The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-29

LlL ana lrlus d mack 70 the heart OF
Christ Give ia FUN swing. and Il viii
pardon every sin. heal every wound cure
every trouble. emancipare every slave,
and ransom every nation. Ae Christian
20 90 christian work, as you 90 into the
sunday schools, the lay preaching sta
tons. and the peuitentiaries. and the asy-
llnls, i want you 20 feel that you bear
-A your hand "a weapon, compared WIKI
which the lightning has no speed, and ay-
a-aAclcs have mo- hcft. and the thunder
bolts OF heaven nave no power. it Is tLc
AFRO" OF the omrlpotent gospel Take
careful aim Pull the arrow clear back
uitll the head strikes the bowl Then let
y ~ And may the slain OF the Lord be
many!
Again. IL you want 10 be skllful in
spiritual archery. you must hunt in un-
-trq4tntea and secluded places Why does
me hunter 20 three OF four days IN the
pennsylvania forests or over Raquette
Lake mo the Wilds or the Adirondacks-
lt IS the only way 20 DO. The deer are
shy, and one bang" or the gun clears
the forest. From the California stage you
see as you go over the plains. here and
Llel e. coyote trottiuS along. almost
within range Of the gun-sometimes quite
within range OF 90. No one cares for thar-
TX Is worthless. The good game is hidden
ana secluded Every hunter knows that.
So many OF the souls that viii be of
most worth for Christ and Of most value
10 the church are secluded They do nor
come in your way. You will have TO go
where they are. GOnGer they are down I'm
tnat cellar; yOuder they are up in that
garnet. Far away from the door of any
cnurch, the Gospel arrow has not been
pointed at them. The tract distributor and
OF them. as a hunter through the trees
gets mumentary sight Of partridge or
a roepuk- The trouble is, we are waiting
LOT tne game 10 come TO us. We are NOT
good hunters. We are standing In some
street or highway expecting that the timid
antelope VIII come up and eat out or
our hands. We are expecting that the
pfalrte-fowl VIII light on our church
steeple. 1t is not their habit. III the church
should wait ten millions of years for the
world to come ia and be saved, it VIII
wait in vain. The world viii not come.
What the church wants now is 10 lift its
feet from damask OttOmans. and put them
In the strrups. We want a pulpit on
wheels. The church wants not so much
cushions as it wants saddle-bags and ar
rows. We have got to put aside the
gown and kid-gloves and put on the hunt
ing-Shirt We have been fishing so long
in the brooks that run under the shadow
of he church that the fish know us, that
they avoid the hook, and escape as 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 fishes. There Is outside work 10 be
done. What is that i see in the back
woOds2 1T is a tent. The hunters have
made a clearing and campeu out. what
do they care If they have wet feet, or II
they have nothing but a pine branch for
a pillow, or for the northeast storm:
If a moose i'm the darkness steps into the
lake TO drink, they hear it right away. II
a loon cry in the moonlight, they hear 10.
So in the service of God we have exposed
work. We have got to camp out ana
rough 1T. We are putting all our care on
the people who come TO our churches.
What are we doing for the thousands upon
thousands that do not Gomez Have they
no souls? Are they sinless, that they
need no pardon? Are there no dead in
their houses, that they need no COM
fort2 Are they cut off from God, TO go
INTO eternity-no wing to bear them, TO
Light to cheer them, no welcome to greet
them? 1 hear to-day surging up from the
lower depths, a groan that comes through
our Christian assemblages and through
our beautiful churches and 1t blOts out all
this scene from my eyes to-day, as by the
mists of a great Niagara, for the dash and
the plunge of these great torrents Of life
dropping down into the fathOmiess and
laundering abyss of suffering and Woe l
sometimes think that just as God blotted
out the churches of Thyatira and Corinth
and Laodicea, because of their sloth and
stolidity, he will blot out American and
English Christianity, and raise on the
ruins a stalWart. Wide-aWake, missionary
church, that can take the fun meaning OF
that command, Go into all the world,
and preach the gospel to every creature"
l remark, further, if you want to sue
coed i'm spiritual archery YOU must have
bling hand or shoulder that flinches with
fear, instead of his taking the catamount.
the catamount takes him. What would
become of the Greenldnder IT, when out
hunting for the bear he should stand
shivering with terror on an iceberg? What
would have become of Du Chaillu and
Livingstone in the African thicket, with
a faint heart and weak knee? When
a panther comes within twenty PAGES of
you and 1t has its eye on you and it has
squatted for the fearful spring STEADY
thereP
Courage, o We spiritual archers! There
are great monsters in iniquity prowling
all around about the community. Shall
we not of the strength of God go forth
and combat them? We not only
need more heart but more backbone.
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 at
lacking 1T, how many OF us hide under
the church pew or the communion table!
! There is so much invested in it we are
afraid to assault it; millions of dollars in
barrels, in vats in spigots, in cOrkscrews,
in gin palaces with marble floors and
Italian top tables, and chased ice cool
ers, and in the strychnine, and the log
wood, and the tartaric acid, and the nuX
vomca, that go to make up our pure"
American drinks. 1 looked with wonder
ing eyes on the Heidelberg tun." 1t is
| the great liquor vat of Germany, which
is said to hold 500 hogsheads
| dred years it has been filled. But, as
| I stood and looked at it, / said to myself:
| That is nothing-eight hundred hogs
heads. Why our American vat holds two
| million, five hundred thousand barrels of
! strong drinks, and we keep two hundred
| thousand men with nothing to do but to
! see that 1t is filled" OH TO attack this
| great monster of intemperance and the
| kindred monsters of fraud and unclean-
| ness, requires you to rally all your Chris
/ tian courage. Through the press through
! the pulpit, through the platform, you must
| assault it, Would to God that all our
American Christians would band together
| not for crack-brained fanaticism. but for
| holy Christian reform. 1 think it was in
| 1898 that there went out from Lucknow
! India, under the sovereign, the greatest
! hunting party that was ever projected
| There We're ten thousand armed men in
| that hunting party. There were camel.
I and horses and elephants. On some
/ princes rode and royal ladies, under ex,
| quisite housings and five hundred coolies
waited upon the train, and the desolatt
places Of India were invaded by this ex