The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1901-06-13

ton. More people go now to church than
ever in the worlds history. and the rea-
son is in all our denominations there is a
new race of ministers stepping into the
pulpits which are not the apostles of hum
drum. Sure enough, we want in the
Lords army the heavy artillery. but we
want also more men who. like Burns, Il
farmer at Gettysburg, took a musket and
| went out on his own account to do little
shooting different from the other sol
diers. The church of God is dying Of the
proprieties
Is your talent that OF persuasion? Make
good use of it. We all have it to some
extent, yet none of us think of it as
| talent. But it is the mightiest of talents.
Do you know that this one talent will
fetch the world back to God? Do you know
| it IS the mightiest talent of the high
heavens? Do you know that it is the one
talent chiefly employed by all the angels
of God when they descend to our world
the talent of persuasion?
| DO you realize that the rough lumber
| lifted into a cross on the hill back of
Jerusalem was in persuasion as well as
| sacrifice? That is the only absolutely the
| only, persuasion that will ever induce the
human race to stop its march toward the
| city Of destruction and wheel around and
start for the city of light. Now may the
| Lord this moment show each one of us
that to greater or less extent we have
| one talent of persuasion and impel us to
the right use of it,
You say you cannot preach q sermon,
| but cannot you persuade some one to go
and hear a sermon? You say you cannot
| sing, but cannot you persuade some one
| to go and hear the choir chant on Christ
mas or Easter morning? Send a bunch of
flowers to that invalid in the hospital,
with message about the land where the
inhabitants never say. 81 am sick"
There is child Of the street Invite
him into the mission school. There is
man who has lost his fortune in specula-
ton. Instead of jeering at his fall go and
tell him of riches that never take wings
and fly away Buckle on that one talent
of persuasion, o man, 0 woman. and
you will do work that heaven will cele-
brate 10000 wears.
Among the ll4,O0o words of Noah Web
ster's vocabulary and the thousands of
vocabulary there is one administering
word the power of which cannot be es-
| timated, and it reaches so far up and so
far down, and that is the word come"
| 1t has drawn more people away from the
wrong and toward the right than any
| crowded all the twelve gates of heaven
with fresh arrivals. 1t will yet rob the
path of death of the last pedestrians. 1t
will vet chime so loudly and gladly that
all the to ling bells of sorrow will be
drowned with the music. 1t is piled up in
the Bibles climax and .pcroration, "And
the spirit and the bride say come, and
let him that heareth say come, and let
him that is athirst come" Have it on the
point of your zen, have it on the tip of
your tongue. Monosyllables are mightier
than polysyllables. and that word come"
is the mightiest of monosyllables. Shakes
peare says of one of his characters, "She
~aa1r, L.. -A,I okolx-
We may say OF others, they speak words
which are of balm and music, are light and
life. Master one of those words, harness
one of those words, project one of those
words, prove the full plentitude and pow
er of one of those words.
David Garrick, the dramatist, said he
would give 100 guineas if he could say
"oh" as George Whitefeld said it. What
might we not give if only we could say
come" as Jesus said it? Some one has
said that syllables govern the world, and
l think that one syllable might save the
world. But l cannot particularize. What
ever be your one talent, cultivate it.
Once fully realize that you have some
thing with which to enhance heaven and
take hold of the eternities, and it will
add new bank of keys to the music of
your soul. You are ordained to some kind
of work by the laying on of the hands of
the Lord God Almighty.
If you cannot do anything else, go
around and feel sorry for somebody. When
some one asked, "What is the secret of
William Wilberforce's power?' the an,
swer was, His power of sympathy" And
there are 900 people who have the
same qualification if they only knew it,
Sympathy! If you cannot restore the
child to that bereft parent or the fortune
that confirmed invalid or an honorable
name to that wrecked character, you can
at least feel sorry for the misfortune or
the bereavement or the suffering.
Sympathy! If you have not the means
to do anything else, go and sit down and
cry with them. That is the way Christ
did when He went out to the desolated
home in Bethany and the sisters told
their sad story. He cried with them. Oh,
cultivate that one talent of sympathy!
| After the resurrection day and all heav-
en- is made up resurrected bodies joined to
ransomed souls, and the gates which were
so long open are shut, there may be some
day. when. all the redeemed may pass IN IN
review before the great white throne. IL
so, | think the hosts passing before. the
King will move in different divisions.
With the first division viii! pass the mighty
ones of earth who were as good and use
full as they were great. In this division
win pass before the throne all the Martin
Luthers. the John Knoxes, the Wesleys,
l
Chrysostoms, the Herschells, the Lcuoxes,
the George Peabodys, the Abbott Law
rences and all the consecrated Christian
men and women who were great in litera-
ture, in law in medicine, in philosophy,
in commerce. Their genius never spoiled
them. They were as humble as they
were gifted or opulent. They were great
on earth. and now they are great in heay-
en-. Their surprising and magnificent tai
ents were all used for the worlds better
ment. As they pass in review before the
King on the great white throne to higher
and higher rewards it makes me think OF
the parable of the talents, ITO another
ten l stand and watch the other divi'
siona as they go by, division after div,
comes in sight. 1t is a hundred to one, a
thousand to one, ten thousand to one,
larger than the other divisions. It is
made up of men who never did anything
but support their families and give what,
ever of their limited means they could
spare for the relief of poverty and sick
ness and the salvation of the world, moth
ers who took good care of children by