The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1896-07-16


and secluded places. Why does the hunter
90 three or four days in the Pennsylvania
forests or over Raquette Lake into the WHO'S
of the Adirondacks? II is the only way 70
do. The deer are shy, and one 'Dang OF
the gun clears the forest From the Canior-
mia stage you see, as you go over the ppins'
here and there a coyote trottiug along, az
most within range of the gun-sometimes
quite within range Of II. No one cares ior
that; 1t Is worthless The good game is MD
den and secluded. Every 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 wnere they
are. Yonder they are down IN ina, cehari
wonder they are up in that garnet. Far away
from the door Of any church, the gospel ar
row has not been pointed at them. The tract
distributor and city missionary sometimes
,,stch "a glimpse of them, as hunter through
the trees gets mcmentary sight OF part
ridge or a roebuck. The trouble is, we are
waiting for the game to come to US. we are
not good hunters. We are standing In some
street or highway expecting tnat une t'ilinu
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
TT the church should wait 100000 OF
wears 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 lit
its feet from damask ottomans and put them
in the stirrups. We want pulpit on wheels.
The church wants not so much cushions as
it wants saddlebags and arrows. we nave
got to put aside the gown and kid gloves ana
put on the hunting shirt. We nave Deen hsn-
ing 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
- INa,,1 ruat n xTnn n
per Saranac and Big Tuppers 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 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, or
If they have nothing but pine branch for
pillow or for the northeast storm? LII
moose In the darkness steps into the lake to
drink they hear it right away. II 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 II. 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 souls4 Are they
sinless that they need no pardon? Are there
no dead in their houses that they need no
comfort? Are they cut off from God to go
into eternitv-no wing to bear them, no l1gnt
to cheer them, no welcome to greet them2 L
hear to-day surging up from the lower
depths grCan that comes through our
Christian assemblages and through our
beautiful churches, and 1t blots out all this
scene from my eyes to-day, as by the mists
of a great Niagara, for the dash and the
plunge of these great torrents of life drop
ping down into the fathomless and tnunder-
ing abyss of suffering and woe. ISometimes
think that Just as God blotted 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 u stall
wart wideawake. missionary church that
can take the full meaning of that command,
$50 into all the world and preach the gospel
TO every creature"
remark, again, if you want to be success
full in spiritual archery you need not only to
bring down the game, but bring it in. l
think one of the most beautiful pictures OF
ThGrwaldsen is his Autumn" Itrepresents
sportsman coming home and standing I'M
der grapevine He has a staff over his
shoulder, and on the other end of thar staff
are hung rabbit and brace of birds. Every
hunter brings home the game. No one would
think of bringing down reindeer or whip
ping up stream for trout and letting them
lie in the woods. At eventide the camp is
adorned with the treasures of the forest
Dtdk anu Ill anu uulltl. II you ~ Cut ~
hunt for immortal souls, not only bring them
down under the arrow of the gospel, but
bring them into the church of God the en-
campment we have pitched this side OF the
skies. Fetch them in. DO not let them lie
out in the open field. They need our prayers
and sympathies and help. That is the mean
ing of the church of God-help. o ye hum
tiers for the Lord. not only bring down the
game. but bring it in.
If Mithrdates liked hunting so well that
for seven years he never went indoors what
enthusiasm ought We to have who are hunt
| ing for immortal soulsl IfDomitlanus prac-
ticed archery until he could stand a boy
down in the Roman amphitheater, with
hand out, the fingers like that, and then the
king could shoot an arrow between the
fingers without wounding them, to what
| drill and what practice ought not we sub
| ject ourselves in order to become spiritual
arcbers and "mighty hunters before the
Lordr' But let me say, you will never work
any better than you pray. The old archers
took the bow, put one end of it down beside
the foot. elevated the other end, and it was
the rule that the bow should be just the size
of the archer if it were just his size then he
would 90 into the battle with confidence.
Let me say that your power to project good
| in the world will correspond exactly to your
own spiritual stature. In other words, the
| first thing in preparation for Christian work
| is personal conservation.
Oh, for n closer walk with God,
A calm and heavenly frame,
light to shine upon the road
That leads me to che Lamb.
am sure that there are some here who at
some time have been hit by the gospel arrow.
You felt the wound of that conviction and
you plunged into the world deeper just as
the stag, when the hounds are after it,
plunges into Scroon lake, expecting in that
way to escape. Jesus Christ is on your
track to-day, impenitent man! not in wrath,
but in mercy. o ye chased and painting
souls here is the stream of Gods mercy and
salvation, whore you may cool your thirst!
Stop that chase of sin to-day. By the red
fountain that leaped from the heart of my
Lord, l bid you stop. Is there in all this
house anyone who can refuse the offer that
comes from the heart of the dying Son of
God? Why, do you know that there are. in
the banished world, souls that, for that offer
you get to-day, would fling the crown of the
universe at your feet, if they possessed it?
But they went out on the mountains, the
storm took them, and they died.
There is in a forest in Germany place
they call the "deer leap"-two crags about
l8 feet apart, between them fearful chasm.
This is called the "deer leap" because once
a hunter was on the track of deer 1t came
to one of these crags. There WIS no escape
for it from the pursuit Of the hunter, and in
utter despair it gathered itself up and in the
deuth aOOuY attemDted TO hmm aoroce Of