Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-07-04


Of Du Chaillu and Livingstone in tho
African thtoket with . faint heart and
q weak knee? When q panther comes
within 20 PAGES Of you and it has its eye
on you and IT has squatted for the fear
full spring, Steady therei''
Courage, O ye spiritual archersl
There are great monsters in iniquity
prowling all around about the commu-
nifty. Shall we not Of the strength Of
God go forth and combat them? We not
only need more heart, but more back
bone. What is the church of God that
it should fear to look in the eye any
transgression? There is the Bengal tiger
of drunkenness that prowls around, and
instead of attacking it. how many of us
hide under the church pew or the COM
munion tablet There is so much invested
in it we are afraid to assault it millions
of dollars in barrels, in watts, in spigots,
in corkscrews, in gin palaces with mar
Bile floors and italian top tables, and
chased ice coolers and in the strychnine
and the logwood and the tartaric acid
and the nux yomica that go to make up
our pure American drinks l looked
with wondering eyes ON the Heidelberg
tun." 1t is the great liquor vat of Ger
many, which is said to hold 500 hogs
heads of wine, and only three times in
100 years it has been filed But, as I
stood and looked at it, said to myself !:
That is nothing-600 hogsheads. Why
our American vat holds 2, 500, 900 bar
rels of strong drinks, and we keep 200,-
600 men with nothing to do but to see
that it is filled. OIL to attack this
great monster of intemperance, and the
kindred monsters of fraud and unciean-
ness, requires you to rally all your
Christian courage. Through the press,
through the pulpit, through the plat
form, you must assault it Would to
God that all our American Christians
would band together, not for crack
Drained fanaticism, but for holy Chris
tian reform.
l think it was in 1898 that there
went out from Lucknow, India, under
the sovereign, the greatest hunting
party that was ever projected. There
were 10, 900 armed men III that hunting
party. There We're camels and horses
and elephants. On some princes rode,
and royal ladies under exquisite hous-
ings, and 500 coolies waited upon the
train, and the desolate places of India
were invaded by this excursion, and the
rhinoceros, the deer and elephant fell
under the stroke of saber and bullet.
After awhile the party brought back
trophies worth $4,000 rupees, having
left the wilderness of India CHASTITY
with the slain bodies of wild beasts.
Would to God that, instead CT here and
there straggler going out to fight these
great monsters of iniquity in our coun-
try, the million membership of our
churches would band together and hew
in twain these great crimes that make
the land frightful with their roar and
are fattening upon the bodies and souls
of immortal menl Who is ready for such
a party as that? Who will be mighty
hunter for the Lord?
The Game.
remark, again, if you want to be
successful in spiritual archery you need
not only to bring down the game, but
bring it in. / think one of the most
beautiful pictures of Thorwaldsen is his
Autumn. 1t represents a sportsman
coming home and standing under a
grapevine. He has a staff over his
shoulder, and ON the other end of that
staff are hung rabbit and brace of
birds. Every hunter brings home the
game. No one would think of bringing
down reindeer or whipping up q
stream for trout and letting them lie in
the woods. At eventide the camp is
adorned with the treasures of the forest
-beak and fin and antler. If you go out
to hunt for immortal souls, not only
bring them down under the arrow of
the gospel, but bring them into the
church of God, the enc ;mpment we
have pitched this side Of the skies.
Fetch them in. Do not LET them lie out
in the open field. They need our prayers
and sympathies and help That is the
meaning of the church of God-help.
o We hunters for the Lord, not only
bring down the game, but bring it inl
If Mithridates liked hunting so well
that for seven years he never went in
doors, what enthusiasm ought we to
have who are hunting for immortal
souls! If Domitianus practiced archery
until he could stand hoy down in the
Roman amphitheater, with hand out,
the fingers like that, and then the king
could shoot an arrow between the fingers
without wounding them, to what drill
and what practice ought not we subject
ourselves in order to become spiritual
archers and mighty hunters before the
LordP' But let me say, you will never
work any better than you pray The old
archers took the bow, put one end of it
down beside the foot, elevated the other
end, and it was the rule that the bow
should be Just the size of the archer; if
it were just his size, then he would go
into the battle with confidence. Let me
say that your power to project good in
the world will correspond exactly to
your own spiritual stature. In other
words, the first thing in preparation for
Christian work is personal conservation.
Oh, for closer walk with God,
A calm and heavenly Frame
light to shine upon the road
That leads me to the Lamb.
am sure that there are some here
who at some time have been hit by the
Gospel arrow. You felt the wound of
that conviction, and you plunged into
the world deeper; just as the stag, when
the hounds are after it, plunges into
Scroon lake, expecting in that way to
escape. Jesus Christ is on your track to-
day, impenitent mani not in wrath, but
in mercy. o We chased and painting
soulsi here is the stream Of Gods mercy
and salvation. where you may cool your
thirst Stop that chase of sin today. By
the red fountain that leaped from the
heart of my Lord, bid you stop. Is
there in all this house anyone who can
refuse the offer that comes from the
heart of the dying Son of God? Why,
do You know that there are, in the BAN
ished world, souls that, for that offer
you get today, would fling the crown of
the universe at your feet, if they pos.
sessed it? But they went out on the
mountains, the storm took them, and
they died,
There is in a forest in Germany a
place they call the deer leap''-two
crags about IS feet apart, between them
fearful chasm. This is called the
"deer leap" because once hunter was