The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-27
and more OF Abimelech's eonhagration.


there came not one tear TO my eye, nor
one master emotion 10 my heart. But
one niEht 4 went down 20 the African
Methodist meeting house in Philadelphia
and ~ the close Of the service a black
woman. in the middle of the audience
hegaf TO sing that hymn. and all the au-
dience Joined in. and We were hoated
some three or four miles nearer heaven
than have ever been since. / saw with
my own eyes that fountain filled with
blood red agonizing, sacrincial, re
demptive. and / heard the crimson plash
OF the wave as We all went down under II.
For sinners plunged beneath that food
Lose all their guilty stains.
Oh. my friends. the gospel is not a syl-
logism; it is not casuistry; IL IS not pole
mics. or the science OF squabbles. II is
blOOd-red fact. IL Is warm-hearted invi-
tatiOn; IL is leaping, bounding. flying good
news; Il is efiiOrescent with all light' II IS
rubescent with all summary glow; II IS
arborescent with all sweet shade, i nave
seen the sun rise on Mount " Washington,
ana from the Tip-tOp house; but there
was no beauty in that compared with the
day-spring from on high when Christ gives
light to soul / 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; go in peace"
Good newsl Let every one cut down a
branch OF this tree Of life and wave II.
Let him throw IL down and
Mount Zalmon to Shechem be filled
with the tossing joy. Good news!
i MS DonllFe OF the gospel budil GoilSuInt
the last temple of sin, and will illumine
the sky with apoclyptic joy. that Jesus
Christ came into the world to save SIN
neIs. Any new plan that makes man
quit his sin, and that prOstrates wrong,
] am as much in favor of as though all
the doctors, and the bishops, and the arch
bishops and the synods. and the aca-
demical gownsmen of Christianity sane
toned IL. The temple of Berth must
come down, and / do not care how II
comes.
Still. further. I learn from this subject
the power OF example If Ahimelech mad
sat down on the grass. and told his men
TO go and get the bOughs. and go out TO the
battle, they would never have gone at all,
or If they had, it would have been with
out any spirit or effective result but when
Abimelech goes with his own AK and hews
down a branch, and with Abimelech's arm
puts II on Ahimelechs shoulder, and
marches on. then, my text says, all the
people did the same How natural that
was What made Garibaldi and Stonewall
Jackson the most magnetic commanders
Of this century? They always rode ahead.
Oh. the overwhelming power of example,
Here is a father on the wrong road; all
his boys go on the wrong road. Here is
a father who enlists for Christ; his chill
dren enlist. ! saw in some of the picture
galleries Of Europe, that before many of
the great works of the masters-the old
masters-there would he sometimes four
or five artists taking copies of the pictures
THESE copies they are going to carry with
them, perhaps to distant lands; and
have thought that your life and character
are masterpiece. and it is being copied
and long after you are gone IL will bloom
or blast in the homes of those who knew
you, and be a GorgOn or a. Madonna. Look
out what you say. Look out what you do
Eternity will hear the echo. The best
sermon ever preached is a holy life The
best music ever chanted is a consistent
walk. If you want others to serve God
serve Him yourself If you want others to
shoulder their duty. shoulder yours.
start out for heaven to-day, and your
family Will come after you, and
your business associates will come
after you and your social friends
will join you. With one branch
of the tree of life for a baton marshal
Just as many as you can gather. Oh
the infinite. the semi-omnipotent power
OF good or bad example.
l saw last summer. near the beach, a
wrecker's machine. 1t was a cylinder with
some holes at the side. made for the thrust
ing IN or some long poles with strong lew
eragei and when there is any vessel in
trouble or going to pieces in the ofIiing
the wreckers shoot rope out to the suf-
fering men. They grasp il. and the wreck
erS turn the cylinder, and the rope winds
around the cylinder, and those who are
shipwrecked are saved. So at your feet,
to-day, there is an influence with a ire
mendous leverage. The rope attached to
1t swings far out into the billowy flu
ture. Your children, your chldren's chill
dren, and all the generations that are to
follow will grip that influence, and feel
the long-reaching pull long after the fig
ures on your tombstones are so near worn
out that the visitor cannot tell whether it
was 1896, 1886 or 1896, that YOU died
Still, further, learn from this subject
the advantage of concerted action. If
Abimelech had merely gone out with a
tree-branch, the work would not have been
accomplished, of If ten, twenty, or thirty
men had gone; but when all the axes are
lifted and all the sharp edges fall and all
these men carry each his tree branch
down and throw IL about the temple, the
victory is gained-the temple falls. MY
friends, where there is one man in the
church of God at this day shoudering his
whole duty. there are a great many who
never lift an ak or swing bOugh. 1t seems
to me as if there were ten drones in every
hive to one busy bee; as though there were
twenty sailors sound asleep in the ships
hammocks to four men on the stormy deck.
1t seems as if there were fifty thousand
men belonging to the reserve corps, and
only one thousand active combatants. oh.
we all want our boats to get over to the
golden sands; but the most of us are seat
ed either in the PROV or
in the stern. wrapped in our
striped shawl, holding a bg-handed sun
shade, while others arch listered in the
heat, and pull until the oar-locks groan,
and the blades bend till they snap. Oh,
you religious sleepy heads, wake up! You
have lain so long in one place that the
ants and caterpillars have begun to crawl
over youi What do you know, my broth
er, about living gospel made to storm
the world? Now, my idea of Christian
Is a man on fire with zeal for God; and if
your pulse ordinarily beats sixty time a
minute when you think of other themes,
and talk about other themes, if your pulse
Toes mot go up to seventy-five or eighty
when you come to talk about Christ and
heaven, it is because you do not know
the one, and have poor chance of getting
to the other.
In former charge one Sabbath took
into the pulpit the church records, and 1
laid them on the pulpit and opened them,
and said: Brethren, here are the church
records. ind great many of you whose
names are down here are off duty" Some
were afraid l would read the names for a I
that time some of them were deep in the
worst kind of oil stocks, and were idle
to Christian work. But if ministers of
Christ to-day should bring the church
records into the pulpit and read oh what
a fiutter there would bel There would NOT
be fans enough in church to keep the
cheeks cool. l do not know but it would
be a good thing If the minister once in a
while should bring the church records in
the pulpit and call the roll, for that is
what l consider every church record to be
merely muster-roll of the Lords army
and the reading of ii should reveal where
every soldier is and what he Is doing
Suppose, in military circles on the
morning of battle. the roll is called, and
! out of a thousand men only a hundred
men in the regiment answered. What
| excitement there would be in the Camp
| What would the colonel VIVA :