The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1900-02-10

80 ~ - - $50
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 talent and all the
wealth enlisted for Christ's sake2 |
like the nickname that the English soE
diers gave 10 Blucher, the commander.
They called him "Old Forwards" We
have had enough retreats in the church
of Christ; let us have a glorious ad-
vance. And | say to You as the general
said when his troops were airrighted-
rising up in his stirrups, his hair flying
in the wind, he lifted up his voice until
$1,000 troops heard him crying out;
Forward. the whole line.' 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 cannoi
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 n novelist oil a historian publishes
Ii book a year, he is considered in
dus;rious. but every faithful pastor
must originate enough thought for
three or four volumes a year. Minis
tiers receive enough calls in year from
men who have 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 pois-
oned by the unventilated rooms of in
yalids and waited upon by committees
who want addresses made until life
becomes a burden TO bear. 1t is not
hard study that makes ministers look
pale. 1t is the lnfinity Of interruptions
and deliberations to which they are
subjected. Numerically 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, in all our churches, two or
three aroused and qualified men and
ome to help. In most churches to-
day five or ten men are compelled TO do
all the work. 4 vast majority of
churches are at their wits end how to
carry on a prayer meeting If the minis
ter is not there. when there ought TO be
enough pent up energy and religious
force to make II meeting go ON with
such power that the minister would
working the pumps OF a few ministerial
cisterns until the buckets are dry and
ehoked, while there are thousands OF
fountains from which might be dipped
up the waters Of eternal life. Before
you and | have the sod pressing sur
eyelids 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 orthe drone.
Again, l learn from this subject that
We sometimes do well 10 take advantage
Of the worlds grindstones, These Is
raelites were reduced to a file. and so
they went over to the garrison of the
Philistines to get their axes and their
goadS and their plows sharpened. The
Bible distinctly states it - the text
which l read at the beginning OF the
s~erviee-that they had no other in.
struments now with which to do this
work, and the ~Israelites did right when
they went over TO the Philistines to use
their grindstones. My friends, is it not
right for us 10 employ the worlds
grindstones? Ifthere be art, If there be
logic, If there be business faculty on the
other side, let us so 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
w AAUtl hhNn VIC OuEHh " iIdht u
clean stroke, Let us go oyer among
sharp business men and among sharp
literary men and find out what their
tact is and then transfer II to the cause
Of Christ. II they have science and art,
1t will do us good TO rub against It.
In other words, let us employ the
worlds grindstones. We will listen to
their music, and we will watch their
acumen. and we will use their grind
stones and will borrow their philos-
optical apparatus TO make our expert
ments, and We will borrow their print
ing presses to publish our Bibles, and
we will borrow their rail trains to car
ry our Christian Literature, and we will
borrow their ships 10 transport our
missionaries. That was what made
Paul such a master in his day. He not
only got all the learning he could get
of DIR. Gamaliel, but afterward, stand
ing on Mars hill and In crowded thor
oughfare, quoted their poetry and
graGped their logic and welded their
eloquence and employed their mythol-
ogy until Dionysius the Areopagite,
learned In the schools OF Athens and
Heliopolis, went down under his ire
mendous powers.
That was what gave Thomas Chal-
mers his power in his day. He con-
quered the worlds astronomy and
compelled 1t 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 shout
ed for Joy. That was what gave TO
Jonathan Edwards his influence in his
day. He conquered the worlds meta
physics and forced IL into the service
vi God, until not only the old meeting
house at Northampton, Mass, but all
Christendom. felt thrilled by his Chris
ton power. Well, now, my friends, we
all have tools Of Christian power. DO
not let them lose their edges. We want
pc rusty blades in this fight. We want
no coulter that cannot rip up the glebe.
We want NO gOad that cannot start the
lazy team. Let us get the very best
grindstones we can find, though they be
In possession OF the Pbilistines, com
pelling them TO turn the crank while
we bear down with all our might on the
swift revolving wheel, until all our
energies and faculties shall be brought
up to a bright keen. sharp %glittering
edge.
learn from this subject what a sad
thing it Is when the church Of God
loses its metal These PhiliAtines saw
that If they could only get all the
mstsllic weapons out Of the hands OF
the Israelites all would be well, and
therefore they took the swords and