The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1896-05-07

let the redeemed Of the Lord say so,
A.. overture, an a%ntiphon, a doxolo-
~ is this chapter ,and III my text Da-
vid calls for an outspoken religion, and
requests all who have been rescued
and blessed no longer to hide the
splendid facts but to recite them,
publish them, and, as as far as posi-
BILE, let ali the world know about it.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say So"
There is a sinful reticence which has
been almost canonized. The people
are quite as outspoken as they ought
to be on all subjects of politics, and
are fluent and voluble on the Venezu-
elan question, and b%imetallism, and
tariffs, high and low and remodeled,
and female suffrage, and you have to
skillfully watch your chance If you
want to put into the active conversa-
ton a mild suggestion of your own;
but on the subject of divine goodness,
religious experience and eternal bless
ednesS they are not only silent but
boaStful of their reticence. Now, If
you have been redeemed by the Lord,
why do you not say SO? If you nave
In your heart the pearl of great price,
worth more than the Kohinoor among
Victorian jewels, why not let others
see it? If you got off the wreck in
the breakers. why not tell of the crew
and fine stout life-boat that safely land
ed you? If from the fourth story you
are rescued in time of contia grafton,
why not tell of the fireman and the
ladder down which he carried you?
If they have a mansion in heaven
awaiting you why not show the deed
to those who may by the same process
get an emerald castle on the same
boulevard? BY the last two words of
my text David calls upon all of us who
have received any mercy at the hand
Of God to stop impersonating the asy-
lums for the dumb, and in the pres
ence of men, women. angels, devils,
and all worlds, SAY So"
In these January days. thousands Of
ministers and private Christians are
wondering about the best ways of
starting a revival of religion. l can
tell you of a way of starting a revival.
continental, hemisphere and world
vide: You say a revival started in
heaven. Well, it starts in heaven Just
as a prosperous harvest starts in heav-
en-. The sun must shine, and the rains
must descend, but unless you pillow
and SOW and cultivate the earth you
will not raise a bushel Of wheat or a
peck of corn between now and the end
Of the world. How. then, shall a uni
rersal revival start? BY all Christian
people telling the story of their own
conversion. Let ten men and women
get up next week in your prayer meet
ing and, not in a conventional or cant
Ing or doleful way but in the same
tone they employ in the family or
place Of business. and tell how they
crossed the line and the revival will
begin then and there, if the prayer
meeting has not been so dull as to
drive out all except those concerning
whom it was foreordained from all
eternity that they should be there.
There are so many different ways of
being converted that we want to hear
Ill kinds, so that u own case MAY be
helped. 1t always puts me back to
hear only one kind of experience, such
As a man gives when he tells Of his
Pauline conversion-how he was
Knocked senseless, and then he lad a
visloN and heard voices and after a
certain number of days of horror got
dp and shouted for joy. All that dis
courages me, for l was never knocked
senseless, and l never had such a sud
den burst of religious rapture that |
lost my equilibrium.
But after a while a Christian man
got up in some meeting and told us
how he was brought up by a devaut
parentage, and had always been
thoughtful about religious things, and
gradually the peace of the gospel came
Into his soul like the dawn of the
inorning-no perceptible difference be-
tween moment and moment-but after
n while all perturbation settled down
into a hope that had consoled and
strengthened him during all the vicis-
STUDIES of a lifetime. I said: "That
Is eXhilarating; that was my expert
ence," and so l was strengthened. In
another prayer meeting a man got I'm
and told how he once hated God, and
went through all the round of iniquity,
until We were all on nettles lest he
should go too much into the particu-
lars, but one day he was, by some re-
ligiOus power, hurled fiat. and then got
w ohl III has ctcI SlIltc
going round with a Baxter Bible
with large flaps under his arm, a float
ing evangelist. Well under this story,
many are not helped at all, for they
know they hated God and tney
were never dissolute. But, after Il
while, some Christian woman arises
II says: II have nothing eXtraor-
to tell; vet | think the cares of
IJfn tho nnvintinc oIa,,4 ~..-
and two graves opened in our family
plot. make me feel the need of God.
and weak, and helpless and heartbrok-
flung myself upon his mercy, and
| feel what the Bible calls the
peace of God which passeth all under
standing and | ask your prayers.
that l may live nearer to the Christ
who has done so much for me-" I de-
clare that before that mi got
through we We're all crying, not bitter
tears. but tears of joyful emotion. and
In three days, in that neighborhood.
all the ice had gone out of the river in
a. springtime freshet of salvation.
"Let the redeemed of the Lord say
So"
have but little interest in what peo-
pie say about religion as an abstrac-
ton. but l have illimitable interest in
what people say about what they have
personally felt of religion. 1t was an
expression of personal gratitude for
personal salvation which led Charlie,
Wesley, after a season of great dc
about his soul, aud Christ
had spoken pardon, to write that i'm
mortal hymn:
Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing