The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-01-25

great ordeals must be passed through
before the consummation-as witness
the Armenians under the butchery of
the Turks. May that throne on the
banks of the Bosporus soon crumble.
The time has already come when the
United States government, and Great
Britain. and Germany ought to intone
the Indignation of all civilized nations.
While it is not requisite that arms be
sent there to avenge the wholesale
massacre of Armenians. it is requisite
that by cable under the seas and by
protest that shall thrill the wires
from Washington, and London, and
Berlin. to Constantinople, the nations
anathematize the diabolism for which
the sultan of Turkey is responsible.
The men and women of God there sta
toned go on gloriously with their
work; people just as good and self
denying as was Missionary Moffat,
who. when asked to write in an album,
wrote these words:
Nv album is in savage breasts
Where passion reigns and darkness rests
Without one ray OF light
To write the name Of Jesus there:
To point TO worlds both bright and fair:
And see the pagan bow in prayer
Is all my souls delight.
There is another point OF the com
pass that my text includes. They
shall come from the west" That
means America redeemed. Everything
between the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans to be brought within the circle
of holiness and rapture. VIII it be
done by worldly reform, or evangel-
ism? VIII it be law, or gospel? am
glad that a wave of reform has swept
across this land, and all the cities are
feeling the advantage OF the mighty
movement. Let the good work go on
until the last municipal evil is extir-
pated. About fifteen years ago the dis
tinguished editor of a New York daily
newspaper said to me in his editorial
room: You ministers talk about evils
of which you know nothing. Why
don't You go with the officers
of the law and explore for yourself.
so that when you preach against
sin you can speak from what you
have seen with your own eyes?' said:
Il will" And in company with COM
missioner of police and captain of
police, and two elders of my church,
explored the dens and hiding places of
all styles of crime in New York and
preached a series of sermons warning
young men. and setting forth the work
that must be done lest the judgments
of God whelm this city with more aw-
full submergment than the volcanic
deluge that buried Herculaneum and
Pompeii. | received as nearly as / can
remember several hundred columns of
newspaper abuse for undertaking that
exploration. Editorials of denuncia-
ton. double-leaded. and with captions
of great primer type, entitled The
Fall of Talmage,' or ''Talmage Makes
the Mistake of His Life" or Down
with Talmage," but still live and am
in sympathy with all movements for
municipal publication. But move
ment which ends with crime exposed
and law executed stops half way. Nav,
it stops long before it gets half way.
The law never yet saved anybody:
never yet changed anybody. Break
up all the houses of iniquity in this
city, and you only send the occupants
to other cities. Break down all the
policemen in New York. and while it
changes their worldly fortunes it does
not change their heart of life The
greatest want in New York to-day is
the transforming power of the gospel
of Jesus Christ to change the heart and
the life, and uplift the tone of moral
sentiment, and make men do right. not
because they are afraid of Ludlow
Street Jail or Sing Sing, but because
they love God and hate unrighteous-
ness. l have never heard, nor have
you heard. of anything except the gos-
pei that proposes to regenerate the
heart. and by the influence of that
regenerated heart rectify the life Ex-
ecute the law. most certainly; but
preach the gospel, by all means-in
churches, in theaters, in homes, in
prisons, on the land and on the sea.
The gospel is the only power that can
revolutiouize society and save the
world. All else is half and half work
and will not last. In New York it has
allowed men who got by police bribery
their thousands. and tens of thousands
and perhaps hundreds of thousands of
dollars, to go scot free: while some who
were merely the cats paw and agents
OF bribery are struck with the light
nings of the law.
\ few weeks ago, after had preach
ed in one of the churches in this city, a
man staggered up on the pulpit stairs
maudlin drunk. saying: Il am one of
the reformers that was elected to high
Office at the last election" l got rid
OF that great reformer'' as soon as l
could. but l did not get rid of the i'm
preston that a man like that would
cure the denominations of New York
about as soon as smallpox would cure
typhoid fever. or a buzz-saw would
render Haydn's Creation" Politics
in all our cities has become so corrupt
that the only difference between the
republican and democratic parties is
that each is worse than the other.
But what nothing else in the
universe can do. the gospel can
and viii accomplish. They shall
come from the west" and for that
purpose the evangelistic batteries are
planted all along the Pacific coast. as
they are planted all along the Atlantic
coast. All the prairies. all the noun
tains. all the valleys, all the cities are
under more or less gospel influence,
and when we get enough faith and con-
secration for the work this whole
American continent will cry out for
God They shall come from the west"
The work is not so difficult as many