The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-02-08

that all the time that the vast major
1ty or you will ave for the exclusive
service OF God will be less than one
yea
But" says some man. "I literally
support the gospel, and the church Is
open, n the gospel Is preached; all
the spiritual advantages are spread
before men, and IL they rrant to be
saved let them come and be saved-I
have discharged all my responsibility"
All, is that my Masters spirit? Is
there not an old book somewhere that
commands us to go out into the high
way and the hedges and compel the
people TO come in? What would be-
come Of you and me If Christ had not
come down off the hills of heaven, and
If he had not come through the door
OF n Bethlehem caravansary, and If
he a not with the crushed hand OF
the crucifixion knocked at the iron gate
of the sepulcher of our spiritual death,
crying, Lazarus, come forth?" Oh,
my Christian friend, this is no time for
inertia when all the forces of dark
ness seem to be in full ~blaSt-when
steam printing presses are publishing
infidel tracts when express trains are
carrying messengers of sin, when fast
clippers are laden with opium and
strong drink, when the night air of
our cities is polluted with the laughter
that breaks up from the 10000 saloons
of dissipation and abandonment, when
the fires Of the second death already
are kindled in the cheeks of some who,
only a little while ago, were i~ncorrupt!
Oh, never since the curse fell upon the
earth has there been a time when it
was such an unwise, such a cruel.
such an awful thing for the church to
sleep! The great audiences are not
gathered in Christian churches. The
great audiences are gathered in tenn
pies Of sin-tears of unutterable woe
their baptism, the blood of rushed
hearts the awful wine of their sacra-
ment, 1blasphemies their litany, and
h roans of the lost world the organ
dirge of their worship.
GET OUT OF OLD RUTS.
Again, if you want to be qualified to
meet the duties which his age de-
mandS of you, o must on the n
hand avoid reckless iconoclasm and
On the other hand not stick too much
to things becauSe the are I'D. The
air is full of new plans, new projects,
new theories of government, neW
~theOlOgies, and l am amazed to see haW
SO many Christians want only novelty
in order to recommend a thing to their
confidence, and so they vacillate and
swing to and fro, and they are useless
and they are unhappy. New plans
secular, ethical, philosophical, relig-
ious, cisatlantic, transatlantic-long
enough to make a line reaching from
German universities to Great Salt Lake
city. All, my brother, ont take o
of a thing merely because it is new!
Try it by the realities of n Judgment
day. But, on the OLher hand, do not
adhere to anything merely because it
is old.
There is not a single enterprise of
the church or the world but has some
time been Scoffed at. There was a
time When men derided even Bibl
societies, and when a few young men
met in Massachusetts and organized
the first missionary society ever or
ganiZed in this country there went
laughter and ridicule all around the
Christian church. They said the I'M
dertaking was prepOsterOus. And so
also the work Of Jesus Christ was as
sailed. People cried out: "Who ever
heard of such theories of ethics and
government! Who ever noticed such
a style Of preaching as Jesus has?"
Ezekiel had talked of mysterious wings
and wheels. Here came a man from
Capernaum and Gennesaret, and he
I drew his illustrations from the lakes
from the sand, from the mountain,
from the lilies, from the cornstalks.
How the Pharisees scOffed! How
Herod derided! And this Jesus they
| plucked by the beard, and they spat
in his face. and they called him "this
fellow All the great enterprises in
and out of the church have at times
been scoffed at, and there have been
a great multitude who have thought
that the chariot of Gods truth would
| fall to pieces if it once got out of the
! old rut. And so there are those who
| have no patience with anything like
! Improvement in church architecture
or with anything like good, hearty
earnest church singing, and they de-
ride any form of religious discussion
which goes down walking among
everyday men rather than that which
makes an excursion on rhetorical stills
Oh, that the church of God would
wake UP to an a~daptability of work!
We must admit the simple fact thai
the churches of Jesus Christ in this
day no not reach the great masses
There are $4,000 people in Edinburgh
who never heard the gospel. There
are 1000, 900 people in London wht
never hear the gospel. The great
majority of the inhabitants of this
SCp4Ioi III nv uIldCi IlIC 1liI1llCdIolS
illustrations of Christ's truth ant
the church of God in this day, instead
of being a place full Of living epistles
known and read Of all men, is more
like a dead letter postoffice.
WORK TO BE DONE.
But" say the people, 1.-THE world il
going to be converted; you must Ft
patient: the kingdoms of this Worlt
are to become the Kingdoms of Christ.
Never, unless the church of JeSu:
Christ puts out more energy. Instead
of the church converting the world
h world is converting the church
Here is a great fortress. How shall i
be taken? An army comes and sit.
around about it, cuts off the supple
and says. NOW we will just waitunti
from exhaustion and starvation the!
Will nave to give up" Weeks and
months and perhaps a year pas alons
and finally the fortress surrender
through that starvation and exhaus
ton But my friends, the fortresse.
of sin are never to be taken in tina