The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-08-09

Inc Church OF Christ % the Most En-
doaring Institution on Earth-Its I'M
surpassed Growth-Inhdoiity nsfutad.
tCopyright 1901
WASHINGTON, ID. @. - Although DR..
1almago was hindered from attending the
great annual meeting of the Christian En-
denvor Society at Cincinnati, his sermon
shows him TO be in sympathy with the
great movement; text, Amos *, 70, BE
hold the days come, saith the Lord, that
the plowman shall Overtake the reaper"
Unable because of other important du-
ties to accept she invitation to take part
IN the great convention Of Christian En-
deavOrers at Cincinnati, / preach q SER
mon OF conWatulatiOn for all the members
OF that magnificent association, whether
now gathered in vast assemblage or busy
IN their places Of usefulness, transatlantic
and clsatlantic. And, as II is now harvest
time in the fields and sickles are flashing
in the gathering Of a great crop, 1 find
mighty suggestiveness in my text.
" Is picture of a tropical cline, with
season so prosperous that the harvest
reaches clear over TO the planting time
and the swarthy husbandman, busy cut
ting the grain, almost feels the breath OF
! the horses on his shoulders, the horses
mtched to the ploW preparing for a new,
crop; Behold the days come, saith the
| A4OAug buuL ING biOWuhu bNdl OVeLLhkG
| 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 all venom
! and abuse and caricature l know that in
! fdels and agnostics have declared that
! Christianity has collapsed; that the Bible
! is an obsolete book; that the Christian
/ A hal
! that wholesale charge to-day.
Between 100000 and 100000 Endeav-
orers 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 over
! taken by more than million plowmen.
! Besides this, there are more people who
believe in the Bible than at any time in
the worlds existence.
But now let us see whether the book is
! a last years almanac. Let us see whether
the church Of God is Bull Run retreat,
! muskets, canteens and haversacks strew-
ing all the way. The great English histor.
ian Sharon Turner, a man of vast learning
and great accuracy, not a clergyman, but
an attorney as well as a historian, gives
this overwhelming statistic in regard to
/
Of Christians In the different centuries:
In the first century 900 Christians, in
the second century 100000 Christians, in
the third century 100000 Christians, in
the fourth century 100000 Christians
in the fifth century 100000 Christians,
IN the sixth century 10000 900 Christians,
in The seventh century 24,000,000 Chris,
tians, in the eighth century 100000
! Christians, in the ninth century 10000, 900
Christians, in the tenth century 50,0O0,000
Christians, in the eleventh century TO-
100000 Christians, in the twelfth century
! SO0O0000 Christians, in the thirteenth
century 75000,000 Christians, in the four
tenth century 60000,U00 Christians, in the
fifteenth century l00,000,00O Christians, in
the sixteenth century l25,0O9,000 Chris
tians, in the seventeenth century l55,000-
600 Christians, in the eighteenth century
100000 900 Christians-a decadence, as you
observe, in only one century and more
than made up in the following centuries,
while it is the usual computation that
there were at the close of the nineteenth
century 470,000,000 Christians making US
to believe that before this century is
close the millennium will have started its
boom and lifted its hosanna.
Poor Christianity! What a pity it has
no friends! How lonesome it must be!
Who will take it out of the poorhouse
Poor Christianity Four hundred mill
ions in one century.
At the beginning of the nineteenth CEN
fury 15O missionaries; at the close of that
century $4,000 missionaries and native
helpers and evangelists. At the beginning
Of the nineteenth century there were only
$4,000 converts; now there are over 1000
600 converts from heathendom.
So Christianity is falling back and the
Bible, they say, is becoming an obsolete
book! | 60 into court, and wherever I
ind judges bench or a clerks desk /
find a Bible. Upon what book could there
be uttered the solemnity of an oath
What book is apt to be put in the trunk
OF the young man as he leaves for city
life? The Bible. What shall / find in
nine out of every ten homes in this city?
The Bible. In nine out of every ten homes
in Christendom? The Bible Voltaire
wrote the prophecy that the Bible in the
nineteenth century would become extinct.
The century is gone, and / have to tell
you that the room in which Voltair6
wrote that prophecy not long ago was
crowded from floor to ceiling with Bibles
from Switzerland.
Suppose the Congress of the United
States should pass law that there should
be no more Bibles printed in America and
no Bibles read If there are 60000,000
grown people in the United States there
would be 60,000,000 people in an army to
PVT down such a law and defend their
right to read the Bible. But suppose the
Congress of the United States should
make law against the reading or the
publication of any other book-how many
people would go out in such a crusade
Could you get 100000 people to go out
and risk their lives in the defense of
Shakespeare's tragedies or Gladstone's
tracts or Macaulay's History of Eng
land?" You know that there are a thou,
sand men who would die in defense Of
this book where there is not more than
one man who would die in the defense OF
any other book You try to insult my
common sense by telling me the Bible is
L. Z l a