The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-02-01

ever radical, however odd, however I'M
popular, however hostile to all the
conventionalities of church and state.
If one style of prayer does not do the
work, let US try another style. If the
church music of to-day does
not get the victory, then let us
make the assault with a back
woods chorous. If a prayer meeting
at 7:3O in the evening does not succeed,
let us have one as early in the morn
ing as when the angel found wrestling
Jacob too much for linn. If a sermon
with the three authorized heads does
not do the work, then let us have a
sermon with 20 heads, or no heads at
all. We want more hear in our song,
more heart in our almsgiving, more
heart in our prayers, more heart in
our preaching. oh, for less of Abim-
elech's sword and more of Abimelech's
confiagration! 1 had often heard
There is a fountain flied with blood
sung artistically by four birds perched
on their Sunday roost in the gallery
until / 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
African Methodist meeting house in
Philadelphia, and at the close of the
service a black woman, in the middle
of the audience, began to sing that
hymn, and all the audience Joined in,
and we were hoated some three or four
miles nearer Heaven than / have ever
been since. 1 saw with my own eye
that fountain filed with blood"-red,
agonizing, sacrificial, r~edemptive and I
heard the crimson plash of the wave
as we all went down under it.
For sinners plunged beneath that food
Lose all their guilty stain.
Oh, my friends, the gospel is not a
syllogism; it is not casuistry; it is not
polemics, or the science of SQUAD 5les.
1t is blood-red fact; it is warm-hesrted
invitation; it is leeping, bounding, fly
ing good news; it is efi1orescent with
all light; it is rubescent with all sum-
merry glow; it is ar0orescent with all
sweet shade. 1 have seen the sun rise
on Mount Washington, and 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 a soul. l have heard Parepa sing;
but there was no music in hat COM
pared with the voice of Christ when He
said: Thy sins are forgiven thee; go in
peace" Good newsi Let everyone cut
down a 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 filed with the
tossing Joy. Good newsl This bonfire
of the gospel shall the last
temple of sin, and will illumine the
skg with apocalyptic joy, that Jesus
Christ came into the world to ave sim
ners. Any new plan that makes a
man quit his sin, and that prostrates a
wrong, / 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 tenn
pie of Berth must come down, and I
do not care how it comes.
Still further, / learn from this sub
ject the power of example. If Abime-
lech had 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 without any spirit
effective result; but wnen Abime-
ACEA EoCo 4 lio w "a ano ACWo
down a branch, and with Abimelech's
arm puts it on Abimelech's shoulder,
and marches on, then, my text says,
the people did the same. How
natural that wasl What made Carl
baldi and Stonewell jackson the most
magnetic commanders of this century?
They always rode ahead. Oh, the
overwhelming power of examplel
Here is a father on the wrong
road; all his boys go on the
who enlists for Christ; his children
enlisted.
I saw in some of the picture galleries
of Europe, that before many of the
great works of the masters-the old
masters-there would be sometimes
or five artists taking copies of the
pictures. These copies they are going
to carry with them, perhaps to distant
lands; and I have thought that your
life and character are a masterpiece,
and it is being copied. and long after
you are gone 1t will bloom or blast In
homes of those who knew you, and
be a Gorgon or a Madonna. Look out
what you say. Look out what you do.
Eternity viii hear the echo. The best
'ermon ever preached is q holy life.
The best music ever chanted is a con-
iistent walk. II you want others to
erve God, serve Him yourself. If you
want others to shoulder their duty,
ihoulder yours. When Abimelech goes
lis troops go. Oh, start out for Heaven
o-day, and your family will come after
'ou, n your business associates will
'ome after you, and your social friends
will Join yon. With one branch of the
rec of life for a baton, marshal Just
IS many as you can gather. oh, h
the semi-omnipotent power of
good OIL bad cxamplel
Still further, / learn from this sub
ect the advantage of concerted action.
I Abimelech had merely gone out
With q t~ree-branch, the work would
lot have been accomplished, or If ten,
wenty or thirty men had gone; but ]
when all the axes are lifted and all the
harp edges fall, and all these men ]
AIRY each his tree branch down and
brow it about the temple, the victory {
8 g~ained-the temple falls My friends,
where there is one man in the church g
# God at this day shouldering his l
Whole duty, there are a great many q
Who never lift an AK or swing a !,
1t seems to me as if there 8
we're ten drones in every hive to one =
'usy bee; az though there were :
0 sailors sound asleep in the ships :
ammocks to four men on the stormy .
eek. 1t seems as if there were So 900 :
belonging to the reserve corps y
only 1000 active combatants- a
In o former charge, one Sabbath, 1 7
ook into the pulpit the church rec :,
rds. and ! laid them on the pulpit and :
pened them, and .saidt Brethren, y
ere are the church records. find . :
reat many of you whose names are
here are off duty" Some were
fraid I would read the names. for at
nat time some of them were deep in j
he worst kind of oil stocks, and were q
lis as to Christian work. But if min D
'ters OF Christ to-day should bring Ii
ne church records into the pulpit and o
sad, oh, what a Autter there would n
ell There would not be fans enough n
church to keep the cheeks cool. 1 %