Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1894-05-10

ters Of the gospel who are misrepresented
that II the Misrepresentation be virulent
enough, and bitter enough, and continu-
Gus enough, there is no6ning that so wild
ems ones field Of usefulness as hostile at
tack, If you are really doing the Lords
work. The bigger the lie told about me
the bigger the demand to see and hear
what really was doing From one stage
Of sermonic publication to another the
work has gone on until week by week and
for about 23 years have had the world
| for my audience as no man ever had, and
| today more so than at any other time
The syndicates inform me that my sermons
go now to about 25, 900, 900 Of people In all
lands mention this not In vain boast,
swers prayer. Would God had better oc-
cupled the field and been more eonsecrated
to the work. May God forgive me for lack
Of service in the past and double and quad
ruple and quintuple my work in future.
In this my quarter century sermon 1
record the fact that side by side with the
procession of blessings has gone process
sion of disasters. 1 am preaching today in
the fourth church building since began
in this city. My first sermon was In the
old church on Schermerhorn street to an
audience chiefly of empty seats, for the
church was almost extinguished. That
church filled and overfowing, we built
larger church, which after two or three
years disappeared in flame. Then we built
another church, which also in line of fiery
succession disappeared in the same way.
Then we put up this building, and may it
stand for many years a fortress of right
eousness and a lighthouse for the storm
tossed, its gates crowded with vast assem-
blages long after we have ceased to fire.
quent them.
| The Free Gospel.
We have raised in this church over ST.
030, 900 for church charitable purposes dur
ing thu present pastorate, while we have
given, free Of all expense, the gospel to
hundreds Of thousands of strangers year
by year. record with gratitude to God
that during this generation of 25 years I
remember but two Sabbaths that have
missed service through anything like phys
ical indisposition. Almost a fanatic on
the subject of physical exercise, I have
made the parks with which our city is
blessed the means of good physical condi-
ton. A daily walk and run in the open
air have kept me ready for work and in
good humor with all the world. say to
all young ministers of the gospel it is easier
to keep good health than to regain it when
once lost. The reason so many good men
think the world is going to ruin is because
their own physical condition is on the down
grade. No man ought to preach who has
a diseased liver or an enlarged spleen.
There are two things ahead of us that
ought to keep us cheerful in our work
heaven and the millennium.
| And now, having come up to the twen-
ty-flfth milestone in my pastorate, Won
der how many more miles am to travel?
Your company has been exceedingly pleas
ant, o my dear people, and 1 would like to
march by your side until the generation
with whom we are now moving abreast
and step to step shall have stacked arms
after the last battle. But the Lord knows
best, and we ought to be willing to stay
or go.
A Pastors Vacation.
Most of you are aware that I propose at
this time, between the close of my twenty
fifth year of pastorate and before the be-
ginning of my twenty y-sixth year, to be alb
sent for few months in order to take a
journey around the world expect to sail
from San Francisco in the steamer Ala
media May 81. Ny place here on Sabbaths
will be fully occupied, while on Mondays,
and every Monday, I will continue to
speak through the printing press in this
and other lands as heretofore. Why do 1
go5 To make pastoral visitation among
people whom I have never seen, but to
whom have been permitted long while
to administer. l want to see them in
their own cities, towns and neighborhoods.
l want to know what are their prosperi-
ties, what their adversities and what their
opportunities and SO enlarge my work
and get more adaptedness. Why do go?
For educational purposes. Iwant to fresh
en- my mind and heart by new scenes, new
faces, new manners and customs. / want
better to understand what are the wrongs
to be righted and the waste places to be
reclaimed. I will put all learn in ser
mons to be preached to you when return.
1 want to see the Sandwich Islands, not SO
much in the light of modern politics as in
the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
which has transformed them, and Samoa
and those vast realms of New Zealand and
Australia and Ceylon and India want
to see what Christianity has accomplished
|
been lied about as living in luxury and
idleness.
want to know whether the heather re-
ligions are really as tolerable and as COM
mendable as they were represented by their
adherents in the parliament of religions at
Chicago want to see whether Moham-
mechanism and Buddhism would be good
thing for transportation in America, as
it has again and again been argued.
want to hear the Brahmans pray I want
to test whether the Pacific ocean treats its
guests any. better than does the Atlantic.
I want to see the wondrous architecture of
India, and the Delhi and Cawnpore where
Christ was crucified in the massacre of his
modern disciples, and the disabled Jugger-
naut unwheeled by Christianity, and to see
If the Tai which the Emperor Shah Jehan
built in honor of his empress really means
any more than the plain slab we put above
our dear departed. want to see the fields
where Havelock and Sir Colin Campbell
, won the day against the sepoys. want
to see the world from all sides, how much
of it is in darkness, how much of it is in
light, what the Bible means by the lends
! of the earth, and get myself ready to ap-
preciate the extent of the present to be
made to Christ as spoken of in the Psalms,
''Ask for me, and shall give thee the
heather for thine inheritance, and the
uttermost parts of the earth for thy posses
sion, and so shall be ready to celebrate
in heaven the victories of Christ in more
rapturous song than could have rendered
had 1 never seen the heather denominations
before they were conquered. And so hope
to come back refreshed, REINFORCED and
better equipped and to do in 10 years more
. effectual work than have done in the last
25.
A Beautiful Garland.
And now in this twenty fifth anniver.
, sary sermon propose to do two things
first, to put garland on the grave of the
generation that has just passed off and
, then to put palm branch in the hand Of
the generation just now coming on the