Evening star., 1898-10-05

go forward may poW easily be heard By
the listening car of faith
"1,t The ,,aa anvfl stands ready; Right good GOD
the anvil nov. We ought to be, we want
to be, the hammer, and the arm driving it
to strike hard. Hawaii, Porto Ric6-go for
ward to possess the land. The Philippines,
If the flag we honor and love is to float
sovereign there, go We In there also. And
if the forceful logic of events that we wot
of lift the flag into prominence over other
regions yet, go ye there, too, to bide and
work, and help and save. We may find
China likely to be our neighbor, even in the
ordinary sense of mundane locality. In the
literal sense and in the catschism's sense,
she has been our neighbor for years. We
have tried to do little something for her.
There shall be an asking and pleading
and demanding that we do more things
for her A huge dark arm of the eaTth'S
housekeeping she is But 1t is no good to
get scores of men and set them to bail
darkness out of the earth with buckets. So
for China we shall be constrained more and
more in heart and conscience to let Christ's
Gospel Light in.
For Japan a stage of awakening from
her blindness is uoen her. She now sees
men trees walking. The precious eye
salve which shall avail to complete her re-
lief We have in trust and commission. Give
eye to her and she shall see with eye of
sense men as immortal souls forgiven. COM
forted, hopeful and with eye of faith the
Lord himself who saves and blesses them.
Africa is to be helped and other places
nearer at home on our continent.
Our Own Country.
Then for our own countrymen, shall this
church be content with any narrower aim
than to be in zeal and duty and sympathy,
the American church. We need not the
fact that We are gathered in the nations
capital to remind us how thick and fast are
growing the nations responsibilities which
are centering here To meet them bravely
hn l,nyr dos r0f
heaven and the olaudits of world. our
people must have Gods approval, Gods
laws, Gods guidance engrafted into their
lives. Gods Providence has lodged in this
church a fullnesS of grace and a complete
ness of power and balanced roundness of
truth to keep nightly any such craving
and grating. We are but a feeble folk.
We are sadly at a loss in rising to our
privileges, but we utterly refuse to be
counted out as an element of national
spiritual strength. We humbly claim that
We have helped little in the reconciliation
of north and south, and the softening of
prejudices east and west, which have cuf-
minated in the wonderful reunion of hearts
and hands recently witnessed and so
abundantly welcomed. And, with our
coney nest In the rock Of such blessed
union, we sturdtly insist on being CHEEKY
and hopeful, spite of straitness that presses
and crookedness that perplexes in our
steady work for the master and his church
so long as We SOW in little children's
joy, and swell IN the hearts of the children
of the church growth into the harvest of
the two truths more beneficent to humanity
than any other two that can be named-in-
carnation and resurrection: SO long as we
thoughtfuly recognize the two great insti-
tutions provided by Almighty God, the
family, the state, the church, and to keep
emphasizing all three. through love, through
education, through baptism, her eminently
important factors; so long as we bring out
in the cycle of the Christian year the
wholesomely varied cycle of Gods reveia-
ton in Christ; so long as We tie the present
to the past in such way as soberly to guide
and safely to steady, and link the past to
the present in such way to pour the
warm blood of the new into the wisely
created and well-proven framework of the
old. so long as in prayer and faith and love
and duty we enter homes to make them
more sweet, and preside over marriages to
make them more holy, and touch con-
sciences to make them more tender. and
link arms with citizenship to lift up and
move unconsciouSnesS and entertain broth
erly kindness and charity toward all who
profess and perform themselves Christians,
however faulty and imperfect their systems
may seem to us. Just so long we may be to
degree far greater than our brothers
could count up, and with q steady, moldins
force, if not always acknowledged or ap-
preciated. of use and help to the entire
American people, and more and more as
destiny seems to point, to the whole hu-
man race.
Feeble folk only 1t is still persisted we
must be called. So we are in many things.
And imperfect. We are praying God to
make US better. With the better if we
have the grace to get and keep 1t, will go
the stronger The white OK to be offered
to Jupiter. if it had dark spots on the skin,
must be rubbed with chalk to make them
also white. Spots and blemshes are also
upon this church, we know, but ask in
love to blot them out by some appliance
as of whitening chalk If she offer herself
t.1 l.
willing, loving, working sacrifice until her
Lord. He will have thought of her loving
zeal and devotion and any of her blemshes
and will present her to Himself a glorious
church. not having spot or wrinkle or any
such thing.
The Tvvo-Fold Work.
"The Anglo-Saxon race seems harnessed
to the two-fold work of giving to the world
the sweets of personal liberty and the
restraints of order, without which liberty
cannot be preserved. The Anglo-Saxon
church would go hand in hand with the
race, and proclaim by such
fact, if her proclamation be heard, that in
the long run the sweets and restraints
are dependent on the acceptance in the
heart of Gods truth, Gods laws and Gods
guidance. We mean to be up and doing.
May / not pledge you, brother churchmen
and sister churchwomen, that we shall
is nearest and wisest and best. Only
throughout all active doing let US place
on the throne and keep steadily there a
law life and love.
ut Is found, l told, that in the hur-
ing Of modern missiles of war, that If the
projectile has softened cap of steel, it
better goes through the hardest and tough
est ship armor. So hard, sharp points of
projected discipline and doctrine will bet
ter penetrate for good, if a soft cap piece
of charity be prefixed alOwance-making
for others, strictness for ourselves, charity
for ALL however wide and hard the task
we are summoned to.
I'VE ought to be full of love. Then love
would make work light. 1t would change
missionary duty into pleasure 1t would
be kindly considerate and cement a real
brotherhood. 1t would cast enmity and
jealousy out of our hearts and put there
instead the sweetness of forbearance and
gratitude If in our hearts there be some
love for Christ and some sharing of His
love for men, then missionary love will
make missionary light and no end of mis-
work. For with love for our spirit
ual glasses we shall see brethren only who
profess and call themselves Christians. and
in a Christian brothers face shall see
Christs face and in his hands Christ's
hands, and in his feet Christ's feet, to do
Christ's work of good Then some of the
peace which passeth all understanding may
possess our souls in thought of the achieve
ments of ChriSt'S militant church on earth