The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1898-02-05

RE-" AALAOH geSLiou mat prop
ably she had been raised up of God fol
that peculiar mission. "Who know
eth whether thou art come to- the king
dom for such a time as this?"
Esther had her God-appointed work.
You and / have ours. 1t is my bust
ness to tell you what style of men anc
women you ought to be in order thai
you meet the demand of the age In
which God has cast your lot So this
discourse will not deal with the tech
nicalities, but only with practicable
ties When two armies have rushed
into battle, the officers of either army
do not want a philosophical discussion
about the chemical properties of hu
man blood or the nature of Runpowder
they want some one to man the bat
teries and take out the guns AND
now, when all the light and darkness
Of Heaven and hell have plunged intC
the fight, 1t Is no time to give ourselves
to- the definitions and formulas and
t~echnicalities and conventionalities Of
religion. What we want Is practical,
earnest, concentrated, enthusiastic and
triumphant help.
In the first place, In order to meet
the special demand OF this age, you
need to be an unmistakable, aggres-
sive Christian. OF half and half Chris
tiaps we do not want any more. The
church of Jesus Christ will be better
without them. They are the chief OBJ
stacle to the church's advancement I
am speaking of another kind of Chris
tian. All the appliances for your be-
coming an earnest Christian are al
your hand. and there is a straight
path for you into the broad daylight
of Gods forgiveness You may this
moment be the bondmen of the world,
and the next moment you may be
princes of the Lord God Almighty.
You remember 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. WhyP Because
they expected that some day he would
sit upon the throne of England. But
what was all that honor compared
with the honor to which God calls you
Ito be sons and daughters of the Lord
Almighty; yea, to be queens and kings
unto God. They shall reign with
Him forever and forever"
But you need to be aggressive Chris.
tians, and not like those persons who
spend their lives in hugging their
Christian graces and wondering why
they do not make progress. How
much robustness OF health would a
man have II he hid himself in a dark
closetf A great deal of the piety of
to-day Is too exclusive. 1t hides itself.
Il needs fresh air. outdoor
exercise. There are many Christians
who are giving their entire life to
determination. They are feeling
their pulses u see what Is the condi-
ton of their spirital health. How
long would a man have robust physical
health If he kept all the day feeling
his pulse instead of going out into &C.
tive, earnest everyday work.
/ was once amid the wonderful, be.
witching cactus growths of North
Carolina. ! never was more bewildered
with the beauty of flowers, and yet
when I would take up one of the a
fuses and pull the leaves apart the
beauty was all gone You could hard
ly tell that 1t had ever been q 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
AClI III I1OL4s Ia Y AZ "a
ination is a damage instead of an ad-
vantage to their Christian character.
I remember when l was q boy I used
TO have 4 small piece-in the garden
that I called my own, and / planted
corn there, and every few days ] would
pull it up to see how fast it was grow
ing. Now, there r a great many
Christian people 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, II you want
70 have q stalwart Christian character,
plant 1t right outof doors, in the great
field of Christian usefulness, and
though storms may come upon 1t, and
though the hot sun of trial may try to
consume 1t, It will thrive until 1t be-
comes a great tree, In which the fowls
Of Heaven may have their habitation-
l have no patience with these flower
pot Christians, They keep themselves
undcr shelter, and all their Christian
experience in a small, exclusive circle,
when they ought to plant IL IN the
great garden of the Lord. so that the
whole atmosphere could be aromatic
with their Christian usefulness. What
we want in the church of God Is more
strength of piety. The century plsnt
is wonderfully suggestive and wonder
fully beautiful. but / never look at 1t
without thinking of its parsimony. 1t
lets whole generations go by before 1t
puts forth one blossom; So have really
more admiration sThenI see the dewy
tears in the blue eyes of the ~violets,
for they come every spring. Ny Chris
tiap friends, time is going by so rapid.
~ that we cannot afford to be idle.
A recent statistician says that hu-
man life now has an average Of only
30 years. From these 80 years you
must subtract all the time you take
for sleep and the taking Of food and
recreation; that will leave you about
10 years. From these 10 you must SUBJ
tract all the time that you are neces-
earily engaged in the earning Of q
livelihood; that Will leave you about
eight years. From these eight years
you must take all the days and weeks
and months-all the length of time
that is passed in misunderstanding You
about one year in which to work for
God. o my souli wake upl How
darest thou sleep in harvest time, and
with so few hours in which to reap?
So that l state 1t as a simple fact that
the time that the vast majority Of
you will have for the exclusive service
of God will be less than year.
But" says some man, II literally
support the gospel. and the church Is
open, and the gospel 10 preached; all
the spiritual advantages are spread
before men, and If they wan to DO
saved let them come and be saved-I
haze discharged all my responsibility"
Ali is that my Masters spiritP Is
there not an old book somewhere that
US to 60 out into the high.
ways and the hedges and compel the
to come in? What would be.
come of you and me 81 Christ had not
down OF the hills of Heaven; and
If He had not come through the door
Of the Bethlehem caravansaFy; spd If
He had not with the crushed hand Of
the cruc8xion knocked at the iron gate
Of the sepulchre Of our spiritual death,