The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1895-06-18
Kingdom"

Kingdom
But ought we not TO make these An
nual Meetings time for close self ex-
animation? When we shall ask our
selves the questions, cam / in no way
responsible for the appalling igno-
rance and blindness OF the Church r.
"Have the true missionary spirit, the
love OF Christ and humanity that con.
strains me to commend 1t to others ??
"Do believe that God has power to
save the whole world from sin ?" 'Is
mine a liberal, intelligent faith,
through which the Holy Spirit can
work to the conversion of others n
"Have / consecrated myself to Christ
and His service, or have l given my
self to some particular branch OF
church work, because it is most agree
able to me, and doing this, refuse TO
lift up my eyes to any other field, or
open my ears to the cries from any
other direction pam ready, at every
manifestation of the Divine Will, to
say like Paul, Lord, what wilt thou
have me to do?' or am ready to pro-
test with Peter, mot SO Lord, this
thing is unclean or common. Let us
turn, for moment, the search light"
of few very practical questions upon
our hearts.
We pray, earnestly, fervently, and
perhaps with great faith, that Gods
kingdom may come and His will be
done, in India, China. Africa and the
islands of the sea. We gladly give
our ten cents per month, little of our
time and something of our love to
these far off lands, without knowing,
or trying to know much about them.
Now and then, we even remember
Gods ancient people and pray, &C
cording TO the commandment, for the
peace of Jerusalem-hut are there
any among us, who even occasionally
speak to the Jews in our own business
houses and upon our streets, of Him
whom we believe to be the Messiah ?
Do we invite them to our Churches
our Praper Meeting,or Missionary So
cieties, and try to show them some
thing of "Jesus and His love Z"
Again, do we, as we come in daily
contact with the negro servants who
erve in our kitchens, drive our car
riages, wait in our parlors, tell the
good tiding and bear witness TO the
saving power of the Gospel to them i?
do we long to see them have deep
and rich experience of the things of
God and become mighty in the Scrip
lures so that they may have the power
to witness for, Christi" God put
these people into our midst, and every
dark face that looksup into ours, and
every brown hand lifted to us, is cry
from Ethiopia, calling for light. Do
not let us deceive ourselves by sup
posing that we are longing and pray
ing for the redemption of the Dark
Continent if we neglect this offspring
of that heather land, living in our
very homes. We may not go to At'ri-
ca, but Africa has come to us. Once
we turn our eyes to these
fair and beautiful mountains of our
own State, and looking down through |
the long range of the Alleghanies in
Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and
North Carolina, realize that there are
in them, more than million ignorant,
Christless people? Our
own people! Are we in no way re-
sponsible for the one hundred years of
neglect from which these people have
suffered Is there no obligation upon
us to them? The crack of the rifle or
the report of the revolver, followed by |
the glaring headline account of the
correspondent, of another
assassination or the outbreak of an"
other mountain feud, may be, to the
mass OF our people, but the natural
sequence of the vicious ''shut in" lives
of the ignorant mountaineers-but to
you and me, my sisters, it is the voice
OF the Almighty God, saying, "Thy
brothers blood cries to thee from the
ground :" Around, us on every side,
in Jour cities, our little towns, and
cur country neighborhoods are the
unconverted, the goddess, the way
ward and the backslidden. Do we go
to them while sending to others? 1t
is written,"Y shall be witnesses unto
me, both in Jerusalem and all Judea
and in Samaria and unto the utter
most part of the earth" We may