The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1898-02-23


aromatic with their Christian useful
ness. What we want in the church OF
God is more strength Of piety. The cen
tury plant is wonderfully suggestive and
wonderfully beautiful, tut never look
atit without thinking Of its parsimony.
1t lets whole generations go by before IL
unts forth one blossom, so | have really
more admiration when | see the dewy
tears in the blue eyes Of the vlolets, Tor
they come every spring. My Christian
friends, time is going by so rapidly that
we cannot afford to be idle.
A recent statistician says that hu-
nlan life now has an average of only 81
years. From these 32 years You must
subtract all the time you take for sieep
and the taking of food and recreation.
That will leave you about 10 years.
From these 16 you must subtract all the
time that You are necessarily engaged III
the earnin of a livelihood. That Will
leave you shout eight years. From these
eight years you must take all the Gays
and weeks and monthS-all the length
of time that is passed in sickness-leav-
ing You about one year in which TO
work for Gcd. Oh, my soul, wake up!
How darest thou sleep in harvest time,
and with so few hours in which to reap:
So that l state it as Il simple fact that
all the time that the vast majority OF
yeu will have for the exclusive service
of God will be less than one year.
Sinking Responsibility.
"But," says some man, Il literally
support the gospel, and the church IS
open, and the gospel is preached, all the
spiritual advantages are spread before
men, and if they want to be saved let
them come and be saved, l have dis
charged all my responsibility. All, is
that my Masters spirit: Is there net an
old book somewhere that commands us
to 90 out into the highways and the
hedges and compel the people to come
ins What would become Of you and me
if Christ had not come down Oil the
hills Of heaven, and if he had not come
through the door of the Bethlehem car
ayansary, and if he had not with the
crushed hand of the crucitixion knocked
at the iron gate of the sepulcher Ct cur
spiritual death, crying. Lazarus, ccnc
forth" Oh, my Christian friend, this
is 10 time fer inertia when all the forces
of darkness seem to be in full Last
when steam printing presses are pub
fishing infdel tracts, when express
trains are carrying messengers OF sln'
when fast clippers are laden with opium
and strong drink, when the night air OF
our cities is polluted with the laughter
that breaks up from the 10, 600 saloons
of dissipation aud abandonment, when
the fires of the second death already are
kindled in the cheeks of some who only
a little while ago were incorrSpt. On,
never since the curse fell upon the earth
has there been time when it was such
an xnwise, such a cruel, such an awful
thing for the church to sleep. The great
audiences are not gathered IN Christian
churches; the great audiences are gath
cred in temples of sin-tears CT unu1ter-
able wee their baptism, the blood OF
crushed hearts the awful wine Of their
sacrament, blasphemies their lltany,
and the eroans of the lost world tho
organ 6::-ge of their worship.
Avoid Reckless Iconoclasm.
Again, if you want to lie qualified to
meet the duties which this age demands
of you you must on the cne hand avoid
reckless iconoclasm and on the cther
hand not stick too much to things be-
cause they are oil. The air is full CT
new plans, new projects, new theories
of government, new theclcgies, and
am amazed to see how so many Chris
tians want only novelty in order to
recommend q thing to their confidence,
and so they vacillate aud swing to and
fro, and they are useless and they are
unhappy. New plans-secular, ethical
philosophical, religious, cisatlantic,
transatlantic-long enough to make a
lire reaching from the German univer,
stiles to Great Salt Lake city. Ah, my
brother, do net take hold cf thing
merely because it is new! Try 1t by the
realities of the judgment day. But, on
the other hand, do not adhere to any
thing merely because it is old. There Is
not single enterprise Of the church ol
the world but has some time been
scoffed at. There was a time when men
derided even Bible societies, and wher
a few young men met in Massachusett:
| and organized the first missionary sCc!e
I ty ever organized in this country there
went laughter and ridicule all arounc
! the Christian church. They said th(
undertaking was preposterous, ard Sc
also the work of Jesus Christ was as
sailed. People cried out: "Who evel
heard Of such theories Of ethics anc
| government? Who ever noticed such
style of preaching as Jesus has:" Eek
iel had talked of mysterious wings anc
| wheels. Here came man from Caper
naum and Gennesaret, and he drew hi:
| illustrations from the lakes, from tx
sand, from the mountain, from The
| lilies, from the cornstalks. How tht
Pharisees scoffed! How Herod Gerided
| And this Jesus they plucked by tkt
beard, and they spat in his face, arc
they called him this fellow" All III
great enterprises in and out Of th'
church have at times been scoffcd at
and there have been great multitude
who have thought that the chariot 6
Gods truth would fall to pieces if i
once got out CT the old rut. And 81
| there are those who have no patience
with anything like Improvement il
church architecture or with anything
like coed, hearty, earnest church sing
ing, and they deride any form CT reli
gious discussion which goes down walk
ing among everyday men rather thal
that which makes all excursion on rhe
torical stills
Oh, that the church of God wcult
wake up to al adaptability CT work
We must admit the simple fact that tin
churches of Jesus Christ in this cay d
not reach the great masses. There ar