The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-02-07

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form Of tactics In anything We have X
90 for this world or for God. Loci
over the weaponry Of olden times
javelins, battle axes, habergeons. and
show me single weapon with which
Abimeleoh and his men could have
gained such complete triumph. It Il
no easy thing to take temple thus
armed. 1 have seen q house where
during revolutionary times, man and
his wife kept back whole regiment
hour after hour, because they were in.
side the house, and the assaultinp sol
diers were outside the house. Yet here
Abimelech and his army come up,
they surround this temple, and they
capture 1t without the loss of single
man on the part Of Abimelech, although
suppose some Of, the old Israelitish
heroes told Abimelch: "You are only
going up there to be cut to pieces "
Yet you are willing to testify to-day
that by no other mode-certainly not
by ordinary modes--could that temple
SO easily, so thoroughly, have been
taken. Fathers and mothers, brethren
and sisters in JESUS Christ, what the
Church most wants to learn, this day,
is than any plan is right, is lawful, is
best, which helps to overthrow the
temple of sin, and capture this world
for God. We are very apt to stick
to the old modes of attack. We
put on the old-style coat of mail.
We come up with the sharp, keen,
glittering steel spear of argument, ex-
pecting in that way to take the castle;
but they have q thousand spears
where we have ten. And so the castle
of sin stands. Oh, my friends, we will
never capture this world for God by
any keen saber Of sarcasm, by any
glittering lances Of rhetoric, by any
sapping and mining of profound dis
QUESTION, by any gunpowder explo-
sions of indignation, by sharpshoot-
ings of wit, by howitzers of mental
strength made to swing shell five
miles, by cavalry horses gorgeously
paving the air. In vain
all the attempts on the part of these
ecclesiastical foot soldiers, light horse
men and grenadiers.
My friends, propose a different
style Of tactics. Let each one go to
the forest Of Gods promise and invita-
ton, and hew down branch, and put
It on his shoulder, and let us come
around these obstinate iniquities, and
then with this pile, kindled by the
fires of a holy zeal and the flames of .
life, we will burn them
out. What steel can not do, fire may.
And announce myself in favor of any
plan of religious attack, however rad
Ical, however odd, however unpopular,
however hostile to all the convention
slities of church and state. If one
style of prayer does not do the work,
ct us try another style. If the church
music of to-day does not get the
victory, then let us make the assault
with backwoods chorus. If q prayer
meeting at $3.50 in the evening does
1ot succeed, let us have one as early
n the morning as when the angel
'ound wrestling Jacob too much for
him. ia sermon with the three au-
heads does not do the work,
hen let us have sermon with 20
reads, or no heads at all. We want
more heart in our song, more heart in
more heart in our prayer,
more heart in our preaching. Oh, for
ess of Abimelech's sword and more Of
Abimelech's con1agration! I had
'ften heard
There is a fountain filled with blood,
Jung artistically by four birds perched
IN their Sunday roost in the gallery,
Until 1 thought of Jenny Lind. and
Nilsson, and Sontag, and all the other
varblers; but there came not one tear
o my eye, nor one master emotion to
~ heart. But one night went down
o the African Methodist meeting
ouse in Philadelphia, and at the close
+ the service a black woman, in the
middle of the audience. began to sing
hat hymn, and all the audience joined
a, and we were foated some three or
our miles nearer Heaven than I have
yer been since. 1 saw with my own
yes that fountain filed with blood"
red, agonizing, sacrificial, redemp-
i've, and / heard the crimson plash of
he wave aswe all went down under It.
Oh, my friends, the Gospel is not a
yllogism: it is not casuistry; it is not
olemics, or the science of squabbles.
! is blood-red fact; it is warrn-hearted
lvitation; it is leaping, bounding fy-
~ good news; it is eff1orescent with
Il light; it is rubescent with all sum-
lery glow; it is arborescent with all |
weet shade. have seen the sun rise |
n Mount Washington, and from the
ip-top house; but there was no beauty |
! that compared with the day-spring |
ON on high when Christ gives light |
, soul. have heard Parepa sing; |
ut there was no music in that COM
AIRED with the voice of Christ when he |
lid: "Thy sins are forgiven thee; go in
eace." Good news! Let every one cut |