The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1900-05-04

oustrious. 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
valids and waited upon by committees
who want addresses made until life
becomes q burden to bear. II is not
hard study that makes ministers look
pale 1t is the infnity of interruptions
and bothera tions 70 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 60 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 10
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 a 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
I'D the waters of eternal life. Before
YOU and | have the sod pressing our
evelids we will, under God. decide
whether our children shall grow up
amid the accursed surroundings Of vice
and shame or come 10 an inheritance
of righteousness. Long, loud, bitter,
will be the curse that scorches our
QTnNt II nOlNlHk NiAiAtb AA' NANt 80 ~
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 griudstones. These Is
raelites were reduced 10 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 il - the text
which / read at the beginning OF the
service-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 Philistnes to use
their grindstones. My friends, is II not
right for us to employ the worlds
grindstones? If there be art, if there be
logic. If there be business faculty on the
other side. let us go over and employ 1t
for Christ's sake. The fact Is we tight
with too duh weapons and we work
with too dull implements. We hack and
we maui when we ought to make
clean stroke Let us go over among
sharp business men and among sharp
literary men and find out what their
tact is and then transfer 1t to the cause
of Christ. If they have science and art,
Il will do us good to-rub against it.
IN otner 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 experi-
ments. and we will borrow their print
ing presses to publish our Bibles, and
we will borrow their rail trains 10 car
W our Christian literature, and we Will
borrow their ships TO transport our
missionaries. That was what maze
Paul such a master In his day. He not
only got all the learning he could get
of DR.. Gamaliel, but afterward, stand
ing on Mars hill and in crowded thor
oughfare, quoted their poetry ana
grasped their logic and welded their
eloquence and employed their mythoi-
opy until Dionysius the Areopagi'e,
learned in the schools of Athens ana
HeliopoHs, went down under his tre-
mendous powers.
That was what gave Thomas Chal-
mers his power in his day. lie con-
ouered the worlds astronomy ana
compelled it 10 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
dav. He conquered the worlds meta
physics and forced it into the service
Of God. until not only the old meeting
house at Northampton, Mass but all
Cbristendom, felt thrilled by his Chris
ton power. Well, now, my friends we
all have tools Of Christian power DO