The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-10-15

We fail wholly to apprehend and ap- preciate the fact that in this tremend- ous crisis in history Setween the as- tension of the Master into the air and Ills coming again in clouds and glory Tor the judgment of the world, the Di- vine agent for carrying forward the work of God on earth is the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost entering into the hearts of men, the Holy Ghost with His omnipotent and unsubdueable pow CT, silent and yet mighty. Men sniff at this because they do not see the power. Well, we do not see the powers in the natural creation that work the greatest results. We do not seek the power that binds the universe together. It is per fectly impalpable, though we are all within it's grasp. We see the power of the vapor that revolutionizes civili2a- ton, tunnels the mountains, tramples the sea into floor. We see the power in the type which the fingers hold and which dominates cathedrals, We see the power in the little spark that abol-
 shes oceans and knits nations into neighbors, all small, impalpable pow CTS, as is this power of the Holy Ghost,
 
 is in individual experience and in the history of communities, what a power to lift the race nearer the holiness of the throne of the Most High. It is the power necessary to generate and to maintain missionary enthusiasm. Mis- sionary enthusiasm is not merely faith, confidence in God. confidence in His words; missionary enthusiasm is love for mankind inspired by and touched With a divine fire, and where this power of the Spirit of God is there that mis- sionary enthusiasm manifests itself in irresistible energy and efficacy. See it in the missionaries of the middle ages, to whom Dr. Smith referred yesterday in that remarkable paper on Anscar and Benedict and all the others. You see it in the missionaries of our own l time and our own board l was very ! much touched the other day with the l fact that missionary woman, wife and mother in South Af- 1 rica, out of her small savings sent d gift to the American Board of $500 in gratitude for the con-
 missioning of her third child to do mis- l sionary service in foreign lands. (Ap- l plause.) I put that to you, reluctant
 to give money. utterly unwilling to give sons and daughters to this distant and dangerous service and work, if there is
 not the power from the spirit of God in | that heart which you more vaguely, if
 at all, feel in yourselves. I remember | that passing of the missionaries of Har- poot from donicile that was already
 being shattered by shot to another | where, for the time at least, they might have more security men and women going together through the storm of
 bullets, carrying two who were too aged
 and infirm to walk themselves, and not
 a man nor a woman flinching ol screaming as they went along that path 1 of death.
 l That's the power of missionary en- l thusiasm; that's the tranquility of the | temper that is insphered in the heart i of God, and where that power is among the churches and in our hearts, there | treasures are unlocked, there divisions
 are forbidden or are reconciled, and there is the energy of the Holy Ghost working through our small affairs tc
 accomplish the sublime divine design l Yes, the power of the Holy Ghost--tha1
 is the energy on which we must rely ir | order to carry forward this work o1 God to it's triumphant and immorta | success.
 So, my dear friends and brethren
 members of this board and Christian
 people interested in this work of mis sions. I bring to you these convictions 1 which, as I have said, are not new which were central in my heart ant
 mind ten years ago. when l faced you for the first time on the platform al Springfield, which have been only more
 and more deeply and vitaly enthronet in my mind and heart from that day to this.
 1 Let us work along the lines and or the levels of these cardinal and su preme convictions, that God has a plaI
 in history, that we may work with tha l plan and be as sure as we are of God: | character as sure as we are of Gods being that ultimate success shall crowI 1 it, and let us work with the gospel. the gospel of life and salvation which H. has crowded and cram,ned with spirit l ual appeal to every soul of man. Le
 us work feeling that this is the oppor l Ol tllS dS1tS dII sliiS llttllclt Ii
 the minister of God for the ages tt
 come, by it's position, by it's power ant
 resources, by it's relation to other peo
 ples, by it's past history; it is the ser
 want of God for furthering His divine designs on earth, and let Us work al l ways in the inspiration of that liol, Ghost who separated Barnabas ant Saul to the work of missions, who sep arated the mediaeval missionaries iron all the uuietness of monasterles and tn seclusion and the delight of libraries t go out facing death. that they nigh teach men of the Lord. Let us wori under the power of that Spirit whicl we have seen in our own missionaries felt in our own hearts, felt more thai once. thank God, in these great assem blies; and let us do promptly what VI have to do.
 i look back to that evening at Spring field ten years ago. and of the 1G5 mem bers of the board then present and vot ing, l think full third have alread, passed away from life in the earth among them some of the most eminen and distinguished--two secretaries, Dl Clark and Dr. Alden; the honored am beloved treasurer MT Ward; Ezr; Farnsworth, chairman at that time am for a long time of the prudential com | mittee--many of the distinguishe