The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-03-05

| ~ .DLsW$M c h u C h in the
| %SARI eXEEM same city, and not
cAk2sySI W1SA1\ n feeling called upon
RsE% SGN II to undertake the
IE5ZteZ TNY superhuman toll OF
WITH L. building fourth
lNE(~%~ church, Providence
~ = - seemed to point to
Va0% this place .s As the
could enIaree NV work, and feel
sense of relief amounting to exultat1on-
Whereunto this work will grow can
not prophesy. Tt is inviting and pronls-
ing beyond anything I have ever
touched. The churches are the grand
est institutions this world ever saw
and their pastors have no superiors TINS
side of heaven; but there is work
which must be done outside the
churches, and to that work join my
self for a while, Lest 1 build on an
other mans foundation"
The church is a fortress, div1nely
built. Now, a fortress is for defense
and for drill and for storing ammun1.
ton, but an army must sometimes De
on the march far outside the fortress.
In the campaign of conquering TINS
world for Christ the time has come for
an advance movement, for general
engagement" for massing the troops,
for an invasion of the enemy's country.
Confident that the forts are we'll man
ned by the ablest ministry that ever
blessed the church, I propose, with otn-
ers, for while to join the cavalry ana
move out and on for service in the open
field.
In laying out the plan for his mission
airy tour, Paul, with more brain than
any of his contemporaries or predeces-
sors or successors, sought out towns
nd nifi
preached to. He goes to Corinth. city
mentioned for splendor and vice, and
Jerusalem, where the priesthood ana
Sanhedrim were ready to leap with
both feet upon the Christian religion.
He feels he has a special work to 90
and he means to do it. What was the
result? The grandest life of usefulness
that man ever lived. We modern Chris
tan workers are not apt to initiate Paul
We build on other peoples foundations.
If we erect a church we prefer to have
it filled with families all of whom have
been pious. Do we gather a Sunday
school class, we want good boys ana
girls, hair combed, faces washed, man
ners attractive. So a church in this
day is apt to be built out of other
churches. Some ministers spend all
their time in fishing in other people
ponds, and they throw the line into that
and throw the line into another church
pond and bring out a Presbyterian, or
there is a religious row in some neigh
boring church and the whole school OF
fish swim off from that pond and we
take them all in with one sweep of the
net. What is gained? Absolutely moth
ing for the general cause of Christ. 1t
is only as in an army, when regiment
is transferred from one division to an
other, or from the 18th regiment to the
69th regiment. What strengthens the
army is new recruits.
The fact is, this is big world. When,
in our school boy days, we learned the
diameter and circumference of this plan
ct, we did not learn half. 1t is the lati-
tude and longitude and diameter and
circumference Of want and woe and sin
that no figures can calculate. This one
spiritual continent Of wretchedness
reaches across all zones, and if I were
called to give its geographical boundary
would say it Is bounded on the north
and south and east and west by the
great heart of Gods sympathy and love.
Oh, it is a great world. Since six o'clock
this morning at least $4,000 have been
born and all these multiplied popula-
lions are to be reached of the gospel
In England or in eastern American
cities we are being much crowded and
an acre of ground is of much value; but
out west 500 acres is a small farm and
20 600 acres is no unusual possession.
There is a vast field here and every
where unoccupied, plenty of room more,
| not building on another mans founda-
! ton. We need as churches to stop bonn
harding the old iron-clad sinners that
! have been proof against thirty years
| of Christian assault, and aim for the
| salvation of those who have never yet
| had one warm hearted and point blank
| invitation. There are churches whose
| buildings might be worth 5000 900, who
are not averaging five new converts a
year and doing less good than many a
| log-cabin meeting house with tallow
! candle stuck in wooden socket, and a
| minister who has never seen a college
or known the difference between Greek
and Choctaw. We need churches to
| get into sympathy with the great out
side world and let them know that none
are so broken-hearted or hardly bestead
that they will not be welcomed. mol"
says some fastidious Christian, 81 don't
like to be crowded in a church. Don't
put any one in my pew" My brother,
| what will you do in heaven? When a
great multitude that no man can num-
Der assemblies they will put fifty in your
pew. What are the select few to-day
assembled in the Christian churches
compared with the mightier millions
outside of them? At least 5000 mo peo-
| pie in this cluster of seaboard d
not more than 100000 in the s.
| Many of the churches are like uitaI
that should advertise that its patients
must have nothing worse than tooth
| ache or "run-arounds," but no broken
| heads, no crushed ankles, no fractured
thighs. Give US for treatment moderate
sinners, velvet-coated sinners and sim
ners with gloss on. 1t is as though a
man had farm of 1900 acres and put
/ all his work on one acre. He may raise
never SO large ears of corn, never so
big heads Of wheat, he would remain
poor The church of God has bestowed
it's chief care on one acre and has
raised splendid men and women in that
small enclosure, but the field is the