The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-06-17


his eternal interest is to go to work fol
God. Ten thousand voices are lifted ur
asking for your help. Go and help.
Here is a wood full of summer in.
scots. An AMMAN goes into the wood tc
cut tirewood. The insects do not bother
him very much, and every stroke of the
ak makes them fly away. Bullet a man
60 and lie down there, and he is bitten
al mauled, and thinks it is horrible
thing to stay in the wood. Why does
he not take an AK and go to work? Sc
there are thousands of Christians now
in the church who go out amid great
annoyances in life-they are not per-
picked, they are all the time busy; while
there are others who do nothing. and
they are stung and stung and stung
and covered from head to foot with the
blotches of Incidence and inactivity. and
spiritual death.
The first thing, then, you have to do,
. Christian young man, Christian young
woman, is to go to work in the service
of the Lord, if you want to be a happy
Christian. When an army goes out,
there are always stragglers falling off
here and there, some because they are
faint and sick, but great many because
they are afraid to fight and too lazy to
march. After while the lazy men on
the road hear the booming of the guns
for hours, and they hear the shout of
victory, anCs man on horseback comes
up and says, I'VE have won the day.
Then they hasten up. How brave they
are after the battle is over Poor at
fighting, but grand at 'huzzur' So
there are stragglers going after the
Lords host. There come days of dark
ness and battle. Where are they? We
call the roll of the host They make no
answer, but after a while there comes a
day of triumph in the church, and they
are all about. "Huzza! huzza! Didn't
we give it to them!"
PRAYER GREAT STRENGTHENS.
have another word of counsel to give
those who have just entered Christian
life, and that is, Be faithful in prayer.
You might as well, business man, start
out in the morning without food and ex-
pect to be strong all that day-you might
as well abstain from food all the week
and expect to be strong physically, as to
be strong without prayer. The only way
to get any strength into the soul is by
prayer, and the only difference between
that Christian that is worth everything
and that who is worth nothing is the
fact that the last does not pray and the
other does.
And the only difference between this
Christian, who is getting along very fast
in the holy life, and this, who is only
getting along tolerably, is that the
first prays more than the last. You can
graduate mans progress in religion by
the amount of prayer; not by the num-
Der of hours, perhaps, but by the earnest
supplication that he puts up to God.
There is no exception to the rule. Show
me Christian man who neglects this
kind of duty, and | will show you one
who is inconsistent. Show NE man
who prays, and his strength and his
power cannot be exaggerated ny,
Just give to a man this l4a..sa... = 80;
and you give him almost omnipot3ice
This afternoon you will see two Sab
bath school teachers. That one does not
gain the attention of her class. This one
does. What is the difference between
them, their intellects being about equal:
The first thought only of her own APP
parel. The other came from great pros
tration before God in earnest supplica-
ton, asking that Gods mercy might |
come upon the school and that in the
afternoon she might gain the attention
of those five or six immortals that would |
be around her. The one teacher has no
control over her class The other sits |
as with the strength of the Lord God |
A minister comes into the pulpit. He |
has magnificent sermon, all the SEN
fences rounded according to the laws of
rhetoric and fine sermonizing, and the
truth makes no impression on the hearts
of men. People go away and say, every
beautiful, wasn'tit? A plain man comes
into the pulpit. He has been on his knees
before God asking for an especial mes
sage that day, and the hearts of men
open to the plain truth, the broken SEN
CeuCeS SCIIh6 IuUO Un6lr cOnSClenCGS, ana
though the people may dispense at the
close of the services seemingly without
having received any impression, that
night voices will be lifted in some house
lold, "Men and brethren, what shall we
10 to be saved?" Oh, this power of
prayer! Pray! Prayl
DRINK OF THE WATER OF KNOWLEDGE.
Another word of counsel have to give.
Be faithful in Bible research. A great
many good books are now coming out.
We cannot read half of them. At every
evolution of the printing press they are
coming. They cover our parlor tables,
md are in our sitting rooms and libra
les. Glorious books they are. We
hank God every day for the work of the
christian printing press. But | have
bought that perhaps the followers of
'hrlst sometimes allow this religious lit
nature to take their attention from
fod's Word, and that there may not be
S much Bible reading as there ought
D be.
How is that with your own expert
nee? just calculate in your minds how
luch religious literature you have read
uring the year and then how large a |