News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-02-18

district table has been provided
and it is loaded with food enough for
all The oloTs Of the meats fill the
air. Everything is ready. The plat
tiers are full. The chalices are full.
The baskets of fruit are full. Why
not let the people in? The door is
open. Yes, but there is cluster of
wise men blocking up the door, dis
cussing the contents of the caster
standing midtable They are shak
ing their fists at each other.
One says there is too much vinegar
in that caster, and one says there is
too much sweet oil. and another says
there is not the proper proportion OF
red pepper. | say, Get out of the
way and let the hungry people come
in. Now our blessed Lord has pro
vided a great supper, and the oxen
and the fatlings have been killed, and
fruits from all the vineyards and
| orchards of heaven crown the table
The world has been invited to come
and they look in, and they are hun
CRY, and people would pour in by the
millions to this worldwide table, but
the door is blocked up by contrOver
sizes, and men with whole libraries
on their backs are disputing as tn
what proportion of sweet oil and
cayenne pepper should make up the
creed cry. Get out of the way
and let the hungry world come in.
LOOK OUT FOR THE ROCKS.
The Christian church will have to
! change its tack or it will run on the
rocks of demolition The world 5
population annually increases fifteen
millions. No one pretends that half
that number of people are converted
| to God. There are more than twice
as many Buddhists as PrOtestants
more than twice as many Buddhists
as Roman Catholics. Protestants
1876, 600, 0O0; Catholics, l95, 900, 600
Buddhists, 400, 000,0 GOO There are
IT'S, 600, coo Mehammedans and 800,
600, 600 Brahmans
Meanwhile, many of the churches
are only religious clubhouses, where
few people go on Sunday morning,
averaging one person to pew or
one person to a half dozen peWs. and
leaving the minister at night to sweat
through. a sermon with here and
there q lone traveller, unless. by a
Sunday evening sacred concert, he
can get out an audience of respecta-
bic size.
The vast majority of the church
membership around the world put
forth no direct effort for the saliva,
ton of men. Did say there would
have to be a change? correct that
and say, There will be a change. If
there be fifteen million persons added
every year to the worlds population,
then there will be thirty million add
ed to the church, and forty million
and fifty million and sixty million.
How will it be dOne2 1t will be done
when the church will meet Christ on
the plain. Come down out of the
mountain of exclusiveness. Come
down out of the mountain of pride.
Come down out of the mountain of
Journalism. Come down out of the
mountain of freezing Indifference.
Old DR.. Stephen H. Tying, great on
earth and in heaven, once said to
me: Il am in favor of a change.
do not know what is the best way of
doing things in the churches, but !
know the way we are doing now is
not the best way, or the world would
be nearer it's 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
presenting Christ on the plain, Christ
on the level with all the worlds
woes and wants and necessities.
The full change will have to come
fran the rising ministry. We now
i'll the field are too set in our ways.
We are lum bered up with technical
ties. We have too many concord
ances and dictionaries and encyclo-
pedias and systems of theology on
Dur head to get down on the plain.
Our vocabulary is too frosted We
are too much under the domination
Of customs regnant for many centu
ries. Come on, young men of the
ministry. Take this pulpit, take all
the pulpits, and in the street, and the
market place, and the family circle
preach Christ on the plain.
As soon as the church says by its
attitude, not necessarily by its words,
My one mission is to help for this
life and help for the life to come all
the people" and it proves its earnest
ness in the matter, people on foot and
On horseback and in wagons and in
carriages will come to the churches in
such numbers that they will have to
be met at the door by ushers, saying:
you were here last Sunday; you can
not come in today. Gentlemen and
ladies, you must take your turn"
And it will be as in the Johnstown
freshet and disaster, when a govern
ment station was opened for the sup
ply 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 church is a
government station set up by the
government of the universe to pro I
vide the bread of eternal life for all |
5he people, the rush will be UMPIRE
cedented and unimaginable.
WHAT SCIENTISTS HAVE NOT DONE.
Astronomers have been busy meas
11ing worlds, and they have told us
low great is the circumference of
his world and how great is it's diam
ster, yea, they have kept ON until
hey have weighed our planet and
found its weight to be six seXtillOn
5ons. 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 so many aching heads; his ached
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 under
human outrage. The world had no
better place to receive him than a
:attle pen, and it's farewell was q slap
IN his cheek and a spear in his side.
So intensely human was he that
here has not been in all our race a
grief or infrmity or exhaustion or
)ang that did not touch him once
md that does not touch him now.
The lepers, the paralytics, the i'm
oecile, the maniac, the courtesan, the
.eDantant briUand-which one did he