The southern argus., 1891-07-30
~~
CHRISTIAN WORKERS.
Dr. Talmage Gives Some Good Ad-
vice to Church Laborers.
Aprressiveness in Soul Saving Necessary
Time For work Brief at Best-Weak-
ness Of the Churches-C Christians En-
couraged to March on.

In recent sermon delivered to the
Chautauqua assembly at Madison, WIS,
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage discoursed
upon the necessity Of Christian workers
being aggressive His text was Esther
iy. IA: "Who knoweth whether thou
art come to the kingdom for such
time as this2" DR.. Talmage said
Esther, the beautiful, was the wife of
Ahasuerus, the abominable- The time
had come for her to present petition
to her infamous husband in behalf Of
the Israelitish nation, to which she had
once belonged. She was afraid to I'M
dertake the work, lest she should lose
her own life; but her uncle, Mordecal,
who had brought her up, encouraged
her with the suggestion that probably
she had been raised up Of God for that
peculiar mission. "Who knowest
whether thou art come to the kingdom
for such time as this?" Esther had
her God-appointed work: you and have
ours. Tt is my business to tell you
what style Of people we ought
meet the demand Of the age
in which God has cast our lot. If
You have come expecting to hear abb
stractions discussed. or dry TECHNICAL
ties of religion glorified. yOu have come
to the wrong place; but if you really
would like to know what this age has
right to expect of you as Christian men
and women, then | am ready. in the
Lords name. to look you in the face.
When two armies have rushed into bat
tie the officers of either army do not
want philosophical discussion about
the chemical properties of human blood
or the nature Of gunpowder; they want
some one to man the batteries and
swab out the guns. And now. when
all the forces Of light and darkness. Of
heaven and hell, have plunged into the
fight, it is no time to give ourselves to
the definitions and formulas and tech
nicalities and conventionalities Of re-
ligion. What we want is practical,
earnest, concentrated, enthusiastic and
triumphant help. What we need in the
east you in Wisconsin need.
In the first place, in order to meet the
special demand Of this age, you need to
be an Enthusiastically aggressive Chris
not want any more. The church of
Jesus Christ will be better without ten
thousand of them. They are the chief
obstacle to the church's advancement
am speaking of another kind Of Chris
tian. All the appliances for your be-
coming an earnest Christian are at your
hand, and there is straight path for you
into the broad daylight Of Gods for
giveness. You may have come here
to-day the bondsmen Of the world, and
yet before you go out of these doors
you may become the princes Of the
Lord God Almighty. You know what
excitement there is in this country
when foreign prince comes to our
shores Why? Because it is expected
that some day he will sit upon throne
But what is all that honor compared
with the honor to which God calls you
to be sons and daughters of the Lord
Almighty; yea, to be queens and kings
unto God? They shall reign with
Him forever and forever"
But, my friends, you need to be ag
gressive Christians, and not like those
persons who spend their lives in hug
ging their Christian graces and won
dering why they do not make any
progress. How much robustness Of
health would man have if he hid him
self in dark closet? A great deal Of
piety of the day is too exclusive. 1t
hides itself. 1t needs more fresh air,
more out door exercise. There are
many Christians who are giving their
entire life to self examination. They
are feeling their pulses to see what is
the condition of their spiritual health
How long would 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 Car
olina. / never was more bewiidered
with the beauty Of flowers and yet
when would take up one of these cac-
fuses and pull the leaves apart, the
beauty was ell gone. You could hardly
tell that it had ever been flower.
And there are great many Christian
people in this day just pulling apart
their Christian experiences to see what
there is in them, and there is nothing
attractive left.
q, my friends. if you want to have
stalwart Christian character plant it
right out Of doors in the great field of
Christian usefulness, and though storms
may come upon 1t. and though the hot
sun Of trial may try to consume it, it
VIII thrive until it becomes a great
tree, in which the fowls of Heaven NAV
nave their habitation. have no pa
nence with these flower pot Christians.
they keep themselves under shelter,
and all their Christian experience in
small exclusive circle, when they ought
20 plant il in the great garden Of the
Lord, 50 that the whole atmosphere
could oe aromatic with their Christian
usefulness. What we want III tn
church Of God is more Drawn of pietv.
The century plant is wonderfullv sur-
gestlve and wonderfully beautiful. hit
never look at it without thinkinr of
its parsimony. It lets whole genera.