Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-10

| If we leave our .share Of the work undone
we actually put things back in the plans Of
God Almighty. God could do it all, and do
il this afternoon. He could convert all the
nations Of the heather, change all the
temples into churches, translate all the
Vedas and the Korans into Bibles, and write
the Christian creed where every man could
read it, plain across the sky. God could end
all wrong, light mp all the dark places and
plant all the waste places, make all the men
genuine Christians, solve all the hard
problems which confront Us, and bring in
the millennium to-day. But no. "Go ye,"
the word is, the work is ours.
Work of the Missionary.
Some people say that if God wants "all
the nations" converted, He will convert
them without any need of missionaries.
Don't you believe it, God does want the
heathen converted. He wants them, as it
is written in this sermon, to be baptized and
to be taught to observe all of Christ's CON-
mandments. The Lord Christ set His fol-
lowers the task Of carrying His truth to all
the nations. And that task isn't done yet.
He wants His message carried to the culture
of Japan to-day just as He wanted it carried
to the culture of Rome 1000 years ago. He
wants it to Tighten the darkness of wild
Africa to-day just as He wanted 1t to
tighten the darkness OF wild England in the
days of our savage forefathers. There is no
change in the eternal principle. There is
no oountermanding of the marching order
Of the church."
As for the plea that we ought to convert
New York and Pittsburg first before We ad-
vance upon Toxic and Timbuctoo, il can be
said, at least, that the congregation who
heard the second Sermon on the Mount did
not SO understand the preacher. Thev did
v,nkv % ,kNl g.
and Jericho before they pushed on to An
tioch and Athens. Happily not. Else had
the Christian religion been little, foolish.
narrow sect to-day, struggling still for life
among the peasants OF Syria.
A Duty Laid Upon ALL
"Baptiziug" them and Teaching" them.
The kingdom OF God is the kingdom of
truth, az Christ said. He meant that i.
should grow among men, not by the aid OF
civil power, not by the sword, not by force,
nor by violence. but by the persuading of
the reason and the heart of man. 1t should
grow by winning disciples. that is, by at
tracting men to learn more about it, till they
should be desirous of entering into it that
they might be taught the ways of God more
perfectly.
Every man or woman who belonged to
this kingdom should have it for principle
Every Christian should Ego" and win dis
ciples. That means something different
from sitting down and being content to re-
ceive disciples who might come. Not a
word is spoken of the duty of those who are
outside the kingdom to come in. But it is
laid upon us who are inside the kingdom to
20 out and bring them in. I hope that
there were 800 people in that congregation,
and not just the II. as some would have
it; because the II were ministers, and it
might be said that it is the duty of the min
listers, indeed, but of nobody else, to 20 and
make disciples. Christ meant that for all
the 500, whether they were there or not. He
meant that for every Christian, minister or
layman, rich or poor, wise or unwise. Go
ye and make disciples. That reaches all the
way to Pittsburg, into this nineteenth GEN.
tury, into this month of May, and touches
us.
Teaching Comes After Baptism.
"Baptizing" them. that was to make
them members of the great Christian society.
And teaching" them; that was to make
them members Of the right sort. Notice
that the teaching comes afterward. Some
people think that they must do all things
whatsoever Christ commanded first, and be
baptized and come into the Christian
church afterward. They will wait = long
time. Christ would not have them wait at
all. First man must be disciple. What |
is that2 Why, simply one who wants to |
learn. Whoever desires to know the truth
of God and to follow the will of God, how
ever imperfect may be his performance,
however great his faults-if he does but de- |
sire to learn, he Is disciple. He has taken |
the FIRST step. Then comes baptism, and |
then whole lifetime of learning, and prac- |
ticing, and growing in grace and in the |
knowlege and love of God.
Finally, the Lord promises His help. |
"Lo, I am with you always, even unto the |
end of the world" A great task. but sufi- |
cient strength. Tribulation, adversity, per-
encouragement, failure again and |
again, but the Lord with them, the Lord |
working with them always Thus the |
second Sermon on the Mount ends in bene- |
diction. The Lord is on our side. ALL |
power il His in heaven and on earth. He |
will be the guide and helper Of His church |
over all the hard ways, through all the |
doubtful battles. in the midst Of every dan |
ger, even unto the end of the world.
GEORGE HoD0EA.