Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-15

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kindness and self-sacrifice and generosity
and burden-bearing and helpfulness, that
every step they take will resound with good
deeds. Oh, get your religion Off of stills !
Get it down out of the high towers! Get it
on level with the wants and woes of our
poor human race! Get it out OF the dusty
theological books that few people read and
put 1t IN their hearts and lives. Good thing
is it to profess religion when you join the
church, but every day somehow we ought
to profess religion.
a peculiar patchwork quilt was, during
the civil war, made by a lady and sent to
| the hospitals at the front She had boy
in the army, and was naturally interested
in the welfare of soldiers. But what a
patchwork quilt she sent. On every block
| OF the guilt was passage OF Scripture or
verse Of hymn. The months and years
OF the war went by. On that quilt many
| wounded man had lain
| AND SUFFERED AND DIED.
But one morning the hospital nurse saw
patient under that blanket kissing the
| figure of leaf in the quilt, and the nurse
! supposed ne was wandering in his mind.
But no, he was the son of the mother who
| had made the quilt, and he recognized that
! figure OF leaf as part of a gown MS
mother used to wear, and it reminded him
of home. 'Do you know where this quilt
came froml' he asked. The nurse
answered, Il can find out, for there was
a card pinned fast to it, and l will find
that" Sure enough it confirmed what he
thought. Then the nurse pointed to Il
passage of Scripture in the block of the
| quilt, the passage which says: When he
was yet great way off his father saw him
and ran and fell on his neck and kissed
him" EYES," said the dying soldier, L
was great way off, but God has met me
and had compassion on me-" ''Shall |
write to your mother and tell her that
| Lost ,r IS oil
| again2o He answered, 81 wish you would,
| if it would not be too much trouble Do
| you suppose that woman who made that
| quilt and filled it with Scripture passages
had any trouble about who Melchizedek
was, or how the doctrine of Gods
| sovereignty can be harmonized with mans
free agency, or who wrote the Pentateuch,
or the Inconsistencies OF the Nicene
creeka No, no; go to work for God and
| suffering humanity, and all your doubts and
| fears and mysteries and unbeliefs put
together will not be heavy enough to stir
| the chemists scales, which is accustomed
| to weighing one-tiftieth part of a grain
ment to understand the mysteries when
there are so many certitudes,
| WHY SPEND OUR TINE EXPLORING
| the dark garrets and coal-holes Of great
| palace which has above ground 100 rooms
| flooded with sunshine? 1t takes all my time
10 dUSUTD WNdL has DSel FeVCdIeu- 50 tlldJ
\ nave no time to upturn and root out and
! drag forth what has not been revealed. The
| most of the effort to solve mysteries and
| explore the ineyplicable and harmonic
| things, is an attempt to help the Lord out
\ of the theological difficulties. Good enough
| intention, my brother, no doubt; but the
! Lord is rot anxious to have YOU help him.
! He viii keep His throne without your as
| sistance. Don't be AFRAID that the Bible
| will fall apart from Inconsistencies. 1t hung
| together many centuries before you We're
| born, and your funeral sermon will be
| preached from text taken from its undis-
| turbed authenticity.
Do you know that think that if all min
| listers in all denominations would stop this
| nonsense OF ecclesiastical strife and take
hold the word of God, the only question
with each of us being how many souls we
can bring to Christ and in how short time,
| the Lord would soon appear for the saliva
| ton of all nations2 When the young queen
| of England visited Scotland many years
ago, great preparations were made for her
reception. The vessel in which she sailed
was far out at sea, but every hill in Scot
land was illumined with bonfires and
| torches. The night was set on fire with
artificial illumination. The queen, stand
ing on the ships deck, knew from that that
| Scotland was full of heartiest welcome,
and the thunder of the great guns at Glas-
gov and Edinburgh castle
WOKE UP ALL THE ECHOES.
Boom. they sounded out over the sea.
Boom. they sounded up among the hills.
Do you know that l think that Aour King
would land if we were only ready to re-
ceive hima Why not call to him from all
| our churches, from all our hospitals. from
all our honest Why not all at once light
all the torches of gospel invitationf Why
not ring all the bells of welcome! Why not
light up the long night of the worlds sin
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Why not unlimber all the gospel batteries
and let them boom across the earth and
boom into the parting heavens2 The King
is ready to land if we are ready to receive
him. Why cannot we who are now living
see his descent? Must it all be postponed
to later ages2 Has not our poor world
groaned long enough in mortal agony9 Have
there not been martyrs enough, and have
not the lakes of tears and the rivers of
blood been deep enough? Why cannot the
final glory roll in now2 Why cannot this
dying century feel the incoming tides Of
the oceans of heavenly mercyl Must our
eyes close in death and our ears take on the
deafness of the tomb, and these hearts beat
their last throD before the day comes in!
o, Christ! Why Earliest thou' Wilt thou
not, before we go the way Of ali the earth,
let US see thy SCARED feet under some noon
day cloud coming this way2 Before we die
let us behold thy hands that were spiked,
spread out In OeneQlcGlOn Tor l0SG race.
And why not let us with our mortal ears
hear that voice which spoke peace as thou
didst go up speak pardon and emancipation
and love and holiness and Joy to all nations
as thou CONTEST DOWN.
But THE SKIES DO NOT PART.
hear no rumbling of chariot wheels COM
ing down over the sapphire. There is no
swoop of wings. see no fash of angelic
appearances. AL is still 1 hear nothing
but the tramp of my own heart as I pause
between these utterances. The King does
not land because the world is not ready.
And the church is not ready. To
clear the way for the Lords coming let US
devote all our energies of body, mind and
soul. A Russian general riding over the
battlefield, his horse treading amid the dy-
ing and dead, q wounded soldier asked him
for water, but the officer did not understand
his language, and knew not what the poor
fellow wanted. Then the soldier cried out:
''Christos," and that word meant sympathy
and help, and the Russian officer dismounted
and put to the lips of the sufferer cooling
draught. Be that the charmed word with
which we go forth to do our whole duty.
In many languages it has only a little differ
ence of termination. Christos! 1t stands !.
for sympathy. 1t stands for help. 1t stands
for pardon. It stard5~for hope. 1t stands
for heaven. Christos! In that name we
were baptized. In that name we took our
first sacrament. That will be the battle
shout that will win the whole world for
God. Christos! Put it on our banners