The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-12-07

Oh, how H.. Il better 1t would be to lay
hold of thc chariot of Christ's gospel
and help pull st on rather than to fling
ourselves in front of the wheels, trying
to block their progress! We will not
stop the chariot but we ourselves will
be ground to powder.
Did YOU ever hear that there was a
convention once held among the ice
bergs in the arctici 1t seems that the
summer was coming on, and the sun
was getting hotter and hotter, and there
was danger that the whole icefield
would break up and flow away, SO the
tallest and the coolest and the broadcast
of all the icebergs, the very king of the
arctics, stood at the head of the conven-
ton, and with a gavel of ice smote on a
table of ice, calling the convention to
order. But the sun kert growing in in
tensity of heat, and the south wind
blew stronger and stronger, and soon
: all the icefeld began to grind up, ice
berg against iceberg, and to flow away.
The first resolution passed by the con-
vention was, Resolved, that we abol-
ich uuO BULL.
But the sun would not be abolished.
The heat of the sun grew greater and
greater until after awhile the very king
of the icebergs began to perspire under
the glow, and the smaller icebergs fell
over, and the cry was: "Too much eX-
element! Order, order" Then the
whole body, the whole field, of ice be-
fA fha11con1 ,oso
began to ask: "Where are we going to
now? Where are we floating to? We
will all break to pieces +" By this time
the icebergs 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 frig-
i'd Christians. The warm gulf stream is
great revival. The ocean into which
everything melted is the great, wide
heart of the pardoning and sympathiz-
ing God.
A Word About the Ministry.
But I think, after all, the greatest
obstacle to revivals throughout Chris
tendon today is an unconverted minis
try. We must believe that the vast ma
jority of those who officiate at sacred
affairs are regenerated, but l suppose
there may float into the ministry 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 into the ministry?
Perhaps some of them chose it as a re-
spectacle profession. Perhaps some
chose it as means of livelihood. Per-
haps 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
gospel declare, they were preaching and
had been ordained to sacred orders years
and years before their hearts were re-
generated. Gracious God, what sol
emu thought for those of us who minis
ter at the atari With the present min
istry in the present temperature Of piety
the world will never be enveloped with
revivals. While the pews on one side
the altar cry for mercy the pulpits on
the other side the altar must cry for
lA6IGJs 4hl4lStOlo HudllC4tIsSs 4hlhASNNAS
trying to pull each other down Minis
tiers struggling for ecclesiastical place,
Ministers lethargic with whole congre-
cations dying on their hand. What a
spectaclel
Aroused pulpits will make aroused |
pews. Pulpits af1ame will make pews
aflame. Every body believes in a revival
in trade, everybody likes a revival in
literature, everybody likes a revival in
art, yet a great multitude cannot I'M
derstand a revival in matters of reli-
gion. Depend upon it, where you find
man antagonistic to revivals, whether
he be in pulpit or pew, he needs to be
by the grace of God.
could prove to demonstration that
be converted, and that in 100 or 200
years without revivals Christianity will
be practically extinct. 1t is a matter of
arithmetic In each of our
modern generations there are at least
80, 900, 900 children. Now add SO, 000,-
900 to the worlds population, and then
have only 100, 600 or 200, 600 converted
every year, and how long before the world
will be saved? Never-absolutely never!
We Cansot AFFORD to BE Fools.
During our war the president of the
United States made proclamation for
10, 900 troops. Some of you remember
the big stir. But the King of the uni
verse today asks for 500, 900, 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
large scale, and 1 am a merchant on a
small scale, and 1 come to you and want
70 buy 1000 yards of cloth. Do you
'ay: "Thank you; I'll sell you / 900
Yards of cloth, but I'll sell you 20 yards
;oday, and 90 tomorrow, and 90 the next
lay, and if it takes me six months I'll
iell you the whole 1000 yards; you
will want as long as th"t to examine
he goods, and I'll wan 5 long as that
20 examine the credit, i, besides that,
!, 900 yards of cloth } too much to sell
vi at once? No, Yea do not say that.
You take me into the counting room,
md in ten minutes the whole transac-
ion is contaminated. The fact is, we
afford to be fools in anything
nut religioni