The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-02

I
and it will be crash! crash! crashl all
! the way down to the docks. What is the
/ matter? Has there been a fall in god?'
| "Oh, no" Has there been a new tariff ?"
| No" Has there been a failure in
| crops?" No" Has there been an I'M
| accountable panic?" No" This is the
secret: The Lord God has set up his
| throne of judgment in the Exchange. He
| has summoned the righteous and the
wicked to come before him. What was
1887? a day of judgment! What was
| 1891? A day of Judgment What was
| the extreme depression of two years ago?
A day of judgment! DO you think that
| God is going to wait until ne has burned
the world up before he rights these
wrongs? I tell you, Nayl Every day is
day of Judgment.
The fraudulent man piles up his gains,
bond above bond, United States security
above United States security. emolument
above emolument, until his property has
become a great pyramid; and. as ne
| stands looking at it, he thinks it can never
be destroyed; but the Lord God comes,
and with his little finger pushes it all over
You build a house. and you put into it
rotten beam. a mechanic standing by
says, 1T viii never do TO put that beam
in; it will ruin your whole building" But
you put il in. The house is completed.
Soon 1t begins to rock. You call in the
mechanic and ask What is the matter
with this door? What is the matter with
this wall? Everything seems to be Civ
ing out" Says the mechanic, you put
a rotten beam into that structure, and the
whole thing has got to come down" Here
IS an estate that seems TO be all right now.
IL has been building a great many years.
But fifteen years ago there was a dshon-
est transaction in that commercial house.
That one dishonest transaction will keep
on working ruin in the whole structure,
until down the estate will come in wreck
and ruin about the possessor's ears-one
dishonest dollar in the estate demolishing
all his possessions. 1 have seen it again
and again; and so have you.
Here is your money-safe. The manu-
facturer and yourself only know how 1t
can be opened. You have the key. You
touch the lock, and the ponderous door
swings back. But let me tell you that,
however firmly barred and bolted your
money safe may be, you can not keep God
out. He will come, some day. into your
counting room, and he will demand,
Where did that note of hand come from?
How do you account for this security?
Where did you get that mortgage from?
What does this mean?" If it is all right,
God viii say: well done, good and faith
full servant. Be prospered in this world.
BE happy in the world to come" If it is
all wrong, he viii say, Depart, we cursed.
Be miserable for your iniquites in this
life; and then go down and spend your
eternity with thieves, and horse jockeys,
and pick pockets"
You have an old photograph of the signs
on your street. Why have those signs
nearly all changed within the last twenty
years? Does the passing away of a gen
| Grafton account for it? oh no. Does the
fact that there are hundreds of honest
men who go down every year account for
it? oh, no This is the secret; The Lord
God has been walking through the COM
mereial streets of our great cities; and he
has been adjusting things according to
| the principles of eternal rectltude.
The time will come when. through the
revolutionary power of this Gospel, a
falsehood instead of being called exag
geration, equivocation, or evasion, will be
| branded a liel And stealings, that now
| sometimes go under the head of percents
| ages and commissions, and bonuses viii
be put into the catalogue of state prison
| offenses, society will be turned inside out
| and upside down and ransacked of God s
| truth, until business dishonesties shall
come to an end. and all double-dealing
| and God win overturn, and overturn, and
overturn; and commercial men in all cities
will throw up their hands, crying out
! These that have turned the world upside
The religion of Jesus Christ will pro-
| duce a revolution in our churches, The
| non-commttal, do-nothing policy of the
church of God will give way to a spirit of
| bravest conquest. Piety in this day seems
| to me to be sailed down just so as to keep.
| 1t seems as If the church were chiefly anx-
| ious to take care Of ITSELF and if we hear
of want, and squalor, and heathenism out
side, we say: What a pity" and we put
| our hands in our pockets, and we feel
| around for a two-cent piece, and with a
| great flourish we put 1t upon the plate,
| and are amazed that the world is not
| converted in six weeks Suppose there
| were a great war; and there were three
| hundred thousand soldiers, but all of
| those three hundred thousand soldiers, eX-
| cepting ten men, were in their tents, or
| securing their muskets, or cooking ra-
tons. You would say: "Of course, defeat
must come in that case" 1t is worse than
that in the church. Millions of the pro-
fessed soldiers of Jesus Christ are cook
! ing rations, or asleep in their tents while
| only one man here and there goes out to
do battle for the Lord.
But" says some one, eve are establish
ing a great many missions, and l think
| they will save the masses" No; they will
not. Five hundred thousand of them will
not do it. They are doing a magnificent
I WORK. DuI every iuiSSioA CndlSi Is a COillSS-
| sion of the disease and weakness of the
| church. 1t as making a dividing line be-
| tween the classes. 1t is saying to the rich
and 10 the conditioned, "If you can
| pay your pew rents, come to the main
| audience room" 1t is saying TO The poor
man, Your coat is too bad, and your
shoes are not good enough. If you want to
get 10 heaven. you will have to go by the
way of the mission chapel" The mission
chapel has become the kitchen, where the
church does its sloppy work There are
hundreds and thousands of churches in
this country gorgeously built and sup
ported-that, even on bright and sunshiny
days, are not half fun of worshippers and
yet they are building mission chapels, be-
cause, by some expressed or implied regu-
lation, the great masses of the people are
kept out of the man audience room.
Now l say that any place of worship
which is appropriate for one class IS
appropriate for all classes. Let the rich
and the poor meet together, the Lord the
Maker of them all Mind you that / saw
that mission chapels are a necessity, the
way churches are now conducted: but
may God speed the time when they shall
-. ~ag.