Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-07-27

that state it as simple fact that all
the time that the vast majority of you
Will have for the exclusive service of
God will be less than one yearl
But" says some man, 'I literally
support the Gospel, and the church is
open and the Gospel is preached; all the
spiritual advantages are spread before
men, and il they want to be saved, let
them come to be saved; l have dis
charged all my responsibility. ALL is
that the Masters spirit? Is there not an
Old book somewhere that commands US
to go out into the highways and the
hedges and compel the people to come
In? What would have become of You
and me If Christ had not come down of
the hills of heaven, and If he had not
come through the door of the Bethle-
hem carovsnsary, and II he had not
with the crushed hand of the crucifix-
ion Knocked at the iron gate of the sep
ulcher Of our spiritual death, crying,
Lazarus, come forth? Oh, my Christ
ian friends; this is no time for
inertia, when all the forces Of darkness
seem to be in full blast; when steam
| printing presses are publishing infdel
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 pol
luted with the laughter that breaks up
from the ten thousand saloons OF dissi-
patton and abandonment; when the
fires of the second death already are
1t IN, ho oh ~ hO Onl w
a little while ago, were incorrupt.
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!
The great audiences are not gathered
in the Christian churches, the great
audiences are gathered ia temples OF
sin-tears of unutterable woe their bap-
tiSm, the blood of crushed hearts the
awful wine of their sacrament, blasphe
mics their litany, and the groans OF the
lost world the organ dirge OF their wor-
ship.
THE DEMANDS OF AGE.
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 l
am amazed to see how so many Chris
tians want only novelty in order to rec
ommend 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 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 sometimes
when men derided even Bible socitieS;
and when few young men met near
hay stack in Massachusetts and orga-
nized the first missionary society ever
organized in this country, there went
laughter and ridicule all around the |
Christian Church. They said the under
taking was preposterous. And so
also the work of Jesus Christ was as
sailed. People cried out "Whoever |
heard of such theories Of ethics and |
government? Whoever noticed such
style OF preaching as Jesus has?" Eze-
kiel had talked OF mysterious wings and |
wheels. Here came man from Caper-
naum and GanneSaret, and he drew his
Ia9s Ftj d fgQ qRay the k 5 tE 5S8p the
from the cornstalks. How the Phari-
sees scoffedl How Herod derlded! How
Caiaphas hissedl And this Jesus they |
plucked by the beard, and they spat In |
his face, and they called him "this fell
lowl" All the great enterprises in and !
out of the Church have at times been |
scoffed at, aud there have been great |
multitude who have thought that the
chariot OF Gods truth would fall TO
pieces II 1t 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 excur-
sion on rhetorical stills. Oh, that the
Church OF God would wake up to an
adaptabilty of work We must admit
the simple fact that the churches OF
Jesus Christ in this day do not reach
the great people of Edinburgh who
never hear the Gospel. There are l.
600, 900 people in London who never
hear the Gospel. There are at least
300. 900 souls In the city OF Brooklyn
who come not under the immediate
ministrations of Christ's truth; and the
Church Of God in this day, instead OF
being place full Of living epistleS, read
and known OF all men, is more like
''dead-letter" postOf1ice.
ABOUT CONVERSION.
But" say the people, 1.-The world is
going to be converted; you must be pa
tieut; the Kingdoms of this world are to
become the Kingdoms Of Christ" Never,