The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-09

]
book at the head of their caslet and
| reads BLESSED are the dead who die ii,
| the Lord; they rest from their labors 2nc
| their works do follow them" 1ne sense
| of the ludicrOus is so thoroughly develop
| ed in me that when hear these Scripture
| words read at the obsequies of one of ire
religious do-nothings in the churches it is
too much for my gravity. Their works
| do follow them" What works? And in
what direction do they follow them-up
| or down? And do they follow on foot on
! on the wing? And how long will they
follow before they catch up? More APP
| propriate funeral text for all such religious
| dead-beats would be the words in Matthew
! 25:8: Our lamps are gone out" Onc
/ would think that such Christians would
| show at least under whose banner they
! are enlisted. In one of the Napoleon,c
wars a woman, Jeanette by name TOOK
| her position with the troops and Shout
| dered a broomstick The colonel SAID
Jeanette why do you take such a use,
| less weapon into the ranks?" "Wel,''
she sad, Il can show at least which side
l am on"
Now, the object of this sermon is to stir
at least one-fourth of you to an ambition
for that which my text presents in blaz-
ing vocabulary namely, a passion for
souls. To prove that It Is possible to have
much of that spirit, bring the consecra-
ton of 1880 foreign missionaries. 1t is US
1000 missionaries. l make a liberal allow
ance, and admit there may be ten bad mis-
sionaries out of the 1900, but l do not be-
leve there is one All English and Ameri-
can merchants leave Bombay, Calcutta,
Annoy, and Pel5n as soon as they make
their fortunes. Why? Because no European
or American in his senses would stay In
hat climate after none tary inducements
have ceased. Now the missionaries there
are put down on The barest necessities and
most Of them do not lay up one dollar in
Jwenty years. Why then, do they stay in
those lands Of intolerab,e heat, and cobras.
and raging fevers the thermometer some-
times playing at 100 and 140 degrees of op-
pressiveness, twelve thousand miles from
home, because of the unhealthy climate
and the prevailing mmoralties of those
regions compelled 10 send their children
10 England, or Scotland or America, prob
ably never to see them again? blessed
Christ! Car 1t be anything but a passion
for souls? 1t is easy TO understand all this
frequent depreciation of foreign mission
aries when you know that they are all
opposed to the opium traffic, and that in
terferes with commerce; and then the mis-
sionaries are moral, and that Is an offense
to many of the merchants-not all of them,
but many of them-whO, absent from al
home restraint, are so immoral ha; we can
make only faint alluslon to the mOnstrosity
of their denominations. Oh, l would like TO
be at the gate of heaven when those mis-
sionaries go in, to see how they will have
the pick of coronets, and thrones, and
mansions on the best streets of heaven.
We who have had easy pulpits and loving
congregations, entering heaven, will, in
my opinion, have to take our turn and wait
for the Christian workers who, amid ply
steal sufferings and mental privation and
environment of squalor, have done their
work; and on the principle that in pro-
portion as one has been sef-sacrihc.ng
and suffering for Christs sake on earth
will be their celestial preferment.
Who is that young woman on the worst
street in Washington, New York, or Lon
don, Bible in hand and a little package
in which are small Walls of medicines, and
another bundle in which are biscuits?
How dare she risk herself among those
"rOughs,' and where Is she going? She
is one of the queens of heaven, hunting
up the sick and hungry, and before night
she will have read Christ's Let not your
heart be troubled" in eight or ten places,
and counted out from those walls the
right number of drops to ease pain, and
given food to a family that would other
wise have had nothing to eat to-day, and
taken the measure of a dead child that
she may prepare for ii a shroud, her every
act of kindness for the body accompanied
with a benediction for the soul. You see
nothing but the filthy street along which
she walks and the rickety stairs up which
she climbs, but she is accompanied by an
unseen cohort of angels with drawn
swords to defend her, and with garlands
twisted for her victories, all up and down
the tenement house districts. 1 tell you
there was not so much excitement when
Anne Boleyn, on her way to her corona
ton, found the Thames stirred by fifty
gilded barges. with brilliant flags, in
which hung small bells, rung
TIA
noblemen standing in scarlet and
wharf spread with cloth of gold. and all
the gateways surmounted by huzzahng
admirers, and the streets hung with Grim
son velvet, and trumpets and cannons
sounding the jubilee, and Anne, dressed
in surcoat of silver tissue, and brow,
cleaning with circlet of rubies, and amid
fountains that poured Rhenish wine,
passed on to Westminster Hall. and rode
in on a caparisoned palfry, it's hoofs clat-
terng the classic floor, and, dismounting,
passed into Westminster Abbey, and be-
tween the choir and high alter, was
crowned queen, amid organs and chors
chanting the TIE Deums-I say, there was
not much in all that glory which dazzles
the eyes of history when it is compared
with the heavenly reception which that
ministering spirit of the back alley shall
receive when she goes UP to coronation.
! When she goes In, what welcome on the
| River of Life, its banks OF pearl lined with
splendors seraphic, and in temples of eter-
nal worship. whose music is commanded
by swing of archangelic scepter, and be-
| fore thrones where sit those who
have reigned a thousand years, but have
/ just begun their dominion. Poor Anne DO
! leyn, in two years after that pageant, lost
! life and throne by one stroke Of heads
man, but those who on earth have a di-
vine passion for souls Shall never lose their
thrones. 'They shall reign forever and
ever"
But after all, the best way to cultivate
| that divine passion for souls is TO work
! for their salvation. Under God save one,
| and you will want right away to save two.
! Save two, and you will want to save ten.
| Save ten, and you will want to save TWEEN
ty. Save twenty. and you win want to
! save hundred. Save a hundred, and you
viii want to save everybody. And what is
| the use of talking about it, when the place
to begin is here, and the time is now?
! And while you pray l will in one minute
tell all there is OF It: Full pardon for the
worst man on earth, If he Will believe in
/ Christ, whose blood can instantly wash
!