Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1896-07-10

ridge or a roebuck. The trouble Is, We are
waiting for the game to come to us. We are
not good hunters. We are standingin some
street or highway expecting that the timid
! antelope will come up and eat out OF our
hands. We are expecting that the prairie
fowl will light on our church steeple. 1t Is
not their habit
If the church should wait 100000 Of
years for the world to come in and be saved,
1t will wait In vain. The world will not
come. What the church wants now Is 10 lift
Its feet from damask ottomans and put them
in the stirrups. We want pull pit on wheels.
The church wants not so much cushions as
1t wants saddlebags and arrows. We have
got to put aside the gown and kid gloves and
put on the hunting shirt. We have been fish,
ing so long In the brooks that run under the
shadow of the church that the fish know US;
that they avoid the hook and escape as soon
RS we come to the bank, while yonder is Up.
per Saranac and Big Tupper's lake, whore
1t for the multitude Of the fishes. There is
outside work to be done. What Is that see
In the backwoods9 1t is tent. The hunters
have made a clearing and camped out.
What do they care If they have wet feet, or
II they have nothing but pine branch for a
pillow or for the northeast storm? II a
moose in the darkness steps into the lako to
rink. they hear II right away. If a loon
Try in the moonlight, they hear 1t. SO In
The service of God we have exposed work.
We have got TO camp out and rough 1t. We
are putting all our care on the people who
come to our churches. What are we doing
,or the thousands upon thousands that do
aot come? Have they no souls? Are they
iness that they need no pardon? Are there
10 dead in their houses that they need no
comfort? Are they cut off from God to go
nto eternity-no wing to bear them, no light
% cheer them, no welcome to greet them?
lear to-day surging up from the lower
iepths grcan that comes through our
Christian assemblages and through our
beautiful churches, and it blots out all this
Jcene from my eyes to-day, as by the mists
81 great Niagara, for the dash and the
o'unge of these great torrents OF life drop
)ihg down into the fathomless and thunder
hg abyss of suffering and woe. IsometimeS
hink that Just as God bloited out the
churches of Tbyatira and Corinth and
iaodicea, because of theirsloth and stolidity,
de will blot out American and English
Christianity and raise on the ruins stall
gart, wideawake, missionary church that
IAN take the full meaning of that command,
go into ali the world and preach the gospel
% every creature"
Iremark, further, If you want to succeed in
spiritual archery you must have courage. Ii
he hunter stand with trembling hand or
shoulder that fllnches with fear, instead OF
lis taking the catamount, the catamount
axes him. What would become Of the Green
ander If, when out hunting for the bear, he
Ihoud stand shivering with terror on anice-
)erg2 Whit would have become of Du
1bailu and Livingstone in the African
.hicket with faint heart and weak knee2
When panther comes within twenty PAGES
If you and it has its eye on you and 1t has
Iquatted for the fearful spring, "Steady
herer'
Courage, o we spiritual archersl There
Ire great monsters In iniquity proving all
around about the community, Shall we not
If the strength Of God go forth and combat
hem? We not only need more heart, but
more backbone, What is the church o. God
hat it should fear to look in the eye any
ransgression? There is the Bengal tiger
If drunkenness that prowls around. and
instead of attacking it, how many OF US
hide under the church pew or the COM
nunion table, There Is SO much invested in
we are afraid to assault it; millions of dol
ars in tarrels, in watts, in spigots, in cork
crews, In gin palaces with marble floors and
Italian top tables, and chased ice coolers and
n the strychnine and the logwood and the
ontario acid and the nux vomica that go to
.ooked with wondering eyes on the "Heidel-
,erg tun." 1t is the great liquor vat OF Ger
many, which is said to hold 800 hogsheads
If wine. and only three times In 100 years
has been filled. But, as stood and
,ooked at it, l said to myself: "That is moth
ng-SOO hogsheads Why, our American vat
nolds 2, SOC, 900 barrels Of strong drinks and
we keep 200, 900 men with nothing to do but
% see that it is filed" OIL to attack
this great monster of intemperance, and the
kindred monsters of fraud and uncleanliness,
requires you to rally all your Christian cour-
age. Through the press, through the pulpit,
through the platform you must assault It,
Would to God that all our American Chris
ians would band together, not for crack
Drained fanaticism, but for holy Christian
reform.
think it was In 1898 that there went gu
from Lucknow, India, under the sovereign,
The greatest hunting party that was ever
projected. There were 10000 armed men in
that hunting party. There were camels and
horses and elephants. On some princes rode,
and royal ladies under exquisite housings,
and 500 coolies waited upon the train, and
the desolate places Of India were invaded
by this excursion, and the rhinocerous, the
deer aud elephant fell under the stroke OF
saber and bullet. After awhile the party
brought back trophies worth $4,000 rupees,
having lett the wilderness Of India CHASTITY
with the slain bodies of wild beasts. Would to
God that, instead of here and there stray
ger going out to fight these great monsters
of iniquty in our country, the million men,
bershiD of our churches would band togeth-
er and hew in twain these great crimes that
make the land frightiul with their roar and
are fattening upon the bodies and souls OF
immortal men, Who is ready for such a
party as thatH VINO Will De mighty nunter
for the Lord?
Iremark, again, if you want to be success
full in spiritual archery you need not only to
bring down the game, but bring 1t ID.
think one of the most beautiful pictures OF
The rwaldsen is Autumn" ItrepresentS
a sportsman coming home and standing un-
der grapevine. He has a staff over his
shoulder, and on the other end OF that staff
are hung rabbit and IL brace OF birds. Every
hunter brings home the game. No one would
think of bringing down reindeer or whip
ping 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. II you go out to
| hunt for immortal souls, not only bring them
down under the arrow OF the gospel, OUT
| bring them into the church of God, the en-
| campment 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 mean
| ing of the church Of God-help. o ye hun.
| tiers for the Lord. not only bring down the
game, but bring 1t in!
If Mithridates liked hunting so well thar
for seven years he never went indoors, what
| enthusiasm ought we to have who are nunt'
| ing for immortal souls! HDomitianus prac'
ticed archery until he could stand poy
| down in the Roman amphitheater, win
| hand out. the fingers like that, and then tne