The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1898-06-25

Il 10 IL o'clock; now they are singing
1t Is 1880; now they are preaching. l
wonder when the folks will be home
to tell us what was said, Whist has been
going on" When the impression Is con-
firmed that our churches, by architec
ture, by music, by sociality, and by ser
mon, shall be made the most attractive
places on earth, then we will want
twice as many churches as we have
now, twice as large, and then they will
not half accommodate the people.
l say to the young men who are en-
tering the ministry, we must put on
more force, more energy, and into our
religious services more vivacity, II we
want the people to come. You look
into church court of any denomina-
ton of Christians. First, you will find
the men of large common sense and
earnest looks. The education Of their
minds, the piety of their hearts, the
holiness of their lives qualify them for
their work. Then you will find in every
church court Of every denomination q
group OF men who utterly amaze you
with the fact that such semi-imbecility
can get any pulpits to preach in! Those
are the men who give forlorn statistics
about church decadence. Frogs never
croak in running water; always
in stagnant. But say to- all Christian
workers, to all Sunday-school teachers,
to all evangelists, to all ministers OF
the Gospel, if we want our Sunday
schools, and our prayer meetings, and
our churches to gather the people, we
must freshen up. The simple fact is,
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 ted them story
which will make them come to Jesus
in five minutes? YouH>say that all
Sunday-school teachers, and all
evangelists, and all ministers, must
bring their illustrations from the
Bible. Christ did not when He
preached The most of the Bible was
written before Christ's time, but
where did He get His illustrations? He
drew them from the lilies, from the
ravens, from salt, from a candle, from
a bushel, from longfaced hypocrites.
| =
gates and small gates, from a camel,
from the needles eye, from yeast in the
dough of dough bread, from a mustard
seed, from fishing net, from debtors
and creditors. That is the reason null
titudes followed Christ. HIS illustra.
tions were so easy and so underestimate
BILE. Therefore, my brother Christian
worker, if you and 1 fad two illustra-
tions for religious subject, and the one
is 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, He said: 'The world is look
sng at you; be careful. A city that is
set on hill can not be hid" WhileH g
was speaking of the divine care OF
Gods children a bird flew past. He
said: Behold the ravens" Then,
looking down into the valley, all COW
cred at that, season with flowers,
he said: Consider the lilies" Oh, 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,
when the earth, and the heavens are
full of illustrations. Why should we
go away off to get an illustration of
the vicarious suffering of Jesus Christ,
j., two little children were walk
ing on the rail track, and q
train was coming; but they were
on a bridge of trestlework, and the
little girl took her brother and let him
down through the trestlework as 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, and
hardly enough of her body was left to
gather into funeral casket What
was that? Vicarious suffering. Like
Christ Pang for others. Woe for
others. Suffering for others. Death
| for others.
What is the use of our going away of
to find an illustration in past age, when
during the great forest fires in Michi-
gan, mail-carrier on horseback, rid
ding on, pursued by those flames which
had swept over hundred miles, saw
an old man by the roadside, dismount.
ed, helped the old man on the horse,
saying: Nov whip up and get away"
The old man got away, but the mail.
carrier persisted. just like Christ dis
mounting from the glories of Heaven
to put us on the way of deliverance,
then falling back into the flames Of
sacrifice for others. Pang for others.
Woes for others. Death for others.
Vicarious suffering.
Oh, join hands with you in that up.
lifted splendor.
| When the shore Is won at last,
| Who will count the pillows past?
In FIeyhourg, Switzerland there is
the trunk of tree 400 years old. That
tree was planted to commemorate an
event. About ten miles from the city
the Swiss conquered the Burgundians,
and a young wanted to take the tidings
to the city. He took a tree
branch and ran with such speed
the ten miles, that when he reached
the city waving the tree branch he had
only strength to cry "Victory!" and
| dropped dead The tree branch that