News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-07-30

| ~O-~~
| 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 Beth
lehem caravansary, and if he had no;
with the crushed hand of the crucifix-
ion knocked at the iron gate of the
sepulcher of our spiritual death, crying,
Lazarus, come forth?"
Oh, my Christian friends, this is nc
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 polluted with the laughter that
breaks up from the ten thousand sa-
looms of dissipation and abandonment;
when the fires of the second death al
ready are kindled in the cheeks of some
who, only little while ago, were in
corrupt.
Never since the curse fell upon the
earth has there been time when it
was such an unwise, such cruel, such
an awful thing for the church to sleep!
J The great audiences are not gathered
! in the Christian churches; the great
audiences are gathered in temples of sin
tears of unutterable woe their bap-
tisln, the blood of crushed hearts the
awful wine of their sacrament, bias
phemies their litany, and the groans OF
the lost world the organ dirge of their
worship.
Again, if you want to be qualified to
meet the duties which this age de-
mands of you, you must on the one
hand avoid reckless iconoclasm, and
on the other hand not stick too much
to things because they are old. The
air is full of new plans, new projects,
new theories of government, new the
ologies. and l am amazed to see how
SO many Christians want only novelty
in order to recommend a thing to their
confidence; and SO they vacillate and
swing to and fro, and they are useless,
and they are unhappy. New plans
secular, ethical, philosophical, religious,
cisatlantic, transatlantic. All, my broth
er, do not adopt thing merely because
it is new. Try it by the realities of a
judgment day.
PROGRESS TEE LAW OF LIFE.
But, on the other hand, do not ad-
here to anything merely because it is
old. There is not single enterprise of
the church or the world but has some
times been scoffed at. There was a
time when men derided even Bible So
cieties; and when a few young men
met near haystack in Massachusetts
and organized the first missionary so
ciety ever organized in this country,
there went laughter and ridicula all
around the Christian church. They said
the undertaking was preposterous.
And so, also, the work of Jesus Christ
was assailed. People cried out, who
ever heard of such theories of ethics
and government Whoever noticed
such a style of preaching as Jesus hasT
Ezekiel had talked of mysterious wings
and wheels. Here came man from Ca
pernaum and Gennesaret, and he drew
his illustrations from the lakes, from the
lilies, from the sand, from the ravine,
from the cornstalks. How the Pharisees
scoffedl How Herod derided How
Cafaphas hissedl And this Jesus they
plucked by the beard, and they spat in
his face, and they called him this fel-
lowl" 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
pieces if it once got out of the old rut.
And so there are those who have no
patience with anything like improve
ment in church architecture. or with
anything like good, hearty, earnest
church singing, and 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 adaptability of work. We must ad-
NIT the simple fact that the churches
of Jesus Christ in this day do not reach
the great masses. There are fifty thou
sand people in Edinburgh who never
hear the Gospel There are one mil
lion people in London who 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, in
stead of being place full of living
epistles, read and known of all men, is
more like dead letter" postoffice.
But" say the people, ''the world is
going 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. In
stead of the church converting the
world, the world is converting the
church. Here is a 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
until from exhaustion and starvation
sley Will nave 10 give up.
Weeks and months, and perhaps a
year, pass along, and finally the fortress
surrenders through that starvation and
exhaustion. But my friends, the for
tresses 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 the very wall and wheel the
flying artillery into line, and when the
armed infantry of heaven shall con-
front the battlements you will have to
give the quick command, Forward
Charged
EVERY PLACE MAY BE A PULPIT.
All, my friends, there is work for you
to do and for me to do in order to achieve
this grand accomplishment Here is a
pulpit, and a clergyman breaches in it.
Your pulpit is the bank. Your pulpit
is the store. Your pulpit is the edi-
torial 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 l 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 great vic
tory. Oh, that today this whole audi
ence might feel that the Lord Almighty
is putting upon them the hands of or
dination. Every one, go forth and
preach this Gospel. You have as
much right to preach as 1 have, or as
any man has. Only find out the pull
- x,,loro Cd viii x.1,.