Birmingham age-herald., 1895-04-15

way and reached the masses, and ae- eomplished a great work as the fore most spirit of his age; but it was the age of no telegraph, no telephone, no lightning express, no electric cars; 1t was the age of footmen and the OK wa"on. He was a grand man, and his methods up to his age; but it seems sil- ly to me that in this age we should per sist in wearing Wesley's coat, and riding his old raeking horse, and using his methods without change or modifica- tion. or the common sense of adaptation to the present age.
 I do not mean to change the grand fundamental doctrines. They never change. The New Testament will be as true thousand years from now as 1t is to-day, and every utterance of the grcat pioneer of Methodism will be as true thousand years from now as they were when uttered. But speak of the method. In this hustling age, in this age of "quick steppers, if the church of God does not adopt the methods of the age and quicken her gait and be- come more practical, and more effect i've in her efforts, she may as well surrender, I am an optinist. l wei come every onward movement of our great country, every new development, every new invention, every means for facilitating her progress.
 My motto is ''Step quick; we want no slow steppers in this age" It is mercy to mule wearing his legs out against the single tree to touch him up It is mercy to an animal being run over by machinery to whip him up. 1 am doing my best to keep abreast of the age. 1 want toskeep up with this old world. I use our telephone, our elec- tric car, our lightning express, our stenographer, our typewriting machine and every blessing she gives; but am trying to wake up the slumbering, and get every man, woman, boy and girl in this country to hustle. Every fellow l tap up seems to smile and thank me and pearten his gait, but when touch up the average preacher he sulks and kicks. But am still hollering: "All aboard" and if any fool wants to stand on the platform and grumble, l cannot help 1t.
 The grand engine on the New York Central railroad, No. 999, stands forth as to perfection of mechanical genius to meet the demands of the "quick step" of the age She is built to go. She is built to pull, and when she couples on to half a dozen passenger coaches in New York city and runs through to Buffalo-four hundred and forty miles-in eight hours and forty five minutes she has accomplished the herculean task for which she was built, and she stands in her ponderous weight trembling in the mighty power that has propelled her such distance in so short time.
 The grand ocean steamers that cross the Atlantic in less than six days are marvels of speed and comfort and safe ty. They meet the wants of the age and the hour. The lightning presses roll out the morning and afternoon pa pers by the thousand in so short a time that the demands of the age seem fully met in heralding reports of disasters and events across the continent within few hours following their occurrence.
 So the Christian genius of this age must gather momentum under the in- fucnce of the Divine Spirit,'a force that will carry it forward and keep it abreast of the demands of the hour. Surely we have got to meet the de- mands of the hour or surrender the traffic to the competition of the devil. In the gait we go the speed we reach determines the number of obstacles in our way. Very few things will get out of the way of slow-moving procession, but when speed and momentum have reached perfection the world roosts on the sidewalk and gives up the whole street for the display of your speed, and the unobstructed track of which you have possession will furnish every fa- cility for speed and safety. We must move up in tho Christian world or we will have to move out.
 SAM P. JONES.