The Forrest City times., 1891-01-09


 have had it. Private membership of all Christendom! if we spent half as much time ia positive prayer for this influence as eve do in thinking about it and talking about it, there would not be secretaries enough to take down the names of those who would want to give in their names for enlistment. We would have hundreds of cases like those recently reported when a man said to an evangelist q am lost sinner. Pray for me. My wife has been 3 professor of religion for years, but knew she did not enjoy religion, and 1 said if that was all there was in religion l did not want it. But for the last few days she has looked and acted in such an elevated and glorious spirit that I cannot stand it away from God. I want the same religion that inspires her." Come Come all through the United States, and all through Christendom and all around the world let us join hands in holy pledge that we will call upon God for the power. Oh, for the power from on high, the power that came on Pentecost, yea tor ten thousand Pente- costs. Such times will come, and they will come in our day if we have the faith and the prayer and the conservation.
 As the power s-om on high in 1857 was more remarkable in academies of music, and lyceum halls, and theatres than in churches, why not this winter of 1891 in these two academies of music, places of secular entertainment where we are during the rebuilding of our Brooklyn tabernacle, so grandly and graciously treated by the owners and lessors and lessees; why not expect, and why not have the power from on high, comforting power, arousing power. convicting power, converting power, sav- ing power, omnipotent power? My opinion is that in this cluster of cities by the Allan tic coast there are 500, 900 people now ready to accept the Gospel call, if, freed from all the conventionalities of the church, it were earnestly and with strong faith presented to them. In these brilliant assemblies there are hundreds who are not frequenters of churches, and who do not believe much if at all, in ministers of religion or ecclesi- astical organizations. But God knows you have struggles in which you need help and bereavements in which you want solaoe, and prosecutions in which you ought to have defence, and perplexities in which you need guidance, and with a profound thoughtfulness, you stand by the grave of the old year and the cradle of the young year, wondering where you will be, and what you will be when trolling years shall cease to move" Power from on high de- scend upon them! Men of New York and Brooklyn, I offer you God and heaven From the day you came to these cities, what a struggle you have had l can tell from your care worn countenances and the tears in your eyes, and the deep sigh you have just breathed that you want reinforce ment, and here it is, greater than Butcher when he reinforced Wellington; greater than the Bank of England. when last month it reinforced the Earrings; namely the God who through Jesus Christ is ready to pardon all your sin, comfort all your sorrows, scatter all your doubts, and swing all the shining gates of heaven wide open before your redeemed spirit. Come into the Kingdom of God! Without half sec ond of delay, come in
 At the first communion after the dedica- tion of our former church three hundred and twenty-eight souls stood up in the aisies and publicly espoused the cause of Christi AL another time four hundred souls; at another time five hundred; and our four thousand five hundred membership were but small part of those who within those sacred walls took upon them the vows of the Christian. What turned them? What saved them? Power from the level? No. Power from on high.
 The history of unanswered prayers for you God only knows. They may have been offered in the solemn birth-hour They may have been offered when you were down with scarlet fever or diphtheria or membraneous croup. They may have been offered some night when you were sound asleep in the trundle bed and your mother came in to see that you were right ly covered in the cold winter night. They may have been offered at that time which comes at least once in almost every one's s life, when your father and mother had hard work to make living and they feared that want would come to them and you. They may have been offered when the lips could no longer move and the eyes were closed for the long sleep. O. unan- swered prayers of father and mother. where are you? In what room of the old homestead have they hidden? O. unan- swered prayers, rise in mist of many tears into a cloud and then break in a shower which shall soften the heart of that man who is so hard that he cannot CITY, or that woman who is ashamed to pray, o. armchair of the aged, now empty and in the garret among the rubbish, speak out. o. staff of the pilgrim who has ended his weary journey. tell of the parental anxie- ties that bent over thee. o, family Bible with story of births and deaths. rustic some thy time worn leaves, and let us know of the wrink''d d hands that once turned thy pages, and explain that spot where a tear fell upon the passage: 70, Absalom, my son. my son, would God l had died for thee~
 Good and gracious God What will become of us if. after having had such de- vout and praying percentage. we never pray for ourselves! We will pray. We will begin now. Oh, for the power from on high, power to move this assemoiage power to save Brooklyn and New York. power of evangelism that shall sweep across this continent like an ocean surge, power to girdle the round earth with a red girdle dipped in the blood of the cross. If this forward movement is to begin at all, there must be some place for it to begin. and why not this place? And there must be some time for 1t to begin, and why not this timeP And so 1 sound for your ears a rythmc invitation, which, until a few days ago. never came under my eye. but it is so sweet, so sobbing with pathos, so triumphant with joy, that whoever chimed it. instead of being anonymous, ought to be immortal:
 Thy sins bore on Calvary's tree:
 The stripes, thy due, were laid on me,
 That peace and pardon might be free
 o, wretched sinner, come!
 Burdened with guilt, wouldst thou be
 blest?
 Trust not the world; it gives no rest;
 bring relief to hearts opprest--
 O, weary sinner, come
 Come, leave thy burden at the cross. Count all thy gains but empty drOss