The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1896-01-31

worn out that the visitor cannot tell
whether it was 1896, or 1876, or 1896.
that you died.
Still further, I learn from this SUBJ
ject the advantage of concerted action.
If AbiJnelech had merely gone out with
a tree-branch the work would not have
been accomplished; or IL ten, twenty, or
thirty men had gone; but when all the
axes are lifted and all the sharp edges
fall, and all these men carry each his
tree-branch down and throw it about
the temple, the victory is gained-the
temple falls. My friends, where there
is one man in the Church Of God at
this day shouldering his whole duty,
there are great many who never lit
an axe or swing bough. 1t seems to
ME as IL there were ten drones in every
hive to one busy bee as though there
were twenty sailors sound asleep in the
ships hammocks to four men on the
stormy deck. 1t seems as If there were
fifty thousand men belonging to the re-
serve corps, and only one thousand
active combatants. Oh, we all want
our boats to get over to the golden
sands; but the most Of us are seated
either in the PROV or in the stern,
wrapped in our striped shawl, holding
a big-handled sunshade, while others
are blistered in the heat, and pull until
the oar-locks groan, and the blades
bend till they snap. Oh, you religious
sleepy-heads, wake up You have lain
so long in one place that the ants and
caterpillars have begun to crawl over
you! What do you know, my brother.
about living Gospel made to storm the
world? Now, my idea Of Christian
is man on fire with zeal for God; and
II your pulse ordinarily beats sixty
times minute when you think of other
themes, and talk about other themes, IL
your pulse does not go up to seventy
five or eighty when you come to talk
about Christ and heaven, it is because
you do not know the one, and have q
poor chance of getting to the other.
In former charge one Sunday took
into the pulpit the church records, and
| laid them on the pulpit and opened
them, and said: Brethren, here are
the church records. I find a great
many of you whose names are down
here are off duty" Some were afraid
1 would read the names, for at that time
some of them were deep in the worst
kind Of oil stocks, and were idle as to
Christian work. But il ministers OF
Christ to-day should bring the church
records into the pulpit and read, oh.
what futter there would be! There
would not be fans enough in church to
keep the cheeks cool. l do not know
but it would be good thing II the min
lister once in a while should bring the
church records in the pulpit and call
the roll, for that is what l consider
every church record to be-merely
muster-roll of the Lords army; and the
reading of it should reveal where every
soldier is and what he is doing.
Still further, l learn from this SUBJ
ject the danger of false refugees. AS
soon as these Shechemites got into the
temple, they thought they were safe.
They said: Berth will take care Of
us. Abimelech may batter down.
everything else; he can not batter down
this temple where we are now hid"
But very soon they heard the thinkers
cracking. and they were smothered
with smoke, and they miserably died.
suppose every person in this audience
this moment is stepping into some kind
of refuge. Here you step in the tower
of good works. You say: II shall be
safe in this refuge" The battlements
are adorned; the steps are varnished:
on the wall are pictures of all the suf-
fering you have alleviated, and all the
schools you have established, and all
the fine things you have done. Up in
that tower you feel you are safe. But
hear you not the tramp Of your unpar-
doned sins all around the tower? They
each have a match. You are kirdling
the combustible material. You feel
the heat and the suftocation. Oh, may
you leap in time, the Gospel declaring:
"By the deeds of the law shall no flesh
living he justified"
We'll" you say, Il have been driven
out OF that tower; where shall l go?"
Step into this tower Of Indifference.
You say: "If this tower is attacked, it
will be a great while before 1t is TAKEN"
You feel at ease. But there is an Abim-
elech, with ruthless assault, coming or.
Death and his forces are gathering
around, and they demand that you sur
render everything, and they clamor for
your overthrow, and they throw their
skeleton arms in the window, and with
their iron fists they beat against the
door, and while you are trying to keep
them out you see the torches of judg-
ment kindling, and every forest is
torch, and every mountain a torch. and
every sea torch, and while the Alps,
and Pyrenees, and Himalayas turn into
q live coal, blown redder and redder by
the whirlwind breath of a God omnipo-
tent, what will become Of your refuge
of lies?
But" says some one, you are en-
gagged in very mean business, driving
us from tower to tower" Oh, no! want
to tell you of Gibraltar that never has
been and never will be taken; of
wall that no Satanic assault can scale;
Of bulwark that the judgment earth
quakes cannot bulge. The Bible re-