Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1900-03-23

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How often it is that you do not find
physical energy indicative of spiritual
power! If clear head is worth more
than one dizzy with perpetual vertigo,
If muscles with the play of health in
them are worth more than those drawn
up in chronic "rheumatics," if an eye
quick to catch passing objects is better
| than one with vision DIM and uncertain,
then God will require of us efficiency
just in proportion to what He has given
us. Physical energy ought to be a
| type Of moral power. We ought to have
as good digestion of truth as we have
capacity to assimilate food. Our spir-
itual hearing ought to be as good as
our physical hearing. Our spiritual
taste ought to be as clear as our tongue.
Samsons in body, we ought to be giants
in moral power.
1t is a most shameful fact that much
of the business of the church and of the
world must be done by those compara-
lively invalid. Richard Baxter, by rea-
son of his diseases, all his days sitting
in the door of his tomb, yet writing
more than 100 volumes and sending out
an influence for God that will endure
aslongas the Saints Everlasting Rest"
Edward Payson, never knowing wei!
day, yet how he preached and how he
wrote, helping thousands of dying
souls like himself to swim in the sea of
glory. And Robert McCheyne, walk
ing skeleton, yet you know what he did
in Dundee and how he shook Scotland
with zeal for God. Philip Doddridge,
advised by his friends because of his i'll
ness not TO enter the ministry, yet you
know what he did for the Rise and
Progress of Religion" in the church of
the world.
tits not the small, weak men Of the
day who do the damage. These small
men who go swearing and loafing about
your stores and shops and banking
houses, assailing Christ and the Bible
and the church-they do not do the
damage. They have no influence. They
are vermin that you crush with your
foot. But ii is the giants of the day
the misguided giants, giants in physic.
al power, or giants in mental acumen
or giants in social position, or giants in
wealth. who do the damage--the men
with sharp pens that stab religion and
throw their poison all through our lit
erature. the men who use the power OF
wealth to sanction iniquity and bribe
justice. and make truth and honor bow
TO their golden scepter. Misguided gi.
ants-look out for them! In the middle
and latter part of the last century nc
doubt there were thousands OF men in
Paris and Edinburgh and London who
hated God and blasphemed the name Of
the Almighty; but they did but little
mischief-they were small men, insig
nificant men. Yet there were giants in
those days. Who can calculate the SOU
very enthusiasm of iniquity. with fiery
imagination selling upon all the impul'
sive natures of his day, or David Hume
who employed his life as a spider en-
ploys its summer. in spinning out silk.
en- webs to trap the unwary. or Noltaire
the most learned man of his day, mar.
shaling a great host Of skeptics and
leading them out in the dark land of in
fidelity. or Gibbon, who showed m un.
comfortable grudge against religion in
his history of one Of the most fascirat
ing periods of the worlds existence
"The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire"-a book in which, with all the
splendor Of his genius, he magnificd the
errors of Christian disciples, while with
a sparseness of notice that never can be
forgiven he treated of the Christian he
roes Of whom the world was not
worthy?
Oh, men of stout physical health
men of great mental stature, men oi
high social position, men of great pow.
er OF any sort, | want you to under
stand your power, and | want you tC
know that that power devoted to Goo
will be a crown on earth, to you typica
of a crown in Heaven, but misguided
bedraggled in sin, administrative o.
evil, God will thunder against yol
with His condemnation in the day wher
millionaire and pauper, master ant
slave, king and subject, shall stanC
side by side in the Judgment ant
money bags and judicial ermine anC
royal robe shall be riven with the light
nings.
You who are seated in your Christian
homes, compassed by moral and reli
gious restraints, do not realize tn,
gulf Of iniquity that bounds you on th'
north and the south and the east an(
the west. While I speak there ar,
tens Of thousands of men and won
en- going over the awful plunge Of al
impure life, and while / cry to God TO
mercy upon their souls / cry to you t,
marshal in the defense OF your homes
your church and your nation. There j
banqueting hall that you have neve
heard described. Youk know al about tn
feast of Ahasuerus, where 1000 lord
! sat. You know all about Belshazzar'
carousal, where the blood of the mur
dered king spurted into the faces o
the banqueters. You know of the seen
of riot and wassail where there wa
, set before Aesopus one dish of food tha
cost 100000. But ! speak now Of
+ different banqueting hall. It's roof j
t fretted with fire. Its floor is tessel
, lated with fire. It's chalices are chase,
with fire. It's song is a song of fire
! It's walls are buttresses of fire. Solo
, mon refers to it when he says: "11e
guests are In the depths Of hell"
Our American communities are sui
e fering from the gospel OF free lovisr
which 80 years ago was preached o.
I The Platform arl in some of tn
I churches of this country. charg
(. upon free lovism that It has blighte,
0 innumerable homes and that it ha
[ sent innumerablc souls to ruin. Ere
! lovsm is bestial: il Is worse-it is in