The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1891-07-31

charged all my RESPONSE DllIEy. an IS I
that the Masters spirit? Is there not |
an old book somewhere that commands |
as to go out int the highways and the /.
hedges and compel the people to come /
in? What would have become of you I
and me if Christ had not come down of /
the hills of Heaven and if he had not
come through the door 81 the Bethle-
hem caravansary, and if he had not
with the crushed hand of the crucifix, /
knocked at the iron gate of the sepul-
cher of our spiritual DEATH crying:
Lazarus, come fOrth?" o. my
Christian friends, this is no time for
inertia, when all the forces of darkness
seem 70 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 saloons of
dissipation and abandonment; when the
fires of the second death already are
lzindled in the cheeks of some who, only
little while ago, were incOrrupt-
Never since the curse fell upon the
earth has there been a time when It
was such an unwise, such a cruel, such
an awful thing for the church to sleep!
/ The great audiences 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,
blasphemies their 1itany, 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 demands
/ of you, you must on the one hand avoid
reckless icOnOclasm, and on the other
! hand not stick too much to things be-
cause they are old. The air is full of
new plans, new projects, new theories
of government, new theOlOgies, and /
am amazed to see how so many Chris
tians 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 brother, do not
adopt thing merely because it is new.
Try it by the realities of a judgment
day.
But, on the other hand, do not adhere
to anything merely because it is old.
There is not single enterprise of the
church or the world but has som etimes
been scoffed at. There was a time
, when men derided even Bible societies;
and when few young men met near
a hay stack in Massachusetts and or
F ganized the first missionary society
ever organized in this country there
went laughing and ridicule all around
the Christian church. They said the
undertaking was PrepOsterous. And so
also the work of Jesus Christ was as
sailed People cried out: who ever
, heard of such theories of ethics and
/ government? Who ever noticed such a
5 style of preaching as Jesus has?''
, Ezekiel had talked of mysterious
t wings and wheels. Here came a man
2 from CaPernaum and Gennesaret, and
r he drew his illustrations from the sand,
I from the ravine, from the cornstaII1s
How the Pharisees scoffed! How Herod
! derided! How Caiaphas Kissed! And
4 this Jesus they plucked by the beard
] and they spat in his face, and they
$ called Him this fellOw!" All the great
a | enterprises in and out of the church
have at times been scOffed at, and there
: have been a great multitude who have
e thought that the chariot of Gods truth
= would fall to pieces if it once got out O.
i the old rut
Y And so there are those who have NJ
f patience with anything like improve
l. ment in church architecture, or will
4 anything like good, hearty, earnes
t church singing, and they deride AM
:, form of religious discussion which gOe
e down walking among every day mel
r rather than that which makes an excur
y sion on rhetorical stills. o that tn,
S church of God would wake up to al
/. adnptability of work!
It But" say the people, 1.-The world i
8 going to be converted; you must b
s patient; the kingdoms of this world ar
e to become the kingdoms of Christ
v Never, unless the church OF Jesu
Christ puts on more speed and energy
p Instead OF the church converting tn
r world, the world is converting tn
d church
It Here is great fortress. How shal
c. it be taken? An army comes and sit
ia around about it. and cuts off the SUI
p plies. and says: Now we will jus
> wait until from exhaustion and starvs
" ! ton they will have to give It up.
a Weeks and months. and perhaps q yea1
At pass along and finally the fortress SUI
20 renders through that starvation an
exhaustion But, my friends. the fol
a tresses of sin are never 10 be taken /
IL that way. II they are taken for God
IF viii be by storm; you will have to brin