The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-01-31

vou 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 besg
sermon ever preached is a holy life.
The best music ever chanted is con-
sistent walk. If you want others to
serve God, serve Him yourself. If you
want others to shoulder their duty,
shoulder yours. When Abimelech goes
his troops GO. Oh, start out for Heaven
to-day, 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
in finite, the semi-omnipotent power OF
good or bad examplel
Still further, / learn from this sub
ject the advantage of concerted action
If Abimelech had merely gone out
with a tree-branch, the work would
not have been accomplished, or if ten.
twenty or thirty men had gone: but
when all the axes are lifted and all the
sharp edges fall, and all these men
carry each his tree branch down and
throw it about the temple, the victory
is gained-the temple falls. My friends,
where there is one man in the church
of God at this day shouldering his
whole duty, there are a great many
who never lift an AK or swing a
bough. 1t seems to me as if there
were ten drones in every hive to one
busy bee; as though there were
30 sailors sound asleep in the ships
hammocks to four men on the stormy
men belonging to the reserve corps
and only 1000 active combatants.
In former charge, one Sabbath.
took into the pulpit the church rec
ords, and laid them on the pulpit and
opened them, and said: Brethren,
here are the church records l find
great many of you whose names are
down here are off duty" Some were
afraid | would read the names, for at
that time some of them were deep in
the worst kind of oil stocks, and were
idle as to Christian work. But il min
listers of Christ to-day should bring
read, oh, what flutter there would
be- There would not be fans enough
in church to keep the cheeks cool.
do not know but that it would be q
good thing if the minister once in a
while should bring the church records
| in the pulpit and call the roll, for that
is what consider every church record
to be, merely a muster roll of the
Lords army; and the reading of it
should reveal where every soldier is
and what he is doing.
Suppose, in military circles, on the
morning of battle, the roll is called,
and out of thousand men only hun
dred men in the regiment answered.
What excitement there would be in
campl What would the colonel say?
What high talking there would be
among the captains, and majors and
the adjutants! Suppose word came to
| Headquarters that these delinquents
excused themselves on the ground that
they had oversight themselves, or the
morning was damp and they were
afraid of getting their feet wet. or
that they were busy cooking ratiOus-
NV friends, this is the morning of the
day of God Almighty's battle! Do you
not see the troops? Hear We not all
the trumpets of Heaven and all the
drums of hell? Which side are you
on?
The temple of Berth is very broad
and it is very high. 1t has been going
ND by the hands of men and devils, and
no human engineering can demolish
| it: but if the 20, 900 ministers of Christ
in this country should each take a
branch of the tree of life, and all their
| congregations should do the same, and
we should march on and throw these
branches round the great temples OF
sin, and worldliness and folly, it would
need no match, or coal, or torch of
ours to touch off the pile, for, as in the
days of Elijah, fire would fall from
| heaven and kindle the bonfire of
Christian victory over demolished sin.
Still further, learn from this sub
| iect the danger of false refugees. As
soon as these Shechemites got into the
temple, they thought they were safe.
/ They said: BERTH will take care OF
us. Abimelech may batter down every
thing else; he cannot batter down this
temple where we are now hid" But
very soon they heard the timbers
cracking, and they were smothered
with smoke, and they miserably died
/ suppose every person in this audi
ence this moment is stepping in
to some kind of refuge. Here
you step in the tower of good
works You say: Il shall be safe in
this refuge" The battements are
adorned; the steps are varnished; ON
the walls are the pictures of all the
suffering you have alleviated. and all
the schools you have established, and
all the fine things you have ever done.
| Up in the tower you feel you are safe
Blu: hear you not the tramp of your I'M
pardoned sins all around the tower2
They each have a match. You are
kindling the combustible material
You feel the heat and the suffocatiOn-
Oh, may you leap in time, the gospel
declaring: "By the deeds of the law
shall no flesh living be justified"
WELL" you say, Il have been driven
o,t 90 vrhara shall O0TB