The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1895-03-09

watched you giving you the medicine
at just the right time; | beg you to
come back and take the same religion.
1t was good enough for her. II is good
enough for you. Nay. | have q better
plea than that. | plead by all the
wounds, agonies. and death throes of
the Son of God, who approaches You
this moment with torn brow, and LAGER
ated hand, and whipped back, and say
ing: Come unto me, all ye who are
weary and heavy ladcn. and | will give
you rest
Again. there is a field OF usefulness
but little touched occupied by those
who are astray in their habits. All
northern nations. like those of North
America, and England, and scotland,
that is. in the colder climates, are
devastated by alcoholism. They take
the fire to keep mp the warmth. In
southern countries. like Arabia and
Spain. the blood is So warm they are
not tempted to fiery liquids. The
great Roman armies never drank any
thing stronger than water tinged with
vinegar, but under IA northern climate
the temptation TO heating stimulants
is most mighty, and millions succumb.
When 4 mans habits go wrong the
church drops him, the social circle
drops him, good influence drops him,
we all drop him. or all the men who
get off the track, but few ever get on
again. Near my summer residence
there is a ~life-saving station on the
beach. There are all the ropes and
rockets, the boats. the machinery for
getting people Off shipwrecks. One
summer | saw there fifteen or twenty
men who were breakfasting. after hav-
ing Just escaped with their lives aud
nothing more. Up and down our
coasts are built these useful struct.
ures, and the mariners know IL,
and they feel that il they are driven
into the breakers, there will be apt
from shore to come a rescue. The
churches of God ought to be so many
life-saving stations, not so much to
help those who are in smooth waters,
but those who have been shipwrecked.
Come, let MS run out the lifeboats! And
| who will man them? We do not preach
enough to such men; we have not faith
enough in their release. Alas, IL when
they come to hear us. we are laborious-
" trying to show the difference be.
tween sublapsarianism and supralap-
sarianism, while they have q thousand
vipeTs of remors and despair coiling
around and biting their immortal spir-
Its. The church is not chiefly for good
ish sort Of men whose proclivities are
all right, and who could get to Heaven
praying and singing In their own
homes. 1t is on the beach to help the
drowning.
Furthermore, the destitute children
Of the streets offer a field Of work com.
p~aratively unoccupied. The .uncared-
for children are in the majority in
most Of our cities. Their condition
wa we'll illustrated by what u boy In
this city said when he was found un.
der q cart knawing q bone, and some
one said to him: Where do you live?'
and he answered.: Don't live nowhere
sir!' Several thousand of the children
Of New York city. can neither reno
nor write. When they grow up
II UNIFORMED. they will out-vots
your children, and they will govern
your children. The whisky ring will,
hatch out other whisky rings, and gros
shops will kill with their horrid stencil
public sobriety, unless the church o
God rises up with outstretehed arm.
and eufolds this dying population il
her bosom.
have heard OF what was called til,
"thundering legion" 1t was in ITO,
part of the Roman army to which SOM
Christians belonged, and their prayers
1t was said, were answered by thunde
and lightning and hail and tempest
which overthrow an invading arm.
and saved the empire. And | would t
God that you could DO SO mighty il
prayer and work that yOu woul
become a laundering legion, be
fore which the forces of 81
might be routed, and the gate
Of hell made to tremble. All aboar
now on the Gospel ship! If you canno
be q captain or a first mate, be a stokei
or . deck hand, or ready at commau
to climb the r%atlines, Heave ava
now, lads! Shake out the reefs in tn
foretopsail! Come. O heavenly vino
and fill the canvas! Jesus aboard wi
assure u safety. Jesus on the sc
will beckon us forward. Jesus on tn
shining shore will welcome us into tn
harbor. And so it came to pass tina
they all escaped safe to land"