Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1898-02-03
FLOWER-POT CHRISTIAN.
He Should Quit Dreaming and Get
Down to Business
Saving Souls for thrist-The Iiesitancy Of
the beautiful Queen Esther t-"d a.
the Theme for Very Interesting
sermon by Rev. Dr. Talmagc.

The text Of DR. Talmagc SUNDAY was
Esther iv., II: "Who knowcth whether
thou art come tn the Kingdom for such
time ~ this
Esther the beautiful was the wife of
Ahasurru> the ahuminahlc. The time
had come for her Ia present petition
Ia her infamous husband IN behalf of
the Jewish nation, To which She had
once belonged. She was afraid Ia un-
7 dcrtakc the work lest she should lose
her own life; hut her cousin, Mordccai,
who had brought her up, encouraged
her with the suggestion that probably
Sh" had been raised up of tod for that
peculiar mission ''Nho knowcth
whether thou art come To the kingdom
/ for such a time a. thIS2'
Esther had her Gnd-appointed work
You and have ours. 1t is my bust
ness To tell you what style of men and
women You ought Ia hc in order that
+ you meet the demand of the age in
/ which tod has east your lot. SO this
I discourse will not deal with technical
tiles but "nly with the practicablliticS.
b
\ tie the officers of either army do not
want philosophical discussion about
the chemical properties of the human
+ blood or the nature of gunpowdcr; they
want some one To man the batteries
and take out the guns. And now,
I when all the forces of light and dark
ness, of Heaven and hell, have plunged
into the fight, it iS no time to give our
I selves L. the definitions and formulas
, and tcchnicalitics and conventional
tiles of religion. What we want is
practical, earnest, concentrated, en-
thu>iastic and triumphant help.
! In the first place, in order to meet
. the special demand of this age, You
need To lie an unmistakablc, aggrcs-
4 Sivc Christian. or half-and-half Chris
! tianS we do not want any more. The
Church Of Jesus Christ will lie better
: without them. They are the chief OBJ
Staclc Ia the church'S advancement
am speaking of another kind of Chris
tian. All the appliances for your be-
coming an earnest Christian are at
hand, and there is straight path
for YOU into the broad daylight of God 5
I forgiveness. You may this moment
Il, the bnndmcn of the world. and
q the next moment you may he princes
of the Lord God Almighty. lou re-
member what excitement there was in
( this country, years ago, when the
prince of Wales came hcrc-how the
people rushed out 10y hundreds of
thousands Ia see him. Why? 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
to he sons and daughters of the Lord
I Almighty; yea, tn 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 graccs and wondering why
( they do not make progress. How
much robustness of health would Il
man have if he hid himself in a
dark closet? A great deal of the
( picty of to-day is too exclusive. 1t
I hides itself 1t needs more fresh air.
more outdoor exercise. There are
many Christians who are giving their
entire life to determination. They
are feeling their pulses to see what is
the condition of their spiritual health.
/ How long would IA man have robust
/ physical health if he kept all the day
/ feeling his pulse instead of going out
/ into active, earnest everyday work?
was once amid the wonderful. be-
if,.hi IN. &c y,
| olina. / never was more bewildcrcd
with the beauty of flowers, and yet
when would take up one of these cac-
1 fuses and pull the leaves apart the
| beauty was all gone. You could hard
/ " tell that il had ever been flower.
| And there are a great many Christian
. people in this day just pulling apart
til ,ir Christian experiences to see what
there is in them, and there is nothing
left in them.
/ This style of determination is n
damage instead of an advantage to
their Christian character. | remember
when | was boy | used to have a
! small piece in the garden that | called
my own, and planted corn there, and
every few days | would pull it up to
see how fast it was growing. Now
there are great many Christian peo-
Pile in this day whose determination
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
Christian character, plant it right
/ out of doors in the great field
I Of Christian usefulness, and though
storms may come upon it, and though
( the hot sun of trial may try to con-
/ sumo it, il will thrive until il becomes
! great tree, in which the fowls of
/ heaven may have their habitation. |
/ have no patience with these flower-pot
| Christians. They keep themselves
| under shelter, and all their Christian
! experience, in a small. exclusive circle,
when they ought to plant it in 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 plant is wonderfully sugges-
! tive and wonderfully beautiful, but |
never look at it without thinking of its
| parsimony. 1t lets whole generations
go by before it puts forth one blossom;
so have really more admiration when
| see the dewy tears in the blue eyes of
the violets, for they come every spring.
My Christian friends, time is going by
so rapidly that we can not afford to be
idle.
A recent statistician says that hui
man life now has an average of only
| S2 years. From these 81 years you
must substract all the time you take
for sleep and the taking of food and
recreation; that will leave you about
sixteen years. From these l6 you must
substract all the time that you are
necessarily engaged in the earning
of 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. Oh, my
soul! wake up! How darest thou sleep
in harvest time, and with SO few hours
! in which to reap? So that | state it as