The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1901-03-28

, .;cn Glanced his mind and made him a
| n,ost ardent friend of the Bible and man
Of PRAYER. A letter in Mr.. Lincoln,s own
! Handwriting is in my house, the letter IN
response to some resolutions passed by a
! Methodist conference, saying: In response
| to your address allow me to attest the ac-
| curacv of its historical statements, IN,
| dorse the sentiments it expresses and
| thank YOU in the nations name Tor the
sure promise it gives Nobly sustained as
| the Government has been by all the
churches, | would utter nothing when
might in the least appear invidious against
any. Yet without this it may fairly be
said that the Methodist Episcopal
Church, not less devoted than the best,
is by its great numbers the most I'M
portant OF all. 1t is no fault in others
That the Methodist church sends more
soldiers to the field, more nurses to the
hospital and more prayers to heaven
than any. God bless the Methodist;
church bless all the churches, and blessed
be God, who in this. our great trial, CIV
eth us the churches"
What great thing it was that the
Christian books which Mr.. Lincoln read
obliterated from his mind the inhdel
literature! William Carey became a
missionary by reading The Voyages OF
Captain Cook" John Wesley's lite was
shaped by reading Jeremy -, Taylor,s
books in your library or lying on your
parlor table or secreted in some place by
your child that will decide for two worlds,
this and the next, the character of its
reader.
When bad book is printed, you do well
to blame the publisher but most of all
blame the author. The malaria rose from
his inzstand; the poison that caused the
moral or spiritual death dropped in the
H. f,o bo &c bic Tba ma
facturer of that ink could tell you that 1t
is made of tannin and salt of iron and nut
gals and green vitriol but many an author
has dipped from his inkstand hyper
criticism and malevolence amid SANDER
and salaciousness, as from fountain OF
death.
Among the most important are the ed
torial and reportorial inkstands. The
thick ink on the printers roller is differ
ent from the ink into which the Writer
dips his pen and is compounded of linseed
oil and lampblack and made thick by
boiling or burning. But the editorial and
reportoral pens are responsible for that
which the printers ink roller impresses
upon the flying sheets Where one man
reads a book, 5000 men read a newspaper.
What change Of opinion in regard to the
printing press since the day when the
great Addison wrote concerning 1t, One
cannot but be sorry that such a pernicious
machine is erected among them and
when, under the reign Of Charles IL, only
one newspaper, the London Gazette: was
allowed To be printed. and that only on
Mondays aad Thursdays! Not until the
Judgment day, when the forces which have
influenced the world shall be compared
and announced, will he known the power
of the modern newspaper.
Thomas Guthrie dipped into it and
brought up THE Gospel In Ezekiel John
Cumming dipped INTO it and brought up
The Apocalypse. Oh. the opuIence, OF
streams of evangelistic power that have
| poured from the writer's inkhorn that APP
peared in Ezekiefs vision
While you recognize the Distinguishing
ones who have dipped into the inkstand
of the worlds evangelization do not for
get that there are hundreds Of thousands
of unknown men and women who are en-
gagged in inconspicuous ways doing the
same thing. How many anxious mothers
| writing to the boys in town! How many
sisters writing encouragement to brothers
| far away! how many invalids bolstered
up in bed, the inkhorn on the stand at
their side, writing letters of coincidence
to those worse off than themselves, They
| are fving all the time kind words, gospel
words, helpful words. saving words.
| Call the evangelistic inkhorn into serv.
| ice in the early morning. when you feel
well, and you are grateful for the protec-
| ton during your sleeping hours, and write
before you retire at close of day to those
who all night long will be saying, "Would
| to God it were morning." How many
bruised and disappointed and wronged
souls of earth would be glad to get let
ter from you! Stir up that consolatory
| inkhorn.
All Christendom has been waiting for
! great revivals of religion to start from
the pulpist and prayer meetings. | now
suggest that the greatest revival OF all
| time may start from a concerted and Or
| ganized movement through the lnkhorns
| of all Christendom, each writer dipping
| from the inRhorn nearest him a letter of
gospel invitation, gospel hope, gospel warn.
| ing, gospel instruction The ink Is all
| ready on hundred thousand tables, and
| beside it are the implements with which
| to dip it out. Why not through such
| process have millions of souls brought to
| God before next summer? By letter you
| could make the invitation more effective
| than by word of mouth. The invitation
| from your lips may be argued back, may
evoke querulous reply, may be answered
| by joke, but good, warm, gospel letter,
written in PRAYER. and started with prayer,
| and followed by prayer, will be read over
| and over again and cannot be answered in
| a frivolous way.
Within arm feacn OIL Wnere you slU
there may be fluid that you may put on
| wing with message OF light and love. Oh,
for the swift flying angel of mercy which
| Ezekiel saw in vision with a writer's ink
horn by his side.
The other angels spoken of in my text
were destroying angels, and each had
what the Bible calls slaughter weap-
on" in his hand. 1t was a lance or a bat
tleax or a sword. God hasten the time
when the last lance shall be shivered, and
the last battleaX dulled, and the last
sword sheathed, and the angel of the text,
who Matthew Henry says was the Lord
Jesus Christ, shall from the full inkhorn
of His mercy give saving call to all ma
tions. That day may be far off, but 1T is
helpful to think of its coming,
As Dr. Raleigh declared that when thir-
ty-siX miles at sea off the coast of New
England the cattle on board the ship as
we'll as himself scented the clover on the
New England hills, $ we amid all the toss
ing waves Of the worlds controversies in
hale the redolenee of the white lilies of
universal peace,
Ii our Bible is true-and no other book
that was ever printed is as true as that
book, which Moses began and John
finished-then the time viii come when all
the weapons of cruelty will stop, and the