The Monitor-register., 1896-01-31

not do, fire may. And announce mvse,f
in favor of any plan of religious attack
that succeeds-any plan of religions at
tack, however radical, however odd
however unpopular, however hostile to
all 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 today does not get the
victory, then let us make the assault
with backwoods chorus If a nraver
! meeting at half past z in the evening
does not succeed, let us have one as
early IN the morning as when the angel
found wrestling Jacob too much for
/ him. If sermon with three authorized
heads does not do the work, then let us
have sermon with 20 heads or no
heads at all. We want more heart in opr
song, more heart in our almsgiyinp.
more heart i'll our prayers, more heart
in our preaching.
A Blood Red Fact.
, Oh, for less of Abimelech's sword and
more of Abimelech's confiagration! I
had often heard
There is fountain filled with blood
sung artistically by four birds perched
on their Sunday roost in the gallery un-
til l thought of Jenny Lind and Nilsson
and Sontag and all the other warblers.
but there came not one tear to nv eve
nor one master emotion to my heart.
But one night | went down to the Afri-
can Methodist meeting house in Phila-
delphia, and at the close of the service
a black woman in the middle of the au.
dience began to sing that hymn, and all
the audience Joined in, and we were
hoated some three or four miles nearer
heaven than l have ever been since. /
saw with my own eyes that fountain
filled with blood"-red, agonizing. sac
rificial, redemptive-and l heard the
crimson plash of the wave as we all
went down under it.
For sinners plunged beneath that food
Lose all their guilty stains.
Oh, my friends, the gospel is not
syllogism; it is not casuistry; it is not
polemlcs, or the science of squabbles. 1t
is blood red fact; it is warm hearted in
vitation; it is leaping. bounding, flying
good news; it is effiorescent with all
light; it is rubescent with all summery
glow; it is arborescent with all sweet
shade. l have seen the sun rise on Mount
Washington, and from the Tiptop House,
but there was no beauty in that COM
pared with the dayspring from ON high
when Christ gives light to soul. 1 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
news! Let every one cut down 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
filled with the tossing joy. Good news !
This bonfire of the gospel shall consume
| the last temple of sin, and will i1lumine
the sky with apocalyptic joy. that Jesus
| Christ came into the world to save sin
ners. Any new plan that makes a man
| quit his sin, and that prostrates wrong,
l 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 temple of Berth
| must come down, and do not care how
| it comes.
The Power of Example.
Still further learn from this subject
| the power of example If Abimelech
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 or effective re-
suit, but when Abimelech goes with his
own ak and hews down branch and
with Abimelech S arm puts it OH Ahim-
elech's 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 IA father on the wrong road.
| All his boys go on the wrong road
| Here is father who enlists for Christ
| His children enlist l saw in some of
| the picture galleries of Europe that be-
! fore many of the great works of the
| masters he old masters, there would be
sometimes four and five artists taking
copies of the pictures. These copies they
were going to carry with them, perhaps
to distant lands, and I have thought
that your life and character are mas
terpiece, and it is being copied, and
long after you are gone it will bloom or
blast in the homes of those who knew
you and be 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 holy
life. The best music ever chanted is
consistent walk. If you want others to
serve God, serve him yourself. If you
want others to shoulder their duty,
shoulder yours. Where Abimelech goes
his troops go. Oh, start out for heaven
today, 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 inf
mite, the semiomnipotent power of good
or bad example!
l | saw last summer, near the beach,
wrecker's machine. 1t was a cylinder
with some holes at the side, made for
the thrusting in of some long poles with
strong leverage, and when there is any
vessel in trouble or going to pieces IN
the offing, the wreckers shoot rope out
to the suffering men. They grasp it, and
the wreckers turn the cylinder, and the
rope winds around the cylinder, and
those who are shipwrecked are saved.
q - r. In