The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-02-02

from the heavenly recOrdS-give me
the pencil with which the angel re-
cords his victory-and then, with my
hand strung to supernatural ecstasy,
and my pen dipped in the light of the
morning. / will write out in capitals of
love, Jesus" 1t is this One, in
finitely fair, to whom you are invited.
Christ is waiting for you: waiting as a
banqueter waits for the delayed guests
the meat smoking, the beakers brim-
ming. the minstrels with finger on the
stiff string. waiting for the clash of the
hoofs at the gateway. Waiting for
you as mother waits for her son. who
went off ten years ago, dragging her
bleeding heart along with him. Wait
ing! o! give me comparison intense
enough, hot enough, importunate
enough to express my meauing-some-
thing high as Heaven and deep as hell
and long as eternity. Not hoping that
you can help me with such COMPARE
son, will say: HE is waiting as only
the all-sympathetic Christ can wait for
the coming back of lost soul"
Bow the knee and kiss the Son,
Come, and welcome, sinner; come.
Again, the Holy Spirit is ready. Why
is it that SO many sermons drop dead
that Christian songs do not get their
wing under the people-that so often
PRAYER goes no higher than a hunters
'halloa''? 1t is because there is a link
wanting-the work of the Holy Spirit
Unless that spirit give graphing hooks
to a sermon, and lift the prayer, and
watt the song, everything is dead
failure. That spirit is willing to come
at our call and lead you to eternal life;
or ready to come with the same power
with which he endorsed Saul on the
Damascus turnpike, and broke down
Lydia in her fine store, and lifted the
5000 from midnight into midnoon at
the Pentecost. With that power the
spirit of God now beats at the gate of
your soul Have you not noticed what
homely and Insignificant instrumental
ity the spirit of God employs for mans
conversion? There was a man on
Hudson river boat to whom a tract was
offered. With indignation he tore it
up and threw it overheard. But one
fragment lodged on hiScoatsleeve; and
he saw on it the word eternity" and
he found no peace until he was pre-
pared for the great future. Do you
know what passage it was that caused
Martin Luther to see the truth? 1.-The
just shall live by faith" Do you know
there is one-just one-passage that
brought Augustine from a life of dissi-
patton? PUT We ON the Lord
Jesus Christ, and make no provision
for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof"
1t was just one passage that converted
Christ: The blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth from all SIM" Do you know
that the Holy Spirit used one passage
of Scripture to save Jonathan Ed
wards? Now. unto the King. eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only wise God,
our Saviour. be glory" One year ago
on Thanksgiving day, read for my
text: 20 give thanks unto the Lord,
for He is good; for His mercy endureth
forever" And there is young man in
the house to whose heart the Holy
Spirit took that text for his eternal re-
demptioE.
Do you know that the Holy Spirit al
most always uses insignificant means?
Eloquent sermons never save any body;
metaphysical sermons never save any
body: philosophical sermons never save
any body. But the minister comes some
Sabbath to his pulpit, worn out with
engagements. and the jangling of a
frenzied door bell: he has only a text
and two or three ideas, but he says:
20 Lord, help me. Here are a good
many people / may never meet again
have not much to say. Speak thou
through my poor lips" And before
the service is done there are fearful
eyes and a solemnity like the judg-
ment. The great French orator,
when the dead king lay before
him, looked up and cried: God
only is great" and the triumph of
his eloquence has been told by the
But l have not heard that
one soul was saved by the oratorical
flourish. Worldly critics may think
that the early preaching of Thomas
Chalmers was masterpiece. But
Thomas Chalmers says he never began
to preach until he came out of the sick
room, white and emaciated, and told
men the simple story of Jesus. In the
great day of eternity, it will be found
that the most souls have been brought
to Christ, not by the Bossuets and Mas
sillons and Bourdaloues, but by humble
men, who, in the strength of God, and
believing in the eternal spirit, invited
men to Jesus l do not know what
hymn may bring you to Jesus. l do
not know what words of the Scripture
lesson l read may save your soul. Per-
haps the spirit of God may hurl the
very text into your heart: Come, for
all things are now ready"
Afghan. the church is ready. Oh man,
if l could take the curtain off these
Christian hearts, could show you a
great many anxieties for your redemp-
ton. Do you know the air is full of
prayer? Do you know that prayer is
going up from Fulton street prayer
meeting, and from Friday evening
prayer meeting, and going up every
hour of the day for the redemption of
the people? And if you should just
start toward the door of the Christian
church, how quickly it would fly open.
Hundreds of people would say: Give
that man room at the sac ament-
Bring the silver bowl for his baptism.
Give him the right hand of Christian
fellowship. Bring him into all Christian
A great many people do
not like the church, and say it is a
great mass of hypocrites: but it is
glorious church with all its imperfec-
tons Christ bought it, and hoisted
the pillars, and swung its gates and
lifted its arches, and curtained it with
upholstery crimson with crucifxion
carnage Come into it.
". L.