Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-02-04

| is man on fire with zeal for God; and
| If your pulse ordinarily beats sixty
| times minute when you think of other
themes, and talk about other themes, If
| your pulse does not go up to seventy
| five or eighty when you come to talk
about Christ and heaven, it is because
| you do not know the one, and have a
poor chance of getting to the other.
In former charge, one Sunday took
into the pulpit the church records, and
l laid them on the pulpit and opened
them, and said: Brethren, here are
the church records. I find great
many Of you whose names are down
here are off duty" Some were afraid
I 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 if ministers Of
Christ to-day should bring the church
records into the pulpit and read, oh,
what a flutter there would be! There
would not be fans enough in church to
keep the cheeks cool. i do not know
but it would be good thing if the min
church records in the pulpit and call
the roll, for that is what l consider
every church record to be-merely
muster-roll OF the Lords army; and the
reading of it should reveal where every
soldier is and what he is doing.
Still further, I learn from this sub
ject 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
everything else; he can not 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 audience
this moment is stepping into some kind
of refuge. Here you step in the tower
of good works. You say: 81 shall be
safe in this refuge" The battlements
are adorned; the steps are vanished;
on the wall are pictures of all the suf-
fering you have alleviated, and all the
schools you have established, and all
the fine things you have done. Up in
that tower you feel you are safe. But
hear you not the tramp of your unpar-
doned sins all around the tower? 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, 81 have been driven
out of that tower; where shall / go?"
Step into this tower Of indifference.
You say: eff this tower is attacked, 1t
will be great while before it is taken"
You feel at ease. But there is an Abim-
elech, with ruthless assault, coming on.
Death and his forces are gathering
around, and they demand that you sur
render everything, and they clamor for
your overthrow, and they throw their
skeleton arms in the window, and with
their iron fists they beat against the
door, and while you are trying to keep
them out you see the torches Of judg-
ment kindling, and every forest is a
torch, and every mountain torch, and
every sea torch, and while the Alps,
and Pyrenees, and Himalayas turn into
a live coal, blown redder and redder by
the whirlwind breath of God omnipo-
tent, what will become of your refuge
of lies?
But" says some one, "you are en-
gagged in very mean business, driving
us from tower to tower" Oh, no! want
to tell you of Gibraltar that never has
been and never will be taken: of a
wall that no Satanic assault can scale;
Of a bulwark that the judgment earth
quakes cannot bulge. The Bible re-
fers to it when it says: 'In God is thy
refuge, and underneath thee are the
everlasting arms" Oh! fling your
self into it, Tread down unceremon-
iously everything that intercepts you.
Wedge your way there. There are
enough hounds of death and peril after
you to make you hurry. Many man
has persisted just outside the tower,
with his foot on the step, with his hand
on the latch. Oh! get inside. Not
one surplus second have you to spare.
Ouickf oI1ickf uIIickt