The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-01-24

OF OdptlSn OatnLuO. nlIeu WITH water,
was put upon the stage. and another
actor, in awful blasphemv. dipped Gel
lacius, pronouncing over him the words:
Il baptize thee in the name of the
Father. of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost" But coming forth from the
burlesqued baptism he looked chan ged.
and was changed. and he cried out to
the audience: Il am a Christian; 1
will die as a Christian" Though he
was dragged out and stoned to death,
they could not drown the testimony
made under such awful circumstances
81 am a Christians; ! will die Chris
| tian." Let the redeemed of the Lord
say So
What confirmation would come if
all who had answers to prayers would
! speak out! If all merchants in tight
places because of hard times would
tell how, in response to supplication,
they got the money to pay the note. If
all farmers in time of drought would
tell how, in answer to prayer, the rain
came just in time to save the crop If
all parents who prayed for a wander
ing son to come home would tell how,
| not long after, they heard the boys
hand on the latch of the front door.
There fingers on this side of the
river that divides earth aud Heaven,
ready at any time to cross over, the
apostle of prayer for this century,
Jeremiah Calvin Lanphier, the founder
Of the Fulton street PRAYER meeting,
and if he should put on his spectacles
and read this, l salute him as more
qualified than any man since Bible
times in demonstrating what PRAYER
can do. Dear Brother Lanphierl The
high heavens are full of his fame
Having announced a meeting for 12
o'clock, September %. 1857, he sat in
the upper room on Fulton street, New
York, waiting for the people to come.
He waited for half hour, and then
football was heard on the steps, and
after awhile in all six persons arrived;
but the next day 30. and the next day
40, and from that time to this, for over
"a years, every day, Sabbath excepted,
that Fulton street prayer meeting has
been a place where people have asked
prayer and answers to prayers have
been announced, and the throb of that
greet heart of supplication has thrilled
not only into the heavens, but clear
around the world. more than any spot
on earth. That has been the place
where the redeemed of the Lord said
so!
Let the same outspokenness be en-
ployed toward those by whom we have
been personally advantaged. We wait
until they are dead before we say so.
Your parents have planned for your
best interests all these years. They
may sometimes, their nervous system
used up by the cares, the losses, the
disappointments, the worrlments of
life, be more irritable than they ought
to be, and they probably have faults
which have become oppressive as the
years go by. But those eyes, long be-
fore they took on spectacles, were
watching for your welfare, and their
hands, not as smooth and much more
deeply lined than once, have done for
for you many a good days work. Life
has been to them more of a struggle
than you will ever know about, and
much of the struggle has been for
you, and how much they are wrapped
up in your welfare you will never ap-
preciate. Have you by word or gift or
behavior expressed your thanks? Or
if you cannot quite get up to say it
face to face, have you written it in
some holiday salutation? The time
will soon pass and they will be gone
out of your sight, and their ears will |
hnir
If you owe them any kindness of deed |
or any words of appreciation, why do
you not say so?
My subject takes wider range. The |
Lord has hundreds of thousands of |
people among those who have never
joined His army because of some high |
ideal of what a Christian should be, or
because of fear that they may not |
hold out, or because of spirit of pro-
licly professed Christ. They have as
much right to the sacrament and as
much right to all the privileges of the
the church as thousands who have for
years been enrolled in church mem ber-
ship, and yet they have made no posi-
tive utterance by which the world may
know they love God and are on the road
to Heaven. They are redeemed of the
Lord, and yet do not say so.
Oh, what an raugmentation it would
be if by some divine impulse all those
outsiders should become insiders. l
tell you what what would bring them
to their right places. and perhaps
nothing else will Days of persecu-
ton! If they were compelled to take
sides as between Christ and His enc
mics they would take the side of
Christ, and the faggots and the instru-
ments of torture, and the anathemas
of all earth and hell would not make
them blanch. Martyrs are made out
of such stu fl as they are. But let them
not wait for such days as pray to God
may never come. Drawn by the sense
Of fairness and justice and obligation,
let them show their colors. Let the
redeemed of the Lord say so!
A Christian woman said once to her
pastor: MY usefulness is done. do
not know why my life is spared any
longer, because l can do no good"
Then the pastor replied: 'You do me