The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1900-04-13

IL Will stay long enough W CulSt yOuI
children after you are dead. Call over
the roll of bad men who prospered and
see how short was their prosperity.
For awhile. like the men of Al, they |
went from conquest to conquest, but |
after awhile disaster rolled back upon |
them, and they were divided into three |
parts. Misfortune took their property, |
the grave took their body and the lost !
world took their soul.
Lesson the third: How much may be |
accomplished by lying in ambush for
opportunities. Are you hypercritical
of Joshua's maneuver? Do you say
that it was cheating for him to take
that city by ambuscade? Was it wrong
for Washington to kinde campfres on
Jersey heights, giving the impression
to the opposing force that a great
army was encamped there when there
was none at all? | answer, if the war
was right. then Joshua was right in his
stratagem. lie violated no flag of
truce. lie broke no treaty, but by
lawful ambuscade captured the city
of Al. Oh. that we all knew how to lie
in ambush for opportunities to serve
God. The best of our opportunities do
not lie on the surface, but are secreted.
BY tact, by stratagcm, by Christian
ambuseade, you may take almost any
castle of sin for Christ. Come up to-
ward men with a regular besiegement
of argument and you will be defeated,
but just wait until the door of their
hearts is set ajar, or they are off their
guard, or their severe caution is away
from home, and then drop in on them
from Christian ambuscade. There
has been many a man up to his chin in
scientific portfolios which proved
there was no Christ and no divine
revelation, his pen a scimiter flung
into the heart of theological OPP
ponents, who nevertheless has been
discounted and captured for God by
some little three-year-old child who
has got up and put her snowy arms
around his sinewy neck and asked
some simple question about God.
Oh, make a flank movement! Steal a
march on the devil! Cheat that man
into Heavenl A fvc-dollar treatise
that will stand all the laws of homilet-
les may fail to do that which penny
! tract of Christian entreaty may ac-
/ complsh. Oh, for more Christians in
ambuscade-not lying in idleness, but
waiting for quick spring. waiting un-
! til Just the right time comes! DO not
! talk to n man about the vanity of this
world on the day when he has bought
something at "12" and is going to sell
il at 10" But talk to him about the
vanity of the world on the day when he
has bought something at "15" and is
compelled to sell il at "12!" Do not
rub mans disposition the wrong
way; do not take the imperative mood
when the subjunctive mood will do
Just as we'll; do not talk in perfervid
style to a phlegmatic nor try to tickle
torrid temperament with an icicle.
You can take any man for Christ if you
know how to get at him. Do not send
word to him that tomorrow at ten
o'clock you propose to open your bat
teries upon him, but come on him by a
akillful, persevering, God directed am
buscade.
have heard it said: Look out for a
man who has only one idea; he is ire
sistible." l say look out for the man
who has one idea, and that determine
ton for soul-saying. | believe Goo
would strike me dead if l dared to
point the spear in any other direction
Oh, for some of the courage and en-
thusiasm of Joshua! He flung two
armies from the tip Of that spear. II
is sinful for MS to rest unless il is to get
stronger muscle and fresher brain anc
purer heart for Gods work. feel on
my head the hands of Christ in new
ordination. DO YOU not feel the same
omnipoteut pressure? There is worl
for all of us. Oh, that we might stan'
up side by side and point the spear TO
ward the city. 1t ought to be taken
Il will be taken. our cities are drifting
of toward loose religion or what Il
called liberal Christianity which d
so liberal that it gives up all the cardi
nal doctrines of the Bible; so liberia
that it surrendcrs the rectitudc of th'
throne of the Almighty. That is liber
atty with a vengeance. Let us decid'
upon the work which we as Christian
men have to do and in the strength o
God go to work and do it.
j believe that the next year will b.
the most stupendous year that Heavei
ever saw. The nations are quahni
now with the coming of God 1t will b.
year of successes for the men o
= Joshua, but of doom for the men of Al
| You put your ear to the rail track, ant
. you can hear the train coming mile
. away. So ] put my ear to the ground
p. and | hear the laundering on of tn
lightning train of Gods mercles AM
t judgments. The mercy of God is frs
4 to be tried upon this nation. 1t vii
e be preached in the pulpits, in theater'
= on the streets-eyerywhere. Peopl
S will be invited to accept the mercy @
. the Gospel, and the story and the son
o and the prayer will be mercy" Blu