Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1892-02-19


converted TO God There are more than
more than twice as many Buddhists as Ro-
man Catholics. Protestants. 1850 90 0;
Catholics, 49,, 00) ,00l; Buddhists, 400 000,-
O0). There are l,5 900 00J Mohammedans
and 220 100000 Brahmins. Meanwhile,
many OF the churches are only religious
cub-houses, whore few people 20 on Sun.
day morning, averaging one person 10 a
pew or one person 10 half dozen pews,
aud leaving the minister at night 10 eat
through sermon with here and there
lone traveller, unless, by Sunday eve
ming sacred concert. he can get out an
audience Of resp ctab.e size. The vast
majority of the church membership round
the world put forth no direct effort for the
salvation Of men. Did / say there would
have TO be a chauge' ! correct that and
say, There will be a change IL there be
fifteen million persons added every year
to the worlds population, then, there will
be thirty million added to the church and
forty million and fifty million and sixty
million. How Will it be donel 1t will
be done when the church will
meet Christ on the PLAIN Come
down out OF the mountain OF exclusive
ness. Come down out of the mountain OF
Journalism. Come down out of the noun
tain of freezing Indifference. Old DR..
Stephen III. Tying, great on earth and in
heaven, once said to me: II am in favor
of a change. | do not know what is the
best way OF doing things in tho churches,
but | know the way we arc doing now is
not the best way, or the world would be
nearer its salvation than it seems to be-"
So feel: so we all feel, that there needs
to be "A change. The point at which we
all come short is not presenting Christ on
the plain, Christ on the level with all The
worlds woes and wants and necessities.
Tne full charge will have to come from
the rising ministry. We now in the field
are too set in our ways We are lum bered
up with technicalitics. We haye too many
concordances and dictionaries and ency,
clopedias and systems of theology on our
head TO get down on the plain. Our vo-
cabuliry is too frosted. We are too much
under the domination Of customs resnant
for many centuries.
Come on young men OF the ministry.
Take this pulpit, take AL the pulpits, and
in the language OF the street and the mar
leket place, and the family circle preach
God on tns plain. a. soon as TIE churca
says by its attitul e, not nee essarily by its
words, MY one mission is TO help for this
life and c.p for the life 20 come al the
people, and it proves its earnestness
in the matter, people on foot and on horse
back aud in wagons and in carriages will
come 10 the churches in such mum
bers that they will have TO be
met at the door by usuers saying:
You were here last Sunday;
you cannot come in today. Gentlem 81 and
ladies, you must take your turn" And,
it will De as in the Johnstowa freshet aud
disaster, when government station was
opened for the supply of bread, and it took
/ the officers OF the law TO keep the sufferers
in line, because of the great rush FOR food
! When this famine-struck world realizes
that the Christ is "a government stat on
set up by the Govcrnm mt of tae Universe
/ TO provide the Bread of Eternal Life for
all the people, the rush will be unpre-
/ cedented aud unimaginable.
/ Astronom rs have been busy measur-
! ing words, and they have told Us how
/ great is the circumference of this world
/ and how great is its diameter yea. they
! have kept on until they have weighed
our planet and found its weight TO be six
| sextillion tons. But by no science has
the weight Of this worlds trouble been
weighed. Now, Christ standing on the
/ level of our humanity stands in sympathy
/ with every trouble. There are 50 many
aching heads: His ache1 under the
! thorns There are so many weary feet:
! His were worn with the long journey up
and down the land that received him not
/ There are so many prosecuted souls:
| Every hour Of his life was uniet human
outrage. The earth had no better place TO
receive him than cattle pen, and its fare
well was slap on tue cheek and spear in
! his side So intensely human was he that
there has not been in all our race a grief
or inhrmity or exhaustion or pane that ia
not touch him now. The lepers, the par
alytics, the im1ecile, the maniac, the court
esan, the repentant brigand one
did he turn off, which one did he not pity,
which one did he not helpt
O join Hun IN the plain. AS long as you
stay up in the mountain OF your pride you
VIII get no help Tat is the reas on so
many never find tho salvation OF the Cos
pei They sit up in the Mont Blanc OF
their opinionativeness and they have their
opinion about God, and their opinion about
the soul, and their opinion about etern ity
Have you any iGea that your opinion VIII
have any effect upon the two tremendous
Facts at you are a sinner and Christ is
ready at your earnest prayer 10 save 80 !
In tae final day Of accounts how mucu
will your opinion be worth! Your opinion
will not be Of much importance before tho
blast of the Archange's trumpet. When
the life of this planet shall be- threshed
out with the fail OF thunder bolts nobody
will ask about your opinions Come down
out Of the mountain of opinonativeness, and
meet Christ on the plain, where you must
meet him or never meet him at all, except
as YOU meet him on the judgement throne.
a Christ easy TO get att No armed SEN
tiucl TO challenge you. No ruthless offic r.
TO scrutnize the papers you present. I'M
mediate response. Immediate forgive
ness. Immediate solace. Through what
struggle people must go to get IA pardon
from worldly authority! BY what petit
ton. by what hindrance, by what nervous
strain Of anxiety, by what adroitness. a
count OF Italy was condemned TO be put
| 10 death at Milan The countess,
hearing Of the sentence, FASTENED to
Vienna to seek his pardon. The
/ death warrant was already on its wav