Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1896-12-09
Raising the Dead.

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There is work enough for every con-
sistent Christian almost at his own
door. The field is white for the harvest,
and 1t lies all around him, day and
night.
1t does not seem that any human
being should be able to raise the dead
to life again, and yet you can do it IL
you only work in the right way. Some
times the dead spiritually outnumber
the physically dead. You can see them
on every side, walking and yet devoid
of all true life. You see them eating,
drinking and sleeping, and rising up
again, merely to repeat these processes.
You can see them with souls chained
down in the treadmill Of selfshness or
OF vice or Of crime, giving no heed to
the morrow, the dreadful morrcw that
is sure to come. They are dead, even
though they live; dead to God; dead
to righteousness; dead to heaven; dead
to their own heritage; dead to the di.
vinity that is in them, that was born
with them. Yours be the task to arouse
them from this death in life; to un-
wrap the cerements of the grave from
them and to show them that truer life
which, il led here on earth, will merge
into the eternal life with God and his
angels.
You, too, can preach the Gospel to
the poor as Christ did, and to the
heather also. You will not have to
go to foreign lands to find them, to
waste your time and talent and money
thousands of miles away, among peo-
pie who are called heather chiefly be-
cause they do not wear clothes, do not
lie or steal or swear or lead lives Of
unchastity.
You will find plenty ofheathen right
here at home; you will not have to
cross the great oceans in search of
them. You will find them here under the
very shadow Of costly churches where
God is worshipped with strict regu.
larity. You will find them cursiug
God in full view Of the magnificent
stained glass windows where He is
worshipped in elegantly upholstered
pews and amid splendor sometimes
almost barbaric in its decorations; and
you will hear the Wild laughter Of the
heathen far above the stately roll OF
the organ pouring forth its alteration
OF Christ who had not where to lay
his head.
Preach the Gospel to the poor, and
you will find them right at your own
doors, perhaps by your own fireside.
Preach the Gospel to the poor-thoss
whose lives are one long labor for
mere existence; who, like Christ, have
no place that they can call home, and
who, like him, bear crown OF sorrows
from the cradle to the grave. Do the
works of Christ among Christ's poor,
and give freely to those whose lives
are so full OF bitterness and dismay.
Spend your spare time and money In
providing food for your starving broth.
ers and sisters who perish because they
can not get even the crumbs that fall
from the rich mans table. Spend
them In restoring sight to your own
blind; in opening the eyes Of your own
household; in making your own lame
to walk; In cleansing the lepers of your
own home; in giving hearing to the
deaf Of your own family; in raising up
the dead that lie about your own
streets, and in preaching the Gospel to
your own poor who wander through
the ways, looking up to the skies and
wondering why God is 90 far off from
them.
On every side lie the dead, anda
Christ restored you to life, you will
not In His name. try to arouse those
will still sleep so soundly in the grave
Of doubt or ignorancep
In His name preach the Gospel to
the poor. not the Gospel OF creed or
preference, or arrogance or selflshness,
or Of gold and glitter and ostentatious.
ness, but the Gospel Of love, the Gospel
OF Christ, the Gospel Of humanity as
enunciated In the Golden Rule; the
Gospel of renunciation as preached in
the garden Of Gethsemane; the Gospel
of love and self sacrifice as proclaimed
from the Mount Of Cslvary.--N. Y.
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