The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-07-03

the COrinthlan theaterS, aud through
the court room, until the knees OF
Felix knocked together. 1t was that
arrow that stuck in Luther's heart
when he cried out. ''Oh, my sinsl Oh,
my SINS" If it strike a man in the
head, it kills his skepticism; If 1t
strike a man in the heel. it will turn
his step; if it strike him in the heart,
he will throw up his hands, as did the
Emperor Julian of old, when wounded
in the battle, crying: ''Oh, GalileaD,
Thou hast conQueredF'
In the armory of the earl of Penn
broke there are old corslets which
show that the arrow of the English
used to go through the breastplate,
through the body of the warrior, and
out through the backplste. What
symbol of that Gospel which is sharper
than a two-edged sword, piercing to
the dividing asunder of body and soul,
and of the joints and marrowl Would
to God we had more faith in that Cos
pei! The humblest man, il he had
enough faith in it, could bring 100
souls to Jesus - perhaps, 500 Just
in proportion as this age seems
to believe less and less in it, l
believe more and more in it
What are men about that they will
not accept their own deliverance?
There is nothing proposed by men
that can do anything like the Gospel.
The religion of Ralph Waldo Emerson
was the philosophy of icicles; the re-
ligion of Theodore Parker was sirocco
of the desert covering up the soul with
dry sand; the religion of Renan was
the romance of believing nothing; the
religion of the Huxleys and the Spen-
GERS merely a pedestal on which hu-
man philosophy sits shivering in the
night of the soul, looking up to the
stars, offering no help to the nations
that crouch and groan at the
base. Tell me where there is one
man who has rejected that Gospel
for another, who is thoroughly salts
fed and helped. and contented in his
scepticisn, and will take the car to-
morrow and ride 500 miles to see him.
The full power of the gospel has not
yet been touched. AS a sportsman
throws up his head and catches the ball
flying through the air, just SO easily
will this gospel after a while catch
this round world flying from its orbit
and bring it back to the heart of
Christ Give it full swing, and it will
pardon every sin, heal every wound,
cure every trouble, emancipate
every slave, and ransom every ma
ton. Ye Christian men and women
who go out this afternoon to do Chris
tian work, as you go into the Sunday
schools, the lay preaching stations, and
the penitentiaries, and the asylums, /
want you to feel that you bear in your
hand a weapon, compared with which
the lightning has no speed, and the
svalanches have no heft, and the thun-
derbolts of heaven have no power; it
is the arrow of the Omnipotent Gospel.
Take careful aim. Pull the arrow clear
back until the head strikes the bowl
Then let it fly! And may the slain of
the Lord be manyl
Again, if you want to be skillful in
spiritual archery, you must hunt in
unfrequented 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 one
"bang" of the gun clears the forests.
From the California stage you see, as
you go over the plains, here and there,
a coyote trotting along almost within
range of the gun-sometimes quite
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 to Christ and of most value
to the church are secluded. They do
not come in your way. You will have
to go where they are. Yonder they
are down in that cellar; yonder they
are up in that gLrret Far away from
the door of any church, the gospel ar
row has not been pointed at them.
The tract distributor aud city mission
airy sometimes catches a glimpse of
them, as a hunter through the
trees gets momentary sight of par
fridge or a roebuck. The trouble is,
we are waiting for the game to come
to US We are not good hunters We
are standing in some street or high
way expecting that the timid antelope
will come up aud eat out of our hands.
We are expecting that the prairie fowl
will light on our church steeple. It is
not their habit II the church should
wait ten millions 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 ottomans and put
them in the stirrups We want a pull
pit 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 MS, that
they avoid the hook, and escape as
soon as we come TO the bank, while
yonder is Upper Saranic and Big Tup-
per's lake, where the first swing of
the Gospel net would break IL for the
multitude of the fishes There is out