The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-04-29

wine press. There comes to your ear
a sound of thousand wheat fields ready
for the sickle. The grain is ready. II
is tall, it is full, it is golden. 1t waves
in the sunlight. 1t rustles in the wind
1t would fill the barns. 1t would crowd
the garners, After awhile it will lodge,
or the mildew and the rust will smite it.
Oh, where are the reapers to bind the
sheaves? The enemies of God are mar
shaled You see the glitter of their
bucklers. You hear the paving of their
chargers, and all along the line of battle
| Is heard the shout of their great captain,
and at the armies of the living God they
hurl their defiance. They come not in
numbers, like the hosts of Sennacherib,
but their multitude is like the leaves of
the forest and the sound of their voices
like the thunder of the sea. Mailed in
hell's impenetrable arbor, they advance
with the waving of their banners and
the dancing of their plumes. Their
ranks are not easily to be broken, for
the batteries of hell will open to help
them, and ten thousand angels of dark
ness mingle in the fight Where are the
chosen few who will throw themselves
into the jaws Of this conflict?
King James gave to Sir John Scott,
for his courage, a charter of arms with
a number of spears for the crest and the
motto, Ready! aye, readyp' and yet
when God calls us to the work and the
cause demands our espousal and inter-
ests dreadful as the Judgment and sol
emn as eternity tremble in the balance,
how few of us are willing to throw our
selves into the breach, crying, Ready!
aye, ready!" Oh, should like to see
God arise for the defense of his own
cause and the disenthralment of world
in bondage. How the letters would
snap and how the darkness would fly
and how heaven would sing.
You have never seen an army like that
which God shall gather from the four
winds of heaven to fight his battles
They shall cover every hilltop and
stretch through every valley and man
the vessels on every sea. There shall
neither be uproar, nor wrath, nor smoke,
nor bloodshed. Harvests shall not lie
waste in the track nor cities be con-
sumed. Instead of the groans of cap
tives shall come the song of those re-
deemed.
Yet the conquest shall be none the less |
complete, for, if in that hour when all
should be vigilant, the church of God |
should neglect to seize the prize and the
cause should seem to fail, from the
graveyards and cemeteries of all Chris
tendon the good and faithful of the
past would spring to their feet in time
to save the cause, and though the sun
might not again stand still above Glib
con, or the moon in the valley of Ala
Ion, the day would be long enough to
gain decisive victory for God and the
truth.
But my text is descriptive also of
those who hunt for opportunities and
when they get them do not use them.
The rabbit they overcome by an early
tramp lies for weeks uncooked
in the dooryard. The deer that they
brought down after long and exhaust
their doorsill undressed, and the savory
VeulSOn becomes II 1nalOQOrOuS carcass.
They roast not that which they took in
hunting. Opportunities laboriously cap
-ured, yet useless, and that which came
N invitingly, like string of plover and
luail and wild duck hung over hunt
er's shoulder, turns to something worse ;
han nothing. SO with Agrippa when
almost persuaded to be Christian. SO
with the lovely young man who went
away from Christ very sorrowful.
So with tens of thousands who have
whole hands full, whole skies full of
winged opportunities which profit them
nothing at all, because they roast not
hat which they took in hunting Oh
make out of this captured moment a
banquet for eternity. The greatest prize
n the universe to be won is the love and
PARDON of Christ. Win that and you can
ay:
Now have found Friend
Whose love shall never end,
,IeSus is miupl =