The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1896-01-31
house. Yet here Abimelech and his

4SSAi' aAtbobSh L oupPOsO oOlhO Vi bbO OA'
Israelitish heroes told Abimelech, "Yo1
are only going up there to be cut t,
pieces. " Yet you are willing to testif,
today that by no other mode-certainl,
not by ordinary modes-could that tenn
pie so easily, SO thoroughly, have beer
taken. Fathers and mothers, brethren
and sisters in Jesus Christ, what thu
church most wants to learn this day il
that any plan is right, is lawful, is best
which helps to overthrow the temple O.
sin and capture this world for God. W.
are very apt to stick to the old modes o.
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 thousand spears where
we have ten. And so the castle of sir
stands. Oh, my friends, we will never
capture this world for God by any keen
saber of sarcasm, by any glittering lanoes
of rhetoric, by any sapping and mining
of profound disquisition, by any gun.
powdery explosions of indignation. by
sharpshootings of wit, by howitzers OF
mental strength made to swing shell
five miles, by cavalry horses gorgeously
oaparisoned paving the air. In vain all
the attempts on the part of these ecclesi-
astical foot soldiers, light horsemen and
grenadiers.
My friends, l propose different
! style of tactics. Let each one go to the
forest of Gods promise and invitation
and hew down branch and put it on
his shoulder, and let us all come around
these obstinate iniquities, and then with
this pile kindled by the fires of holy
zeal and the flames of consecrated life
we will burn them out. What steel can
not do, fire may. And announce myself
in favor Of any plan of religious attack
that succeeds-any plan of religious at
tack, however radical, however odd,
however unpopular, however hostile to
all conventionalities of church and state.
If one style of prayer does not do the
work, let us try another style. Ii the
church music of today does not get the
victory, then let us make the assault
with backwoods chorus. If prayer
meeting at half past in the evening
does not succeed, let us have one as
early in the morning as when the angel
found wrestling Jacob too much for
him. If a sermon with three authorized
heads does not do the work, then let us
have a sermon with 30 heads or no
heads at all. We want more heart in our
song, more heart in our almsgiving,
more heart in our prayers, more heart
in our preaching.
Blood Red Fact.
Oh, for less of Abimelech's sword and
more of Abimelech's confagration I
had often heard
There Is a fountain filed with blood
sung artistically by four birds perohed
ON their Sunday roost in the gallery un
til I thought of Jenny Lind and Nilsson
and Sontag and all the other warblers,
but there came not one tear to my eye
nor one master emotion to my heart.
But one night went down to the Afri
can Methodist meeting house in Phila-
delphia, and at the close of the service
a black woman in the middle of the au-
dience began to sing that hymn, and all
the audience joined in, and we were
fioated some three or four miles nearer
heaven than 1 have ever been since.
saw with my own eyes that fountain
filed with blood red, agonizing, sac
rifcial, redemptive-and 1 heard the
crimson plash of the wave as we all
went down under it.
For sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.
Oh, my friends, the gospel is not a
syllogism; it is not casuistry; it is not
polemics, or the science of squabbles. 1t
is blood red fact; it is warm hearted in
vitation; it is leaping, Bounding, flying
good news; it is ef1orescent with all
light; it is rubescent with all summary
glow; it is arborescent with all sweet
shade / have seen the sun rise ON Mount
Washington, and from the Tiptop House,
but there was no beauty in that COM
pared with the dayspring from ON high
when Christ gives light to soul. l have
heard Parepa sing, but there was no
music in that compared with the voice
of Christ when he said, "Thy sins are
forgiven thee; 60 in peace. Good
news Let every one cut down branch
of this tree of life and wave it. Let him
throw it down and kindle it. Let all the
way from Mount Zalmon to Shechem be
filled with the tossing joy. Good news
This bonfire of the gospel shall consume
the last temple of sin, and will illumine
the sky with apocalyptic joy. that Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sin
ners. Any new plan that makes man
quit his sin, and that prostrates wrong,
1 am as much in favor of as though all
the doctors, and the bishops, and the
archbishops, and the synods, and the
academical gownsmen of Christianity
sanctioned it, The temple of Berth
must come down, and do not care how
1t comes.
The Power Of Example.
Still further learn from this subject
the power of example. If Abimelech
had sat down ON the grass and told his
men to go and get the boughs and 60
out to the battle, they would never have
gone at all, or if they had it would have
been without any spirit or effective re-
suit, but when Abimelech goes with his
own ak and hews down branch and
with Abimelech's arm puts it ON Abim-