Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1898-06-20

ought to be: am speaking about the
way the world is. Taking things as
they are, we must make the
centripetal force of the church
mightier than the centrifugal.
We must make our churches mag.
| nets to draw the people thereunto, so
that man will feel uneasy if he doea
not go to church, saying: 81 wish L
had gone this morning l wonder if
can't dress yet and get there in time.
1t is IL o'clock; now they are singing.
1t is 1880; now tney are preaching. I
wonder when the folks will be home
to tell us what was said, what has been
going on" When the impression is con.
firmed that our churches, by architec
ture, by music, by sociality, and by SER
mon, shall be made the most attractive
places on earth, then we will want
twice as many churches as we have
/ now, twice as large, and then they will
not half accommodate the people.
say to the young men who are en-.
tering the ministry, we must put on
more force. more energy. and into our
religious services more vivacity, if we
want the people to come. You look
into church court of any denOmina.
ton of Christians. First, you will find
the men of large common sense and
(! earnest looks. The education of their
minds, the piety of their hearts, the
! holiness of their lives qualify them for
{ their work. Then you will find in every
church court of every denomination q
group of men who utterly amaze you
4, ho fun ni.iYl hnn i fD
can get any pulpits to preach in! Those
are the men who give forlorn statistics
about church decadence. Frogs never
croak in running water; always
in stagnant. But say to all Christian
workers, to all Sunday-school teachers,
! to all evangelists, to all ministers of
the Gospel if we want our Sunday
schools, and our prayer meetings, and
/ our churches to gather the people, we
must freshen up The simple fact is,
the people are tired of the humdrum OF
religionists. Religious humdrum is the
worst of all humdrum. You say over
and over again: 'Come to Jesus" until
the phrase means absolutely nothing.
Why do you not tell them story
which will make them come to Jesus
in five minutes? You say that all
| Sunday school teachers, and all
! evangelists, and all ministers, must
bring their illustrations from the
Bible. Christ did not when He
preached. The most of the Bible was
written before Christ's time, but
, where did He get His illustrations? He
drew them from the lilies, from the
ravens, from salt, from candle, from
a bushel, from long faced hypocrites.
from gnats, from moths, from large
gates and small gates, from a camel,
from the needles eye, from yeast in the
! dough of dough bread from a mustard
seed, from fishing net, from debtors
and creditors That is the reason null
titudes followed Christ HIS illustra-
| tions were so easy and so understands
BILE. Therefore, my brother Christian
worker, if you and | fad two illustra-
tons for religious subject, and the one
! is a Bible illustration and the other is
outside the Bible, tie will take the lat
ter because want to be like my Master.
Looking across to hill, Christ saw the
! City of Jerusalem Talking to the people
about the :conspicuity of Christian exc
ample, He said: ''The world is look.
sng at you; be careful A city that is
set on hill can not be hid" WhileH g
was speaking of the divine care of
Gods children bird few past. He
said: Behold the ravens" Then,
looking down into the valley, all COW
cred at that season with flowers,
he said: Consider the lilies" Oh, my
| brother Christian workers, what IS the
use of our going away off in some OBJ
scure part of history, or on the other
! side the earth, to get an illustration,
when the earth, and the heavens are
full of illustrations. Why should we
go away off to get an illustration of
/ the vicarious suffering Of Jesus Christ,
when as near us as Bloomfield, N.
j., two little children were walk
ing on the rail track, and a
train was coming; but they were
on a bridge Of trestlework, and the
! little girl took her brother and let him
down through the trestleworl1 as gently
! as she could toward the water, very
carefully and lovingly and cautiously,
SO that he might not be hurt in the
fall, and might be picked up by those
| VINO were SLduuL1S ACdL Ny. VulI0
doing that the train struck her, and
hardly enough OF her body was left to
gather into funeral casket. What
was that? Vicarious suffering Like
Christ Pang for others Woe for
others. Suffering for others. Death
for others.
What is the use OF our going away off
to find an illustration in past age, when
during the great forest fires in Michi.
gan, mail-carrier on horseback, rid.
ding on, pursued by those flames which
had swept over a hundred miles, saw
an old man by the roadside, dismount.
ed, helped the old man on the horse,
saying: Nov whip up and get away. "
The old man got away, but the mail.
carrier persisted. Just like Christ dis.
mounting from the glories of Heaven
to put us on the way of deliverance,
then falling back into the flames of
sacrifice for others. Pang for others.