The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-23

Ing is a farce. and the winning of soul to
600 IS not known from one end of the year
TO the other.
Many OF us have become so intellectual
that our church music is the only thought
OF our religion and our church life" said
ne. Il do not wonder we have bred in
ndels, and skeptics and agnOStics, and all
Sher kinds of tics in our cities and towns,
~Een l find these church members gather
ing, sometimes like doves, sometimes like
Nuitures, and swarmng about the meeting
to see If 1t means anything. L do not won
ger they say OF us many a time, Your
church has outliVed it's usefulness; it
doesn't amount to anything 1t doesn't try
to reach the needy with the cup of water
and the loaf of bread Well that church
whose religion doesn't go out among the
most needy and the poor is not the ideal
church that Jesus pointed out.
me ng tree mas an early ana a later
crop The early crop teaches that the
child should be converted. Many churches
do not believe in the conversion of chill
dfen, they say. But what do they believe
tn-turning child over to the devil for
ten, fifteen or twenty years until it gets
settled in sin. and then gather them back
for God? The Son of God believed in the
conversion Of the children. He gathered
them in Ills arms; and when the worldly
Fharisees would have pushed them back
lie said, Let them come unto me, and for
BID them not; for such is the kingdom Of
heaven. Yet there are people that have
forbid their children to come forward in
these meetings, or make a profession of re-
ligion. There are some instances where
children have gone home to tell with their
eager, childish joy, the salvation of Jesus
IN the soul, and they have Oeen laughed
at in the home. One little girl came for
ward in the meeting here. Her mother was
church member. When she went home
and said, L have been converted; | have
given my heart to Jesus to-day; her father
said, How do you feel over t?' and her
mother laughingly said, You are too
young; you don't know what it means.
Then the little girl went off crying, with
broken heart. When churches degenerate
and backslde that way, what wonder that
We accomplish nothing What wonder it is
charged upon US that we are but dead
ferns; that we are but sounding brass, and
tinkling cymbal! 1t is even so, and
/ cannot deny il when / talk with a skeptc
many time.
TO CAPTURE INDIANAPOLIS
1.-THE next time you hear some one talking
against REVEALS, and against these meet
ings, give them my love and tell them that
that is all we can expect from the dung
hill church member, according to the words
of Jesus Christ. You have a large crowd of
them in this town. That is what is the
matter with your town. That is what is
the matter with your churches here they
are made up of that dunghill crowd. Some
of them are very fashionable. They use
perfume that costs dollar bottle, trying
to hide ii. But down underneath it all you
have got to get right back to that first
thought. Do you think Christ can save the
world with that kind of army?
ing of my voice this morning? If God had
to depend upon a following all like you to
save the world with, you, the world, the
church and all, would have been in hell
long ago. Now, you may never hear that
again till you get at the judgment bar Of
God; but you got it once. (AmenD 1t is
the quality brethren, not the quantity of
church members, or the lack of quantity,
that is damning society to-day. If the
members of the churches in this town were
full of the spirit of God, living holy lives
of service there would be ten thousand
conversions here in the next fifteen days.
But we have got to try to capture this
town for God with just little handful
of that kind.
Some one said to me in this town. Are
you going to wake EN- up here%
=" Not all of them l replied; not all of
them, by any manner of means
:. When will they wake up? he asked.
Il said, If some of them do not wake up
now, l expect they will in hell-quite a
number-when Christ shall say at the
judgment, Depart from me- ye that work
In iniquity; l never knew you"
Almighty God, wake up somebody here,
who has been asleep before! You must
know, if you have got sense, that it is not
for my sake, not to get in your favor, but
to get in Gods favor that 1 speak SO
plainly. Here is a business man; he thinks
more of his own business in one day than
he thinks of God in year, and yet he
poses before the town as a member of The
church, as an official in the Church of GOD
An old, whisky-voting deacon; why cum
bereth he the ground? His fruit is only for
damnation and hell. Here is a mother;
What has she done for God in the world?
She hasn't even brought her own children
to Christ, and is discouraging them when
they want to come; Stepmother would DO
better than she is doing. Cut her down;
r5rv cumbereth she the ground? Here is
another woman; cut her down.
SOCIETY WOMAN A WEEVIL.
Why, Lord; she is trying to teach a
Sunday school class
Yes but she is always found at card
party or dance, and does more harm in a
year than all my preachers can mend in
twenty. She is worse than a barnacle on
the ship Zion; she is a boring weevil, a
grub to destroy the root of the tree of life.
Cut her down. Isn't she ever going to have
any sense? VIII she ever learn the spirit
ual laws of life?
Does this mean you? Is it l. Lord? Is it
/? l believe the time has come this morn
ing when you people must decide one way
or the other. For two weeks, aside from a
little handful you as church members have
played hide and seek with the devil and
tag with the Almighty, playing with relig
ious things as l have never seen them
played with before by such a majority. l
believe the time has come this morning
when your eyes have got TO open, and the
scales fall off; when you have got to an
swer to the Almighty what you are going
to be, a dead branch to be cut off and
burned, or barnacle on the church, max
ing them carry you for charitys sake; or
follower of Christ. believe the time has
come when you have got to decide one way
or the other, out and out, either for God
or the devil l beg of you, If there is one
stroke of humanity in you-let alone diVin-
ity-if you have any respect for your
church. for the Son of Cod or the Bible,
to do one Of two things; Come up and stand
for Righteousness, or get out, let your name
be taken OFT the church book, and let the
world know that you are an apostate.
Don't let them brand you, as they do, a
hypocrite. DO one the other in God 5
name, for the sake of decency well as
righteousness.
"Oh. these barren hours when the light
goes out ia the Christians lifei Oh, me, to
think that God put us down here to be win
ners of souls and builders up OF righteous
ness But we float, and drift, and the
church backslides and the world goes to
the devil, until honest pastors, with broken
hearts, long for fields green and pastures
new, and other worlds to conquer; until
the few faithful ones get discouraged trying
to keep up under difficulties, and backslide
with the rest; and all because we are not
at work for God"
The speaker closed by relating a touching
story There was a young man whom he
Y. NJ c. a. secretary. This young man
met with an accident in the gymnasium and
died without the speaker ever having
spoken to him concerning his spiritual well
fare. This omission of duty laid hard on
the speakers conscience.
WOLbEY'S STRONG SPEECH.
DenOunces Men Whom He Claims he
trnyed Prohibition.
TomlinsOn Han was filled Yesterday aft