Newport weekly independent., 1901-07-12
HARVEST TIME HERE
A Sermon of Congratulation for
 Christian Endeavorers.
Or. TaImage Finds Mighty SuGges- tiveness in His Text-Thc Growth and Perfection of Chris-
 tianity.

WdSnlnStoI July (.
 Although Dr. Talmage was hindered from attending the great annual meet ing of the Christian Endeavor society at Cincinnati, his sermon shows him to be in sympathy with the great move ment; text, Amos 9:13: Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper"
 Unable because of other important duties to accept the invitation to take part in the great convention of Chris tlan Endeavorers at Cincinnati, begun last week, l preach a sermon of con- graduation for all the members of that magnificent association, whether now gathered in vast assemblage or busyin their places of usefulness. tranSat tlan- tic and cisatlantic, and as ii is now har- vest time in the fields and sickles are flashing in the gathering of a great crop, I find mighty suggestiveness in my text.
 It is a picture of a tropical cline, with season so prosperous that the harvest reaches clear over to the plant ing time, and the swarthy husband- man, busy cutting the grain, almost teelS the breath of the horses on his shoulders, the horses hitched to the blow, preparing for new crop. "Be- hold the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper" When is that? That is now. That is this day, when hardly have you done reaping one harvest of religious result than the plowman is getting ready for another.
 In phraseology charged with allven- om and abuse and caricature I know that infidels and agnostics have de- ciared that Christianity has collapsed; that the Bible is an obsolete book; that the Christian church is on the retreat. l shall answer that wholesale charge to-day.
 Between 3,OO0,00O and 4OOO ,O0O En- deaVorers sworn before high Heaven that they will do all they can to take America for God. Europe for God, Asia and Africa for God--are not the signs most cheering? Or, to return to the agricultural figure of my text, more than million reapers are overtalIen by more than a million plowmen. Be
 
 believe in the Bible than at any time in the worlds existence. An Ara b guide was leading a French infidel across the desert. and ever and anon the Arab guide would get down in the sand and pray to the Lord. It disgust ed the French infdel. and after awhile, s the Arab got up from one of his prayers, the infidel said: How do you know there is any God?" And the Arab guide said; How do know that a man and q camel passed by our tent last night? know it by the footprint in the sand. And you want to know how I know whether there is any God? Look at the sunset. Is that the foot step of a man?" And by the same process you and l have come to under stand tkat this book is the footstep of God.
 But now let us see whether the book is last years almanac. Let us see whether the church of God is a Bull Runt retreat, muskets, canteens and haversacks strewing all the way. The great English historian Sharon Fur her, a man of vast learning and great accuracy, not a clergyman, but an at tOrney as we'll as historian. gives this overwhelming statistic in regard to Christianity and in regard to the num- Der of Christians in the different cen- turies: In the first century 5OO.OOO Christians, in the second century ? ,OOO,- GOO Christians, in the third century 5,O00,0O0 Christians, in the fourth cen tury 0,000. .00O Christians, in the fifth century 15,0O0,0OO Christians, in the sixth century 20,00000 Christians, in the seventh century 24,GO0,000 Chris tians, in the eighth century 3O,00O.O00 Christians, in the ninth century 40, ,O00,- GOO Christians, in the tenth century 50,- O00,0OO Christians. in the eleventh cen- tury 00OOO OOO Christians, in the twelfth century S0,000,000 Christians, in the thirteenth century 75,000000 Chris tians, in the fourteenth century so, ,000,- 900 Christians, in the fifteenth century 100,0C0,000 Christians, in the sixteenth century 125,000,000 Christians. in the seventeenth century 155,000,000 Chris tianS, in the eighteenth century 200,- ,000 Christians-a decadence, a. you observe, in only one century and more than made up in the following cen- turies, while it is the usual computa- tion that there were at the close of the nineteenth century 470,000,000 Chris tians, making us to believe that before this century is closed the millennium will have started it's boom and lifted it's hCsanna.
 Poor Christianity! What a pity it has no friend! How lonesome it must be. Who will take it out of the poor house? Poor Christianity! Four hun- dred millions in one century. In few