Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1898-07-22

the'people are tired of the humdrum OF
religionists. Religious humdrum is the
worst of all humdrum. You say over
and over again: Come to Jesus, until
the phrase means absolutely nothing.
Why do you not tell them story
which will make them come to Jesus
in five minutes? You say that all
Sunday-school teachers, and all
evangelists, and all ministers, must
bring their illustrations from the
Bible. Christ did not when lie
preached The most of the Bible was
written before Christs time, but
where did He get His illustrations? lie
drew them from the lilies, from the
ravens, from salt, from candle, from
bushel, from long-faced hypocrites,
from gnats, from moths, from large
gates and small gates, from n camel,
from the needles eye, from yeast in the
dough of dough bread, from mustard
seed, from fishing net, from debtors
and creditors. That is the reason null
! titudes followed Christ. HIS illuStra-
tons were so easy and so underestimate
Bile. Therefore, my brother Christian
worker, if you and find two illustra-
tons for a religious subject, and the one
is q Bible illustration and the other is
outside the Bible, He will take the lat
ter because want to be like my Master.
Looking across to hill, Christ saw the
City of Jerusalem. Talking to the people
about the .conspicuity of Christian eX'
ample, lie said: "The world is look
sng at you; be careful. A city that is
set on Il i'll can not be hid" WhileH G
was speaking of the divine care of
Gods children bird flew past. lie
said: "Behold the ravens" Then,
looking down into the valley, all COW
cred ut that season with flowers,
he said: Consider the lilies On, my
brother Christian workers, what is the
use of our going away off in some OBJ
scure part of history, or on the other
side the earth, to get an illustration,
full of illustrations. Why should we
go away off to get an illustration of
the vicarious suffering OF Jesus Christ,
when us near us as Bloomfield, n.
j., two little children were walk.
ing on the rail track, and a
train was coming; but they were
on bridge of trestlewor,l, and the
little girl took her brother and let him
down through the trcstlewors rs gently
as she could toward the water, very
carefully and lovingly and cautiously,
so that he might not be hurt in the
fall, and might be picked up by those
who were standing near by. While
doing that the train struck her, ai~l
hardly enough of her body was left to
gather into funeral casliet. What
was that? Vicarious suffering. Like
Christ. Fang for others. Woe for
others Suffering for others. Death
for others.
But while half of the doors of the
church are to be set open toward this
world, the other half OF the doors of
the church must be set open toward
the next. You and tarry here only a
brief space. We want somebody to
teach us how toget out OF this life at the
right time and in the right way. Some
fail out OF life, some go stumbling out
of life, some go grooming out of life,
some 90 cursing out of life. We want
to go singing, rising, rejoicing, tri-
umphing. We want the half doors of
the church set in that direction. We
want half the prayers that way, half
the sermons that way. We want to
know how to get ashore from the tn.
mutt of this world into the land OF
everlasting peace. We do not want
to stand doubling and shivering
when we go away from this world
we want our anticipations aroused
to the highest pitch. We want
to have the exhilardtion of n DYING
child in England, the father telling
me the story. When he said to her:
rs the path narrow she answered:
1.-The path is narrow; it is so narrow
that can not walk arm in arm with
Christ, so Jesus goes ahead, and lie
says: Mary, follow" Through the
church gates set heavenward how many
of your friends and mine have gone?
The last tim5 they were out OF tn,
house they came to church. The earth
ly pilgrimage ended at the pillar o.
public worship and then they marched
out to bigger and brighter assem-
blage. Some OF them were SO old they
could not walk without cane or tw,
crutches; now they have eternal jn.
venescence. Or they were so young
they could not walk except a,
the maternal hand guided them
now they bound with the hilari
ties celestial. The last time we saw
them they were wasted with malariaI
or pulmonic disorder; lut now they
have no fatigue, and no difficulty o
respiration in the pure air of Heaven
How | wonder when You and | shall
! cross over! Some OF you have had abou
enough of the humping and tiailing o
this life A draught from the fountain
of Heaven would do you good. Com
plete release you could stand very well
If you got on the other side and had
permission TO come back, you would
not come. Though you were invited
to come back and join your friends OF
earth you would say: mo, let IN,
tarry here until they come, shall no
risk going back; if a man reaches
Heaven he had better stay here"
Oh, join hands with you in that up
lifted splendor
When the shore Is won at last
Who will count the pillows past?
In Freybourg, Switzerland there Ii
the trunk of tree 400 years old. Tha
tree was planted to commemorate an
event. About ten miles from the city
the Swiss conquered the Burgundians
and II young wanted to take the tidngs
= to the city. lie took a tree
branch and ran with such Speed