religion of Jesus
Christ a joy, comfort, a help, an in
spiration, | am bound as a fair minded
man to accept their testimony. | want
just now to put before you three propO-
sitions, the truth of which I think this
audience will attest with overwhelming
unanilnity The first proposition is
We are witnesses that the religion of
Christ is able to convert a soul The
Gospel may have had a hard time to
conquer us, we may have fought it
back, but we were vanquished You
say conversion is only an imaginary
thing We know better I'VE are
witnesses. There never was so great
a change in our heart and life on any
subject as on this.
People laughed at the missionaries in
Madagascar because they preached ten
years without one convert, but there
are many thousands of converts in Mad
agascar today. People laughed at DIR.
Judson, the Baptist missionary, be-
cause he kept on preaching in Bur1nah
five years without a single convert, but
there are many thousands of Baptists
in Burmah today. People laughed at
DR.. Morton in China for preaching
there seven years without a single con-
version, but there are many thousands
of Christians in China today People
laughed at the missionaries for preach
ing at Tahiti for fifteen years without a
single conversion, and at the missiona-
ries for preaching in Bengal seventeen
years without a single conversion, yet
in all those lands there are muititudes
of Christians today
But why go so far to find evidences
of the Gospels power to save a soul?
I'VE are witnesses" We were so proud
that no man could have humbled US;
we were so hard that no earthly power
could have melted us Angels of God
were all around about US; they could
not overcome us. But one day, per-
haps at Methodist anxious seat, or at
a Presbyterian catechetical lecture or
at a burial, or on horseback, a power
seized u.s. and made US get down, and
made US trelnble, and made us kneel,
and made Us cry for mercy, and we
tried to wrench ourselves away from the
grasp, but we could not. 1t flung US fat,
and when we arose we were as much
changed as GOurois the heathen who