Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-11-20

II to set forth Secular ideas, you are
mistaken. The printing press is to be
the great agency Of gospel proclama-
ton. 1t is high time that good men,
instead Of denouncing the press, en-
ploy it to scatter forth the gospel Of
Jesus Christ. The vast majority of
people in our cities do not come to
church, and nothing but the printed
sermon can reach them and call them
to pardon and life and peace and
heaven.
So I cannot understand the nervous
ness of some of my brethren of the
ministry. When they see a newspaper
man coming in, they say, "Alas, there
is reporter Every added reporter
is 10000, $4,000, 100000 immortal souls
added to the auditory. The time will
come when all the village, town and
city newspapers will reproduce the
gospel of Jesus Christ, and sermons
preached on the Sabbath will rever-
berate all around the world, and, some
by type and some by voice, all nations
will be evangelical.
The practical bearing of this is upon
those who are engaged in Christian
WOIh, AOI only upon IA0OlOSiCdI SIu-
dents and young ministers, but upon
all who preach the gospel and all who
exhort in meetings and all of you if
you are doing your duty. Do you ex-
hort in prayer meeting? Be short and
spirited. Do you teach in Bible class?
Though you have to study every night,
be interesting. Do you accost people
on the subject of religion in their
homes or in public places? Study
adroitneSS and use common sense. The
most graceful and most beautiful thing
on earth is the religion of Jesus Christ,
and if you awkwardly present it it is
defamation. We must do our work
rapidly, and we must do it effectively.
Soon our time for work will be gone.
Now Is the Time.
A dying Christian took out his watch
and gave it to a friend and said: ''Take
that watch. I have no more use for it.
Time is at an end for me, and eternity
begins" Oh, my friends, when our
watch has licked away for us the last
moment, and our clock has struck for
us the last hour, may it be found we
did our work well, that we did it in the
very best way, and, whether we
preached the gospel in pulpits, or
taught Sabbath classes, or administer
ed to the sick as physicians, or bar
gained as merchants, or pleaded the
law as attorneys, or were busy as arti-
sans or huSbandmen or as mechanics,
or were, like Martha, called to give a
meal to a hungry Christ, or like Han
nah, to make a coat for q prophet, or
like Deborah, to rouse the courage of
some timid Barak in the Lords con-
f1ict, we did our work in such a way
that it will stand the test of the judg
ment And in the long procession of
the redeemed that march around the
throne may it be found that there are
many there brought to God through
our instrumentality and in whose res
cue we eXult. But let none of us who
are still unsaved wait for that religious
discourse of the future. 1t may come
after our ObSeQuieS. 1t may come after
the stonecutter has chiseled our name
on the slab so years before. Do not
wait for q great steamer Of the Cunard
or White Star line to take you off the
wreck, but hail the first craft, with
however low a mast and however
small a hulk and however poor Il rud-
der and however weak Il captain. Bet
ter a disabled schooner that comes up
in time than a full rugged brig that
comes up after you have sunk.
Instead of waiting for that religious
discourse of the future Gt may be 40,
so years Off, take this plain invitation
of man who to have given you spir-
itual eyesight would be glad to be call
ed the spittle by the hand of Christ put
on the eyes of a blind man and who
would consider the highest compliment
of this service if, at the close, 500 men
should start from these doors saying:
whether he be n sinner or no, know
not. This one thing [ know-whereas
l was blind now 1 See.'
Swifter than shadows over the plain,
quicker than birds in their autumnal
flight hastier than eagles to their prey,
HE you to a sympathetic Christ. The
orchestras of heaven have strung their
instruments to celebrate your rescue:
And many were the voices around the throne.
Rejoice, for the Lord brings back his own.