Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-01-28

EGS the splendid Facts,
g but to recite them,
publish them, and as far as possible let
all the world know about it, LET the
redeemed of the Lord say So" There
is sinful reticence which has been al
most canonized. The people are quite
IS outspoken as they ought to be on all
s1bjects of politics, and are fluent and
Ioluble on the Venezuelan question, and
bimetallism, and tariffs, nigh and low
and remodeled, and female suffrage,
and you have to skillfully watch your
chance if you want to put into active
conversation a modest suggestion of
your own; but on the subject of divine
goodness, religious experience, and
eternal blessedness they are not
only silent, but boastful of their reti-
cence. Now, if you have been redeemed
OF the Lord, why do you not say so?
II you have in your heart the pearl of
great price, worth more than the Kohl
moor 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 the stout life boat that
safely landed you? If from the fourth
story you are rescued in time of con-
1iagration, why not tell of the fireman
and the ladder down which he carried
you? If you 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 boule-
yard? 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 asylums
for the dumb, and in the presence 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 way of start
ing a revival of religion. l can tell you
a way of starting revival, continental,
hemisphere and worldwide. You say
revival starts in heaven. Well, it
starts in heaven just as prosperous
harvest starts in heaven. The sun
must shine and the rains must descend,
but unless you pillow and sow and culti-
vate the earth you will not raise a
bushel of wheat or a peck of corn be-
tween now and the end of the world.
How, then, shall a universal 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 meeting and, not in
conventional or canting or doleful way,
but in the same tone they employ in the
family or place of business, tell
how they crossed the line, and the re-
yival will begin then and there, if the
prayer meeting has not been so dull
as to drive out all except those concern
ing whom it was foreordained for all
eternity that they should be there.
There are so many different ways of
being converted that We want to hear
all kinds, so that our 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 had a Wis
ion and heard voices, and after GER
cain number of days of horror got up
and shouted for joy. All that discour-
ages me, for was never knocked sense
less, and | never had such a sudden
burst of religious rapture that / lost
my equilibrium. But after awhile a
Christian man got up in some meeting
and told us how he was brought up by a
devout 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 morn
ing-no perceptible difference between
moment and moment-but after awhile
all perturbation settled down into a
hope that had consoled and strength
ened him during all the vicissitudes of
a lifetime. / said, aThat is exhilarat-
ing; that was my experience" and so 1
was strengthened. In another prayer
meeting a man got up and told us 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 particulars, but one day he was
by some religious power hurled at, and
then got up Christian, and had ever
since been going around with Baxter
Bible with large flaps under his arm, a
floating evangelist. Well, under this
story many are not helped at all, for
they know they never hated God, and
they were never dissolute. But after
awhile some Christian woman arises
and says. II have nothing eXtraordi
nary to tell; yet think the cares of life
the anxieties about my children, and
two graves opened in our family plot
and helpless and hcast-DrcEcn, fiuag
myself upon his mercy, and feel what
the Bible calls the peace OF God which
passeth all understandings and / ask
your prayers that ] may live nearer to
the Christ who has done so arcn fer
me- declare that before that woman
got through we were all crying, not
bitter tears, but tears Of joyful emotion,
and in three days, in that ncighbor,
hood, all the ice had gone out of the
river in springtime freehet of saliva
ton. Let the redeemed OF the Lord
say So"
What confirmation would come If