The Progress., 1893-01-21


world. Through our open doors presses
the commerce of the Old World.
God has put your hand on the lever
of a worlds commerce. and 1T Is 10 be
Christian or heather, civilized or bar
barian. He has called you to the minis
try of touching the strangers who crowd
into your metropolitan city from tho
four quarters of the world. He has
called you TO minister to the helisess, to
the strong. to the weak, to the indiffer-
ent. to the foreigner. and he has laid it
on your shoulders as a divine response
bility. How is this tremendous work to
be done? Listen:
Ye are coporkers Nth God.
NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT
What does that mean to you? 1t
means:
First-That the time for you to work
is no,C. God does not wait till tomor
row. God works now The divine en-
ergy never ceases TO thrill to the utter
most limits of Gods great universe
Gods time is the present. 1t matters
not what the scason-w whether winter or
spring or summer or autumn-Gods
busy hands never are idle. Now, while
the season of rain and slcct and ice has
wrapped the earth in its chill mantle
the great forces Of God. through nature
are down beneath what we see, and =
thousand busy pumps are working, pre-
pairing for the ns1' life Of the spring that
shall come. Mans fatal mistake is the
mistake of a tomorrow. II man is to co
operate with God. mans time must ho
now.
A distinguished LAWYER who had drawn
thousands Of wills for men AID received
enormous fees for his judgments rs a
referee-a man who was always punC
tual in his engagements, always advIS
ing men not to delay-was dying the
other day. and he had made no VIII. IN
great haste he sent for friend TO draw
up II will Ills friend had only thirty
minutes in which to do it, but with MI
possible haste he drew up Will and
brought it to the bedside Of MS dying
friend. The dying man took the pen in
his hand. scrawled the first letter; then
the pen dropped the arm became limp
and helpless. and in a moment life was
gone 1t is mans fatal defect to wait
to postpone. to put off instead of acting
now NOU is Gods time.
AMONG THE JAPS
Second-We have an assurance that
we can work with confidence. because
we are coworkers with God. The man
who has confidence in bis work has a re
serve power. If | put forth my last en-
deavor, if ! exhaust every possible re
serve of my nature, if put forth all Of
which | am capable am weak. am
weak for battle. for Il struggle. because
have no reserve power. The men who
move the world are men that have a
reservoir of reserved power always ready
for an emergency The man of tran
scendent achievement in history, of sue
cess in life. is the man who has this re
serve power behind that which the world
sees.
The Christian should be the strongest
man, the mightiest man. in his work. be
cause he has the mightiest reserve power
he is coworker with God. His reserve
power is simply limited by the capacity
of God himself. His reserve power is
God. and if he knows his God, if he
knows his capacity, his power and be
lieves in it, he is matchless in every
struggle. and in every hour of crises he
must rise triumphant. 1t matters not
whether misfortune or fortune tempo
rarily comes and goes-he must triumph
because his reserve reaches the finite and
infinite and compasses both.
may fail in what | set out to do
temporarily. but if my reserve force is
the God Of the universe my failure is
but Gods opportunity, and my weakness
is made strength for his love. The in
habitants Of a certain province in Japan
were more or less ground by taxation
and oppression. The ruler was dissi
pated wretch. and the peasants could get
no redress. At last one man determined
that he would give petition to the
emperor. Ii was against the law of the
realm for any peasant to dare approach
the emperor. but he took his petition
placed it on long bamboo cane. and
concealed behind a bridge, just as the
emperor came by without any ceremony
thrust it into his very face.
The emperor seized it. opened it and
read it and saw what moved this breach
Of courtesy. this thing unheard of in the
realm. lie redressed the wrong: but he
turned over the peasant for torture for
breach of the imperial rules of et-
quette. But he saved his people. and
they built a monument to him where he
fell. and his name is the inspiration still
of generations unborn who shall know
of his name. So success to him who
works with God is not limited to sue
cess or failure here 1t sweeps in its
compass both the finite and the infinite
Man sometimes by dying will live most
truly. and he who only lives truest does
die in Christ
THE UMBRIA.
Third-You are coworkers with God
therefore your part is as essential as
Gods. The essence of coworkership is
mutual responsibility. If am coworker
with God then | am put1Inlly rpsnousl.