The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1900-04-14

IL Will stay lonB enough 10 curse your
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 NAV be
accomplished by lying in ambush for
| opportunities Are you hypercritical
| of Joshua's vancouver? Do you say
that il was cheating for him to take
that city by ambuscade? Was il wrong
for Washington to kindle campfires on
Jersey heights, giving the impression
TO the opposing force that great
army was encamped there when there
was none at all? / answer, if the war
was right, then Joshua was right in his
| stratagem. He violated no flag Of
truce. He broke no treaty, but by a
lawful ambuscade captured the city
| of All. 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 stratagem, by Christian
ambuscade, you may take almost any
castle of sin for Christ. Come up to-
ward men with 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 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 flank movement. Steal
march on the devil. Cheat that man
into Heaven! A five-dollar treatise
that will stand all the laws of homilet-
les may fail TO do that which penny
tract of Christian entreaty may ac-
complish. 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 10 a man about the vanity of this
world on the day when he has bought
something at ''12" and is going to sell
il at rs" But talk TO him about the
vanity of the world on the day when he
has bought something at rs" 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 phlegmatic nor try to TICKLE
a 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
terics upon him, but come on him by
skillful, persevering, God directed am
buscade.
/ have heard it said: Look out for a
man who has only one idea; he is ire
sistible." | say look out for the man
who has one idea, and that determina-
ton for soul-saving. l believe God
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. 1t
is sinful for us to rest unless it is to get
stronger muscle and fresher brain and
purer heart for Gods work. | feel on
my head the hands of Christ in new
ordination. DO you not feel the same
omnipotent pressure? There is work
for all of US. OH that we might stand
up side by side and point the spear to-
ward the city! 1t ought to be taken.
1t Will be taken. Our cities are drifting
off toward loose religion or whae is
called Liberal Christianity" which is
so liberal that it gives up all the cardiA
nal doctrines of the Bible; so liberal
that it surrenders the rectitude OF the
throne of the Almighty. That is liber-
atty with a vengeance. Let us decide
upon the work which we as Christian
men nave 10 90 anu III the SlTchS vi VI
God 90 to work and do it,.
| believe that the next year will be
the most stupcndous year that Heaven
ever saw. The nations are quaking
now with the coming Of God. 1t will be
a year of successes for the men of
Joshua, but of doom for the men OF All.
You put your ear to the rail track, and
you can hear the train coming miles
away. So / put my ear to the ground,
and | hear the laundering on of the
lightning train of Gods mercies and
judgments. The mercy of God is first
to be tried upon this nation. 1t will
be preached in the pulpits, in theaters,
on the streets-eyerywhere. People
will be invited to accept the mercy of
the Gospel, and the story and the song
and the prayer will be mercy But
suppose they do not accept the offer
of mercy-what then? Then God will
come with His judgments, and the
grasshoppers will eat the crops, and the
freshets will devastate tho valleys, and
the defalcations will swallow the
money markets, and the fires will burn
the cities, and the earth will quake
Il Il