The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1901-05-18

show that the arrow of the English
used to go through the breastplate,
through the body of the warrior and
out through the backplate. What a
symbol of that Gospel which is sharp
er than a two-edged sword, piercing
to the dividing asunder of soul and
body and of tie joints and marrow
Would to God we had more faith in
that Gospel! The humblest man in the
world, if he had enough faith in it,
could bring a hundred souls to Christ
perhaps 500. Just in proportion as
this age seems to believe less and less
in it, / believe more and more in it.
What are men about that they will
not accept their own deliverance?
There is nothing proposed by men
that can do anything like this Gospel.
Again, if you want to be skillful in
spiritual archery you must hunt in
unfrequented and secluded places.
Why does the hunter go three or
four days in the Pennsylvania for
ests or over Raquette lake into the
wilds of the Adirondacks? 1t is the
only way to do. The deer are shy,
and one bang of the gun clears the
forest. From the California stage
you see, as you go over the plains,
here and there a coyote trotting
along almost within range of the
gun-sometimes quite within range
of it. No one cares for that. 1t is
worthless. The good game is hidden
and secluded. Every hunter knows
that. So many of the souls that will
be of most worth for Christ and of
most value to the church are Sc
cluded. They do not come in u
way. You will have to go where they
are. Yonder they are down in that
cellar. Yonder they are up in that
garret-far away from the door of
any church. The Gospel arrow has
not been pointed at them. The tract
distributor and the city missionary
sometimes just catch a glimpse of
them, as a hunter through the trees
gets a momentary sight of a par
fridge or roebuck. The trouble is we
are waiting for the game to come to
us. We are not good hunters. We
r standing on some street or road
expecting that the timid antelope
will come up and eat out of our hand.
We are expecting that the prairie
fowl will light on our church steeple.
1t is not their habit. If the church
should wait 10000, 900 of years for
the world to come in and be saved,
it will wait in vain. The world will
not come.
What the church wants now is to
lift it's feet from damask ottomans
and put them in the stirrups. The
church wants not so many cushions
as it wants saddlebags and arrows.
We have got to put aside the gown
cud the kid gloves and put on the
hunting shirt. We want a pulpit or
wheels. We have been fishing SO
long in the brooks that run under
the shadow of the church that the
fish know us, and they avoid the
hook and escape as soon as we come
to the bank, while yonder is Upper
Saranac and Big Hupper's lake, where
the first swing of the Gospel net
would break it for the multitude Of
the fishes. There is outside work to
be done. What is it that 1 see in the
backwoods? 1t is a tent. The hunt
ers have made a clearing and campe6
out. What do they care if they have
wet feet or if they have nothing but
a pine branch for a pillow or for the
northeast storm? If a moos in the
darkness steps into the lake to drink
they hear it right away. If a loor
cry in the midnight, they hear it
So in the service of God we have
exposed work. We have got to CAM
out and rough it. We are putting al
II are on the comparatively few
people who go to church. What are
we doing for the millions who de-
not come? Have they no souls? Are
they sinless that they need no par
don? Are there no dead in theil
: houses that they need no comfort
Are they cut off from God to go int
!. eternity, no wing to pear them, NJ
| light to cheer them, no welcome t,
greet them? I hear to-day surgin;
up from the lower depth of our cite
a groan that comes through on
t Christian assemblages and through
III beautiful churches, and it blot
out all this scene from my eyes to
| day, as by the mists of a great Nj
agara, for the dash and the plung
t of these great torrents of life drop
4 ping down into the fathomless an,
laundering abysm of suffering an
woe. 1 sometimes think that just a
God blotted out the churches of Thy
atira and Corinth and Laodicea be
cause of their sloth and stolidity h
e will blot out American and Englls'
Christianity and raise on the ruins
s stalwart, w~ide-awake missionar
e church that can take the full NEAR
Il ing of that command: $50 We int
h all the world and preach the Gospe
f to every creature. He that believet
i and is baptized shall be saved, bu
he that believeth not shall be damned
d "a command, you see, p%unctuate
a with a throne of Heaven and a dur
e geon of hell.
y I remark, further, if you want t
succeed in spiritual archery you mus
d have courage. If the hunter stand
with trembling hand or shoulder tina