The Monitor-register., 1896-07-03

SLil'"0isi ~ - CCulS. SOLD by all druppiota
The only Pills to take with Hoods Sarsanayiiia
the a tomorrow and ride 500 miles to
see him. The full power of the gospel
has not yet beer touched. As a sports
man throws up his head and catches
the ball flying through the air. inst 90
easily will this gospel after awhile catch
this round world flying from its orbit
and bring 1t back to the heart of Christ.
Give it full swing, and it will pardon
every sin, heal every wound. cure every
trouble, emancipate every slave and
ransom every nation.
We Christian men and women who 90
out this afternoon to do Christian worI
as you go into the Sunday schools. the
lay preaching stations and the peniten.
tiaries and the asylums, l want Won to
feel that you bear in your hand q weapon
compared with which the lightning has
no speed, and ~avalanchcs have no heft,
and the thunderbolts of heaven have no
power; it is the arrow of the omnipotent
gospel. Take careful aim. Pull the ar
row clear back until the head strikes
the bowl Then let it hyi And NAV the
slain of the Lord be many!
Good Hunting Ground.
Again, if you want to be skillful in
spiritual archery, you must hunt in I'M
frequented and secluded places. Why
does the hunter go three or four days in
h Pennsylvania forests or over Ra-
quette lake into the wilds of the Adiron.
dacks? 1t is the only way to do. The
deer are shy, and one Chang" Of the
gun clears the forest. From the Cali
fornia stage you see, as you go over the
plains, here and there, q coyote trotting
along, almost within range of the gun
sometimes quite within range Of it. No
one cares for that; it is worthless. The
good game is hidden and secluded. Ev-
cry hunter knows that. So, many of the
souls that will be of most worth for
Christ and Of most value to the church
are secluded. They do not come in your
way. You will have to go where they
are. Yonder they are down in that Gel
lar; yonder they are up in that garnet.
Far away from the door Of any church,
the gospel arrow has not been pointed
at them. The tract distributor and city
missionary sometimes catch q glimpse
of them, as a hunter through the trees
get a momentary sight of a partridge or
a roebuck. The trouble is, we are wait
ing for the game to come to us. We are
not good hunters. We are standing in
some street or highway expecting that
the timid antelope will come up and eat
out of our hands. We are expecting
that the prairie fowl will light ON our
church steeple. 1t is not their habit.
If the church should wait 10, 600, 900
of years for the world to come in and
be saved, it will wait in vain. The
world will not come. What the church
wants now is to lift its feet from dam
ask ottomans and put them in the STIR
rups. We want a pulpit OIL wheels. The
church wants not SO much cushions as
it wants saddlebags and arrows. We
have got to put aside the gown and kid
gloves and put on the hunting shirt.
We have been fishing so long in the
brooks that run under the shadow Of the
church that the fish know us; that they
avoid the hook and escape as soon as we
come to the bank, while yonder is Up
per Saranac and Big Tupper's lake,
where the first swing of the gospel net
would break it for the multitude of the
fishes. There is outside work to be done.
What is that I see in the backwoods? 1t
is q tent. The hunters have made a
clearing and camped out. What do they
care if they have wet feet, o. if they
horo nofhi,,O Int a Dina branch for q
pillow or for the northeast storm? If
q moose in the darkness steps into the
lake to drink, they hear it right away.
If a loon cry in the moonlight, they
hear it. So in the service of God we
have exposed work. We have got to
camp out and rough it. We are putting
all our care on the people who come to
our churches. What are we doing for
the thousands upon thousands that do
not come? Have they no souls? Are they
sinless that they need no pardon? Are
there no dead in heir houses that they
need no comfort? Are they cut off from
God to go into eternity-no wing to
bear them, no light to cheer them, no
welcome to greet them? I hear today
surging up from the lower depths a
groan that comes through our Christian
assemblages and through our beautiful
churches, and it blots out all this scene
from my eyes today, as by the m1sts OF
a great Niagara, for the dash and the
plunge of these great torrents OF life
dropping down into the fathomless and
laundering abyss Of suffering and woe.
ax~o4,,oo 1 xLsvnIy fhof it1cf no (4nd hIOt.
ted out the churches of Thyatira and
Corinth and Laodicea, because OF their
sloth and stolidity, he will blot out
American and English Christianity and
raise on the ruins a stalwart, wide
awake, missionary church that can Jake
the full meaning of that command, u
into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature"
Spiritual Archers
I remark, further, if you want to sue
coed in spiritual archery you must have
courage. If the hunter stand with trem-
bling hand or shoulder that 1inches
with fear, instead of his taking the cat
amount, the catamount takes him.
What would become of the Greenlander
II, Wnen Out HulbIuS loI lAO po"A' AZ
should stand shivering with terror on
an iceberg? What would have become
of Du Chaillu and Livingstone in the
African thicket with a faint heart and
a weak knee? When a panther comes
within 20 PAGES of you and it has its eye
on you and it has squatted for the ear
full spring, "Steady therel"
Courage, o ye spiritual archersl
There are great monsters in iniquity
prowling all around about the commu.
nifty. Shall we not of the strength OF
God go forth and combat them? We not
only need more heart, but more back
bone. What is the church of God that
it should fear to look in the eye any
transgression? There is the Bengal tiger
of drunkenness that prowls around, and
instead of attacking it, how many OF us
hide under the church pew or the COM
munion tablet There is SO much invested
in it we are afraid to assault it; millions
a. -~~lr - ~