The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-11-18


 in the tragedy which was enacted in | the homes of the Acadiap farmers amid | the peaceful meadows of Grand Pre-, TAO years ago. Wives were torn from their husbands and parents from their chil- | dren. Banished from home; separated from one another You remember how, | with her father, she wandered and now amid these devious southern bayous she missed her lover by the breadth of an island. But there are sadder trage- dies in real life than the fancy of any poet can fashion. Men falling to take the tide at flood which leads on to for tune; men missing their opportunities; Christian men falling to recognize duty, aud turning thoughtless away. Oh, brethren, let us pray this morning that we have the clear eye to see, and the firm will to do that which the Master has appointed for each one of us.
 Now l am sure that this convention must have done some something for everyone who has felt even the slight est touch of this power
 1. In the first place it must have been g. revelation of an immense e1ihOuul Ol CllIlSlldIl dGllNlly OL WHICH the Christians of New Haven never heard before
 The people of God can strengthen and encourage one another And one reason that men get so disheartened in Christian work is that their vision is so narrow. Their own york; perhaps, is discouraglng and they fancy that the battle is going against the whole kingdom of God. They need to get up on some mountain height whence they can get the broader view. Because a vision of success is something and a brave heart is everything in working for the Lord Jesus Christ. Christian Workers get encouragement one from another. great deal has been said, indeed much is always being said about the failure of the gospel to reach and to transform the worlds life But we in this city know to-day that great deal is being done which the world at large has not heard of and which may in the church of Christ never be heard of either. Reproaches are cast upon the church (and with too much reason, sometimes) because Christianity seems to be sluggish and even indifferent to the worlds great need. But think we are seeing some things in these last years of the nine teenth century which indicate that the church of Christ was never so alert to the call of Christ and never more re- sponsive to the divine pointing than she is to-day.
 It is true that many of our visitors are working outside what are called church lines, but after all the work | of every one of them is Christian work. That means that the Lord Jesus Christ is behind it and that He is working through His servants to the glory of His name. Here in our own city who would have believed that we had so many Christian agencies at work aside from all that is being done directly by the churches as such? But this work is being done by Christian people, mem- bers of these Christian churches It Is being done in the name and for the sake of Christ. It is advancing His kingdom.
 | How many knew or guessed of the work that is being done in the lowest slums of our great cities, or of that which is carried on in behalf of prison CTS in our penal institutions? How 1 many were aware that some of the mo- l blest Christian men in America and some of the truest Christian women have turned their backs upon the ease | of luxury and the spell of society in or der that they might bring the name | and the life of Jesus Christ into the lives of the lost? Had you heard of the Christian work that has begun and which is spreading among the descend | ants of that line from which Christ l Himself was born and His disciples? | Did you know anything of the work that is being done among soldiers and sailors, and railroad men, and miners, and lumbermen, and policemen, and | many others who had been too easily l overlooked by the church because, be- | ing beyond the reach of church serv- | ices, they had been counted almost be- | yond the reach of Christian influences? But we have learned of those who were spending thought and time and strength and money in efforts to reach those who have been too much neglected, but for whom Christ died.
 Who has not been made thoughtful as he learned of intense activities which are displaying themselves in efforts to save the lost? And who has not come to feel as never before that there is somewhere away down deep in every | human heart a something that is hu- man Cor perhaps it is a spark of the di- vine which has not quite been quench- ed) which may quicken and glow and burn and make glad all the life of the soul which had been so nearly lost?
 Who has not been impressed with the thought that there are many Christian men and women wide awake to the op portunities and the responsibilities of our calling and of our time? Men and women who are convinced that the gos- pei of the Son of God, living and active in the human heart, is the only remedy for the maladies of society?
 But here Cat the convention l speak of) were multitudes every day called to report on their work. But l think you can recall hardly a case among them all where a worker con- sciously or unconsciously drew the at