Milford chronicle., 1896-07-03

its orbit and bring il back to the heart OF
Christ Give it fun swing ard it will
pardon every sin, heal every wound, cure
every trouble, cmHncipate every slave and
/ ransom every nation. Ye Christian men
and women who 60 out this afternoon to
/ do Christian work, as you go into the sun
day Schools the lay preaching statiors and
I the pCnitcntiaries and the asyluns want
you to feel that you bear in your hand a
weapon, compared with which the light
ming has no speed, and ty;llanches have no
hefU, and the thunderbolts OF heaven have
no power. 1t is the arrow of the omnipo-
! tent gospel. Take careful aim Pull the
arrow clear back until the head strikes the
bow. Then let it fly And may the slain
Of the Lord be many.
Searching Tor Game.
Again, if you want to be slillful in
spiritual archery, you must hunt in unfro-
quented and secluded places Why does
the hunter go three or four days in the
Pennsylvania forests or over Raquette lake
into the wilds of the Adirondacks? 1t is
the only way to do The deer are shy, and
ono bang Of the gun clears the forest.
From the California stage you sec ns you
go over the plains here and there coyote
trotting along, almost within range of the
gun-som9tilnes quite within rnnge Of it.
No one cares for that; it is worthless The
good game is hidden and secluded. Every
hunter knows that. So many of the souls
that will be of most worth for Christ and
of most value to the church are secluded
They do not come in your way You VIII
have to go where they are. Yonder they
are down in that cellar; yonder they arc up
in that garrett Far away from the door of
any church, the gospel arrow has not been
pointed at them. The tract distributor and
city missionary sometimes catch glimpse
of them, as a hunter through the trees gets
a mOmentary sight of a partridge or roe
buck. The trouble is we are waiting for
the game to come to us. We arc not good
hunters. We arc standing in some street
or highway expecting that the tilnid ante
lope will come up and eat out of our hands.
We are expecting that the prairie fowl will
light on our church steeplc. 1t is not their
habit If the church should wait 10, 0O0,
600 of years for the world to come in and
be saved, it will wait in vain. The world
will not come What the church wants
now is to lift its feet from damask otto
mans and put them in the stiTrups We
want a pulpit on wheels The church
wants not so much cushions as it wants
saddlebags and arrows. We have got TO
put aside the gown and kid gloves and put
on the hunting shirt We have been fishing
so long in the brooks that run under the
shadow of the church that the fish know
US that they avoid the hook and escape ms
soon as we come to the bank, while yOnder
is Upper Saranac and Big Tupper's lake,
where the first swing Of the gospel net
would break it for the multitude Of the f,
fishes There is outside work to be done, !
What is that l seq i'm the backwOoisy 1t is |
is u tent. The hunters have made clearing
and camped out. What do they care if tiey I
have wet feet, or if they have nothing but /
a pine branch for pillow, or for the north |
east stOrml If a moose in the darkness (
steps into the lake to drink they hear it /
right away. If Il loon cry in the moonlight. /
they hear it.
So in the service Of God we have exposed |
work. We have got to camp ont and rough .
it, We are putting all our care on the peO-
pie who come to our churches What are
we doing for the thousands upon thou
sands that do not come? Have they no
souls? Are they sinless that they need no
pardon? Arc there no dead in their houses
that they need no comfort? Are they cut
off from God to go into oternity-nO wing
to bear them, no light to cheer them, no
welcome to greet them? hear today, surg
ing up from the lower depths, II groan
that comes through our Christian assem-
blages and through our beautiful churches
and it blots out all this scene from my eyes
today, as by the mists of great Niagara,
ioP the dash and the plunge of these great
torrents of Life dropping down into the
and laundering abyss of suffer
ng and woe. l sometimes think that just
IS God blotted out the churches of Thyatira
md Corinth and Laodicea because Of their
10th and stolidity he will blot out Amer
can and English Christianity and raise on
he ruins stalwart, wide awake mission
Try church that can take the full meaning
# that command go into all the world
md preach the gospel to every creature.
Courage.
1 remark, further, if you want to sue
eed i'm spiritual archery you must have
courage If the hunter stand with trem-
ling hand or shoulder that linches with
ear, instead of his taking the catamOunt
he catamount takes him. What would
become of the Grccnlandcr if, when out
uniting for the bear, he should stand shiv-
ring with terror on an iceberg? What
would have become of Du Chaillu and
livingstone in the African thicket with
amt heart and weak knee When pun
her comes within 20 PAGES of you, and it
las its eye on you, ard it has squatted for
he fearful spring, STEADY theIcP'
Courage, . We spiritual aTchcrsl There
re great monsters in iniquity providing all
round about the community. Shall we
lot of the strength of God go forth and
ombat them? We not only need more
cart but more backbone. What is the
hurch of God that 1t should fear to look
n the eye any transgresSion? There is the
Bengal tiger of drunkenness that prOwls
round, and instead Of attacking it how
many of AIS hide under the church pow or
he communion tablet There is so much
invested in it we are afraid to assault it;
Millions of dollars in barrels, In watts, in
pigOts, in corkscrews, in gin palaces with
Marble floors and Italian top tables, and
based ice coolers, and in the strychnine,
nd the logwoOd and the tartaric acid,
nd the nux vomica that go to make up
ur "pure" American drinks / looked
nth wondering eyes ON the heidelberg ,
nn." 1t is the great liquor vat Of Ger !
lany, which is said to hold 500 hcgsheads
( wing, and only three times in 100 years
has been filed. But as stood and look
i at is said to myself: ''That is nothing
w uOHsutiltLS Why OuA s@l-AcAANttA Wv !
olds 2, 500 600 barrels Of strong drinks
nd we keep 200, 900 men with nothing to
o but to sec that it is filled. OH to at (,
lck this great monster of intemperance, I
nd the kindred monsters of fraud and I'M !
eanness, requires you to rally all your y
hristian courage. Through the press,
trough the pulpit, through the platform, n
Oh must assault it. Would to God that
Il our American Christians would band .
,gether, not for crack Drained fanaticism, Il
ut for holy Christian reform. l think it 4
as in 1898 that there went out from II
lucknow, India, under the sovereign, the f.
reatest hunting party that was ever pro a
,cted. There were 10000 armed men in h
nat hunting party. There were camels Il
nd horses and elephants. On some princes a
,de and royal ladies under exquisite ;
0usings, and 500 coolies waited upon the q
ain, and the desolate places Of India were /,
lvaded by this excursion, and the rhi- 7
oceros the deer and elephant fell under n
i III