Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-12-14


they succeed? As we'll when Chicago was or
fire might some one have gone out with q
garden water pot trying to extinguish it.
The difficulty is that when a revival be-
gins in church ii begins at so many points
that while you have douSed one anxious soul
with a pail of cold water there are 500 other
anxious souls on fire. Oh, how much bet
ter it would be to lay hold Of the chariot ot
Christ's gospel and help pull it on rather
than to fling ourselves in front of the wheels.
trying TO block their progress! We will not
stop tho chariot. but we ourselves will be
ground to powder.
Did you ever hear that there was a con-
ventiOn once held among the icebergs in the
arctic? 1t seems that the summer was COM
ing on, and the sun was getting hotter AMI
hotter, and there was danger that the whole
icedeld would break up and flow away, so
the ta!lest and the coolest an the broadest
of all the iceberGs, the very king of the arc
ties, stood at the head of the convention,
AMI with a gavel OF ice snote on table of
ice, calling the conventiOnt to order. But the
sun kept growing in intensity Of heat, and
the south wind blew stronger and stronger,
and soon ali the icefield began to grind up,
iceberg against iceberg, and to flow away.
The first resolution passed. by the convention
was Resolved, that we abolish the SUM-"
But the sun would not be abolished. The
heat OF the sun grew greater and greater
until after awhile the very king OF the ice
bergs began to perspire under the glow, and
the smaller ice6ergs fell over. and the cry
was: "Too much excitement Order,
Ordern' Then the whole body, the whole
field, of ice began to flow out. and thou
sand voices began to ask: "Where are we
going to now? Where are we floating to?
We will all break to pieces By this time
the ice5ergs had reached the gulf stream,
and they were melted into the bosom of the
Atlantic Ocean. The warm sun is the
eternal Spirit. The icebergs are fzigid
Christians. The warm gulf stream Is a great
revival. The ocean into which everything
melted is the great, wide heart Of the
pardontng and sympathizing God.
But think. after all. the greatest obstacle
to revivals throughout ChristendOm to-day
is an uucOnverted ministry. We must be-
lieve that the vast majority of those who
Officiate at sacred altarS are regenerated
but suppose there may float into the minis
try of all the denominations of Christians
men whose hearts have never been changed
by the grace of God, Of course they are all
antagOnistic to revivals.
How did they get tinto the ministry? Per-
haps some Of them chose it as a respectable
profession. Perhaps some chose it as q
means of livelihood. Perhaps some Of them
were sincere, but were mistaken. AS Thomas
Chalmers said, he had been many years
preaching the gospel before his heart had
been changed. and, as many ministers of the
had been ordained to sacred orders years
and years before their hearts were regener-
ated. Gracious God, what solemn thought
for those of US who minister at the altar
With the present ministry in the present
temperature OF piety the world will never be
envelcped with revivals. While the peWs on
one side the altar cry for mercy the pulpts
on the other side the altar must cry for
mercy. Ministers quarreling. Ministers
trying to pull each other down Ministers
struggling for ecclesiastical place. Ministers
lethargic with whole CONGREGATIONS diving
on their hand. What a spectacleI
Aroused pulpits will make aroused pews.
Pulpits aname will make pews afiame.
Everybody believes in a revival of trade,
everybody likes revival in literature, every
body likes revival in art, yet great multi
tude cannot understand a revival in matters
of religion. Depend upon it. where you
find man antagonistic to revivals, whether
he be in pulpit or pew, he needs to be regen-
Grated by the grace of Goi.
l could prove to a demonstration that
without revivas this world will never be
converted, and that in 100 or 200 years with
out revivals Christianity will be practically
extinct. 1t is a matter OF astounding arith-
metic. In each of our modern generations
there are at least 80, 900 children. Now
add 50 000, 900 to the worlds population, and
then have only 600 or 200, 900 converted
every year, and how long before the world
During our war the President of tho
United States made proclamation for $4,000
troops. Some of you remember the big stir
But the King of the universe to-day asks for
800, 600, 900 more troops than are enlisted,
and we want it done softly, imperceptibly,
gently, no excitement, one by one!
You are dry goods merchant on a large
scale. and [ am a merchant on a small scale,
and | come to YOU and want to buy 1000
yards of cloth. Do you say +'Thank you;
I'll sell you 1000 yards of cloth, but I'll sell
you twenty var Is to-day, and twenty to-
morrow, and twenty the next day, and if it
takes me six months I'll sell you the whole
1000 yards you will want as long as that to
examine the goods, and I'll want as long as
that to examine the credit, and, besides that.
1000 yards of cloth are too much TO sell all
at once?" No, you do not say that. You
take mo into the counting ro om, and in ten
minutes the whole transaction is consum-
mated. The fact is, we cannot afford to be
fools in anything but religion
That very merchant who on Saturday after
noon sold me the 1000 yards of cloth at one
stroke the next Sabbath in church will stroke
his beard and wonder whether it would not
be better for 1000 souls to come struggling
along for ten years, instead of boiling in at
one service.
We talk a good deal about the good times
that are coming and about the worlds re-
demption. How long before they will come?
d
a man who says 200 years. Here is some
one more confident who says in fifty years.
What. fifty years? Do you propose to let
two generations pass off the stage before
the world is converted?
Suppose by some extra prolongation of
human life at the next fifty years YOU should
walk around the world, you would not in
all that walk find one person that you recOg-
nize. Why? All dead or SO changed that
you would not know them. N other words,
If you postpone the redemption Of this
world for fifty years, you admit that the
majority Of the two whole generations shall
90 off the stage unblessed and unsaved. l
tell you the church of Jesus Christ cannot
consent to it. We must pray and toll and
have the revival spirit, and we must strug-
gle to have the whole world saved before the
men and women now in middle life pass off.
ooh, you say, "lt is teO vast ar enter
prise to be conducted in so short a time"
DO you know how long it would take to save
the whole world ii each man would bring
other. 1t would take ten years. By cal
"uation in compound interest. each man
bringing another, and that one another, and
that one another, in ten years the whole
world would be saved. II the world is not
saved in the next ten years it will be the
fault of the church of Christ.
Is it too much to expect each one to bring
one? Some of US must bring more than one
bring 1000 souls. should be ashamed to
meet my God in judgment if, with all my op
portunities of commencing Christ to the
people, could not bring 10000 souls. But
1t will all depend upon the revival spirit. The
hook and line fishing will not do it.
1t seems to me as If God is preparing the
world for some quick and universal move
ment. A celebrated electrician gave me a
telee laph chart Of the world. On that chan
the wires crossing the continent and the
cables under the sea looked like veins red
with blood. On that chart I see that the
headquarters of the lightninSs are in Great
Britain and the United States. In London
and New York the nghtnings are stabbed,
waiting to be harnessed for some quick dis
patch. That shows you that the telegraph
is in possession Of Christianity.
1t is a significant fact that the man who
invented the telegraph was an old fashioned
Christian-Professor Morse-and that the
man who put the telegraph under the sea
was old fashinhe6 Christian-Cyrus W