The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1898-02-04

"
NW she had once be-
longed She was
afraid to undertake the WORK.
lest she should lose her own
life; but her cousin, Mordecai, WHO
had brought her up, encouraged ner
with the suggestion that probably sne
had been raised up of God for that pc
culiar mission. who knoweth whetn-
er thou art come to the Kingdom lor
such a time as this?"
Esther had her God-appointed WORK
You and have ours. 1t is my pusl-
ness to tell you what style OF men anu
women you ought to be in order that
YOU meet the demand Of the age III
which God has cast your lot. so thls
discourse will not deal with the teen
nicalities, but only with the practlca-
blities. When two armies have rushed
into battle, the officers OF either army
do not want philosophical discussion
about the chemical properties OF ha-
man blood or the nature OF gunpowder;
they want some one to man the pat
teries and take out the guns. And
now. when all the forces of light and
darkness, of heaven and hell, have
plunged into the fight, it is no time
to give ourselves to the definitions ana
formulas and technicalities and con-
ventionalities of religion. What we
want is practical, earnest, concentrat-
ed. enthusiastic and triumphant help.
In the first place, in order to meet
the special demand of this age, you
need to be an unmistakable, aggressive
Christian. OF half-and-half Christians
we do not want any more. The church
of Jesus Christ will be better without
them. They are the chief obstacle 10
the church's advancement. am
speaking of another kind of Christian.
All the appliances for your becoming
an earnest Christian are at your hand.
and there is straight path for you
into the broad daylight Of Gods for
giveness. You may this moment be
the bondmen of the world, and the
next moment you may be princes OF
the Lord God Almighty. You remem-
Der what excitement there was in this
country, years ago, when the Prince of
Wales came here-how the people
rushed out by hundreds of thousands
to see him. Why? Because they ex-
pected that some day he would sit up
on the throne of England But what
was all that honor compared with the
honor to which God calls you-to be
sons and daughters of the Lord AL
mighty; yea, to be queens and kings
unto God. They shall reign with him
forever and forever"
l was once amid the wonderful, be-
witching cactus growths of North Car
DINA. l never was more bewildered
with the beauty of flowers, and yet
when l would take up one Of these
cactuses and pull the leaves apart the
beauty was all gone. You could hard
ly tell that it had ever been a flower.
And there are a great many Christian
people in this day just pulling apart
their Christian experiences to see what
there is in them, and there is nothing
left in them.
This style of determination is a
damage instead of an advantage to
their Christian character. l remember
when l was a boy l used to have a
small piece in the garden that l called
my own, and l planted corn there, and
every few days l would pull it up to
see how fast it was growing Now,
there are a great many Christian peo-
pie in this day whose self-examination
merely amounts to the pulling up of
that which they only yesterday or the
day before planted. Oh, my friends,
If you want to have stalwart Chris
tian character, plant it right out Of
doors in the great field of Christian
usefulness, and though storms may
come upon it, and though the hot sun
of trial may try to consume it, it will
thrive until it becomes a great tree,
in which the fowls of heaven may have
their habitation. l have no patience
with these flowerpot Christians. They
keep themselves under shelter, and
all their Christian experience in a
small, exclusive circle, when they
ought to plant 1t in the great garden
of the Lord, so that the whole atmos-
phere could be aromatic with their
Christian usefulness. What we want
in the church of God is more strength
of piety. The century plant is won
derfully suggestive and wonderfully
beautiful, but l never look at it with
out thinking of its parsimony. 1t lets
whole generations go by before it puts
forth one blossom; so l have really
more admiration when l see the dewy
tears in the blue eyes Of the violets
for they come every spring. My Chris
tan friends, time is going by so rap
idly that we can not afford to be idle
Again, if you want to be qualified to
meet the duties which this age, de-
mands of you, you must, on one hand
avoid reckless iconoclasm, and, on the
other hand, not stick too much tc
things because they are old. The all
is full of new plans, new projects, new
theories of government, new theologies
and l am amazed to see how so many
Christians want only novelty in ordel
to recommend a thing to their conf
dence; and so they vacillate and swing
to and fro, and they are useless ant
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