The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1900-02-07
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IL says, he stones are iron, ana out OF
the hills thou shalt dig BRASS and yet
hundreds and thousands of dollars worth
Of this metal was kept under the hills.
Well, this is the difficulty with the church
Of God at this day It's talent is not de-
veloped. If one-half of its energy could
be brought out it might take the public
iniquities of the day by the throat and
make them bite the dust. II human elo-
quence were consecrated to the Lord
Jesus Christ, it would in a few years per-
suade this whole earth to surrender to
God There is enough undeveloped en-
ergy in this city to bring all the United
States to Christ-enough of undeveloped
Christian energy in the United States to
bring the whole world to Christ, but it is
buried under strata of Indifference and
under whole mountains of slOth. Now, is
it not time for the mining to begin, and
the plckaXes to plunge, and for this
buried metal to be brought out and put
into the furnaces and be turned into
howltzers and carbines for the Lords
host?
Useless Christians.
The vast majority of Christians in this
day are useless The most of the Lords
oattoiiou DcIOuS 10 tue reserve corps. Line
most of the crew are asleep in the ham
Knocks. The most Of the metal is under
the hills. Oh, is it not time for the church
OF God to rouse up and understand that
we want all the energies, all the talents
and all the wealth enlisted for Christ's
sake? | like the nickname that the Eng
lish soldiers gave to Butcher, the COM
mander. They called him "Old For
wards We have had enough retreats
in the church of Christ; let us have a
glorious advance. And | pray to you as
the general said when his troops were af-
frighted-rising up in his stirrups, his
hair flying in the wind, he lifted up his
voice until 10000 troops heard him cry
ing out Forward, the whole liner We
want all the laymen enlisted. Ministers
are numerically too small. They do the
best they can. They are the most over
worked class on earth. Many Of them
die of dyspepsia because they cannot get
the right kind of food to eat, or getting
the right kind, are so worried that they
take it down in chunks. They die from
early and late exposure.
Ii novelist or a historian publishes
one book year, he is considered industri-
o,,s, but every faithful pastor muse, orig
mate enough thought for three or four
volumes year. Ministers receive enough
calls in year from men who Eave maps
and medicines and lightning rods and
pictures to sell TO exhaust their vitality.
They are bored with agents OF all SORTS.
They are set in drafts at funerals and
poisoned by the unventilatei rooms OF
nlvalids and waited upon by committees
who want addresses made until life be-
comes Il burden to bear. 1t is not hard
study that makes ministers look pale 1t
is the infnity of Interruptions and bother
ations to which they are subjected. Nu-
merically too small. 1t is no more the
work of the pulpit to convert and save
the world than it is the work of the pew
If men go to ruin there will be as much
blood on your skirts as on mine.
Let us quit this grand farce of trying to
save the world by few clergymen, and
let all hands lay hold of the work. Give
US, III all our churches, two or three
aroused and qualified men and women to
help. In most churches to-day five or ten
men are compelled to do all the work A
vast majority of churches are at their
wits end how to carry on a prayer meet
ing If the minister is not there, when
there ought to be enough pent-up energy
and religious force to make a meeting go
on with such power that the minister
would never be missed. The church
stands working the pumps Of a few min
isterial cisterns until the buckets are dry
and choked, while there are thousands of
fountains from which might be dipped up
the waters of eternal life. Before YOU
| no 4
we will. under God, decide whether our
children shall grow up amid the accursed
surroundings of vice and shame or come
TO an inheritance of righteousness. Long,
loud, bitter, will be the curse that
scorches our grave if holding within the
church to-day enough men and women to
save the city we act the coward or the
drOne.
The Worlds Grindstones.
Again, | learn from this subject that
we sometimes do we'll to take advantage
Of the worlds grindstones These Isra-
elites were reduced to. file, and so they
went over to the garrison of the Philis-
tines to get their axes and their goads
and their plows sharpened. The Bible
distinctly states 1.-THE text which | read
at the beginning of the service-that they
had no other instruments now with which
to do this work, and the Israelites did
right when they went over to the Philis-
tines to use their grindstones. My friends,
is 1t not right for us to employ the worlds
grindstones? If there be art, if there be
logic, if there be business faculty on the
other side, let us go over and employ it
for Christ's sake. The fact is we fight
with too dull weapons and we work with
too dull implements. We hack and we
maui when we ought to make clean
stroke. Let us go over among sharp
business men and among sharp literary
men and find out what their tact is and
then transfer it to the cause Of Christ.
Ii they have science and art, it will do us
good to rub against it.
That was what gave Thomas Chalmers
his power in his day. He conquered the
worlds astronomy and compelled it to
ring out the wisdom and greatness Of the
Lord, until, for the second time, the
morning stars sang together and all the
sons of God shouted for JOY. That was
what gave to Jonathan Edwards his in
fuence III his day. He conquered the
worlds metaphysics and forced it into the
service Of God until not only tho old