The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1900-02-10

| truth. An, my friend, that day mus
come, and IL the great body of Chris
tian men have not the faith, or tn
courage, or the conservation TO do II
then let some Jonathan on his bus,
hands and on his praying knees climl
up on the rock of Hindrance and II
the name of the Lord God of Israel slasl
to pieces these literary Philistines! L
these men will not be converted to God
then they must be overthrown.
Again, | learn from the subject wha'
n large amount of the church's re.
sources is actually hidden and buried
and undeveloped. The Bible intimates
that that was a very rich land, this
land of Israel. II says: 1.-THE stones
are iron, and out of the hills thou shalt
dig brass" and yet hundreds and thou.
sands of dollars worth of this metal
was kept under the hills. Well, this is
the difficulty with the church of God
AT this day. Its talent is not developed
IL 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. If human
eloquence were consecrated to the Lord
Jesus Christ, it would in n few gears
persuade this whole earth to surrender
to God. There is enough updeveloped
energy in this city to bring all the
United States to Christ-enoueh of un-
developed Christian energy in the Unit
ed States to bring the whole world to
Christ, but ii is buried under strata
of indifference and under whole noun
tains of sloth. Now, is il not time for
the mining to begin, and the pickaxes
10 plunge, and for this buried metal to
be brought out and put into the fur
naces and be turned into howitzers and
carbines for the Lords host?
The vast majority of Christians in
this day are useless. The most of the
Lords battalion belong to the reserve
corps. The most of the crew are asleep
in the hammocks. 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 talent and all the
wealth enlisted for Chrst's sake? /
like the nickname that the English sol
diers gave TO Butcher, the commander.
They called him "Old Forwards" We
have had enough retreats in the church
of Christ; let us have glorious adj
vance. And ! say. to you as the general
said when his troops were affrighted-
rising up in his stirrups, his hair flying
in the wind, he>lifted up his voice until
10000 troops heard him crying out:
Forward, the whole line!" We want
all the laymen enlisted. Ministers are
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 n novelist or historian publishes
one book a year, he is considered in
dustrious. but every faithful pastor
must originate enough thought for
three or four volumes year. Minis
tiers receive enough calls in a year from
men who have maps and medicines aid
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 infinity 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 il 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
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 prayer meeting il the minis
ter is not there, when there ought to be
enough pent up energy and religious
force to make meeting go on with
such power that the minister would
never be missed. The church stands
working the pumps of few ministerial
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 and have the sod pressing our
eyelds 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.
Again, learn from this subject that
we sometimes do well to take advantage
of the worlds grindstones. These Is
raelites were reduced to 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 II, = the text
which | read at the beginning of the