The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1898-02-03

- se1soIy TN we eoAnoS a1ord 20 be
idls.
A rseeat statistician says that hur,,u
life now has an average Of only 3.
years. From these % years you laHsi
subtract all the time you take fer sse
and the taking Of food and recrea ton,
that will leave you about 16 ye>ss
From these Is you must subtrao. a.
the time that you are necessa,i :.
engaged In the earning Of a llveI-
hood. That will leave you obo,t
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 sick
ness-leaving you about one year In
which to work for. God. o my SOUL
wake up! How darest thou sleep in
harvest time and with 90 few hours in
which to reap. So, that l state IL as a
simple fact that all the time that the
vast majority Of you will have for the
exclusive service Of God will be less
than one year.
But" says some man." I literally
support the gospel, and the church is
open, and the gospel Is preached; all
the spiritual advantages are spread be-
fore men. and II they want to be saved
let them come and be saved-I have
discharged all my responsibility" An,
Is that my Masters spirit? Is there
not an old book somewhere that CON-
mands us to go out into the highways
and the hedges and compel the people
to come in? What would become Of
you and me II Christ had not come
down OF the hills of heaven. ard II
he had not come through the door of
the Bethlehem caravansary, and if he
had not with the crushed hand Of
the cruciflxion knocked at the iron
gate Of the sepulcher OF our spiritual
death, crying, Lazarus, come for;h?"
Oh, my Christian friend, this is no t'l.e
for inertia when all the forces o. dark
ness seem to be in full blast-wAen
steam printing presses are publlsh!ng
infidel tracts. when express trains are
carrying messengers OF sin, when fast
clippers are laden with opium and
strong drink, when the night air If
our cities is polluted with the laugh,
ter that breaks up from the 10000 sa-
looms Of dissipation and abandonme g. I,
when the fires OF the second death al
ready are kindled in the cheeks of
some who. only little while ago, were
lncorrupt! Oh, never since the cul Sc
fell upon the earth has there been a
time when 1t 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
temples Of sin-tears Of unutterable
woe their baptism, the blood of crushed
hearts the awful wine Of their sacra-
ment, blasphemies their litany, and the
groans of the lost world the organ
dirge OF their worship.
Again, IL you want to be qualified to
meet the duties which this age de-
mands Of you, you must on the one
hand avoid reckless iconoclasm and on
the other hand not stick too much to
things because they are old. The air
is full Of new plans, new projects, new
theories of government, new theologies,
and am amazed to see how so many
Christians want only novelty in order
to recommend thing to their conf
dence, and so they vacillate and swing
to and fro, and they are useless and
they are unhappy. New plans-secu-
lar, ethical, philosophical, religious,
cisatlantic, transatlantic-long enough
to make line reaching from the Ger
man universities to Great Salt Lake
city. All, my brother, do not take hold
of a thing merely because 1t Is new!
Try it by the realities of the judgment
day. But, on the other hand. do not
adhere to anything, merely because 1t
is old.
There Is not single enterprise OF
the church or the world but has some
time been scoffed at. There was time
VhCh hiCh uCiIuCu CNCu Ilulc oOSlcllco,
and when few young men met In Mas
sachusetts and organized the first mis-
sionary society ever organized in this
country there went laughter and ridi-
cule all around the Christian church.
They said the undertaking was prepos-
ferrous. And so also the work of Jesus
Christ was assailed. People cried out:
who ever heard Of such theories OF
ethics and government! Who ever no
ticed such style Of preaching as Je-
sus has?" Ezekiel had talked OF mys-
terious wings and wheels. Here came
man from Capernaum and Gennesa-
ret, and he drew his illustrations from
the lakes, from the sand. from the
mountain. from the lilies. from the
cornstalks. How the Pharisees scoff-
ed! How Herod derided! And this Je-
sus they plucked by the beard. and
they spat In his face, and they called
him this fellow" All the great enter
prises In and out OF the church have at
times been scoffed at. and there have
been q great multitude who have
thought that the chariot Of Gods truth
would fall to pieces II Il once got out of