Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-03-01


lifted up his voice until 90 900 troops heard
him crying out, Forward, the whole liner.
we want all the Iaymen enlisted Minis
ters 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, gettin,, the
fiHht KIND, are so worried that they take 1t
down III chunks. They die from consump-
.i9n coming ircm early and late exposure.
~ u hoVeiiest or historian publishes
one BOOK u year, he is considered indus
trlous. But every faithful pastor must
originate enough thought for three or -four
volumes year. Ministers receive enough
calls In year from men who have maps
and medicines and lightning rods and pie
tures to sell to exhaust their vitality.
They are bored with agents of all sorts.
Ihey are set in drafts ut funerals and
poisoned by the nnventilated rooms of in
vaiids and waited upon by committees who
want addresses made until life becomes n
burden to be"r. 1t is not hard study that
makes ministers lCok pale. 1t Is tho in
unity OF interruptions and deliberations to
when they are subjected. Numerically too
small! Ii is no more tho work of the pulpit
to convert and save the world than it i,
the work OF the pew. If mep 80 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 II few clergymen,
1ua ~ ioe an MINUS Iay 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. vast majority of churches
are ut their wits end how to carry on n
prayer meeting ii the minister is not there,
when there ought to be enough pent M
| energy and religious force to make meet
ing go on with such power that the minis
ter would never be missed. The church
stands working the pumps of n 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 eter-
nal life. Before You and l have the
sod pressing our 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, hold
| Ing within the church to-day enough men
and women to save the city, we act the
| coward or tho drone. wish [ could put
enough moral explosives under the con
| ventiohalities and mnjestic stupditieS of
| the day to blow them to atoms and that
then, with $1,000 men and women from all
| the churches Knowing nothing but CHRIST
and desire to bring all the world to Him,
| we might move upon the enemy's works.
For little while heaven would not have
| trumpets enough TO celebrate the victories.
| Again, learn from this subject that we
| sometimes do we'll to take advantage OF the
| worlds grindstones. These 1sraeltes were
| reduced to Il file. and so they went over to
| the garrison of the Philstines to get their
axes and their gonds and their plows
| sharpened. The Bible distinctly states il -
| the text which read at the beginning OF
the service-that they had no other instrQ.
ments now with which to do this work and
the lsraelites did right when they went over
| to the Philistines to use their grindstones.
My friends, is 1t not right for us to employ
the worlds grindstones? If there be art,
| if there he logic, ii there be business facul-
! ty on the other side, let US 90 over and en-
| ploy it for Christs sake. The fact is we
| light with too dull Instruments. We hack
and we maui when we ought to make II
| clean stroke. Let US 30 over among sharp
business men and among sharp literary
| men and find out what their tact Is and
| transfer il TO the cause Of Christ. II they
| have science and art 1t will do US good tc
| rub against it.
| In other words, let US employ the wor la'a
| grindstones. We will listen to their music,
and we will watch their acumen, and we
| will use their griudstones and will borrow
their philosophical apparatus to make our
| experiments, and wo will borrow their
| printing presses to publish our Bibles. and
we will borrow their rail trains to carry
our Christian literature, aud we will borrow
their ships to transport our missionaries.
his day. He not only got all the learning
| he could get of DR.. Gamaliel, but after
ward, standing on Mars hill and in crowd
ed thoroughfnre, quoted their poetry, and
| grasped their logic, and welded their elo-
| quence, and employed their mythology nm
til Dionysius, the Areopugite, learned in
the schools OF Athens and Heliopolis, Went
down under his tremendous powers.
. 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 NIL the sons OF God
shouted for joy. That was what gave tc
| Jonathan Edwards his influence in his day.
He conquered the worlds metaphysics and
| forced ir into the service of God until not
only the old meeting house at Northamp-
| ton, Mass. but all Christendom, felt thrilled
| by his Christian power. Well, now, my
| friends, we all have tools of Christian
power. DO not let them lose their edges.
| We want no rusty blades in this fight We
want no coulter that cannot rip up the
glebe. We want no axe that cannot fell
the trees. 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 Philistines, compel
ling them to turn the crank while we bear
down with all our might on the swift re-
volving wheel until all our energies and
faculties shall be brought up to a bright
keen, sharp, glittering edge.
Again, my subject teaches us on what
n small allowance Philistine iniquity puts
II man. Yes. these Philistines shut up the
mines and then they took the spears and
the swords; then they took the blacksmiths;
then they took the grindstones, and they
| took everything but II file. Oh, that is the
way sin works! 1t grabs everything. 1t
begins with robbery and ends with rob-
berry. 1t despoiIs this faculty and that
| faculty and keeps on until the whole nature
is gone. Was the man eloquent before, it
generally thickens his tongue. Was he fine
in personal appearance. it mars his visago.
Was he aflluent, it sends the sheriff to sell
him out. Was he influential. 1t destroys
his popularity. Was he placid aud genial
and loving, it makes him splenetic and
cross, and so utterly is he changed that
you can see he is sarcastic and rasping and
that the Philstines have left him nothing
but n file.
learn from this subject what n sad thing
it is when the church of God loses its
metal! These Phlistines saw that II they
could only get all the metallic weapons