Connecticut western news. [volume] (Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Conn.) 1871-1970, 1901-05-16

estal on which human philosophy sits
shivering in the night of the soul, look
ing up to the stars, Offering no help to
the nations that crouch and groan at
the base. Tell me where there Is one
man who has rejected that gospel for
another who Is thoroughly satisfied and
helped and contented in his skepticism
and l will take the car tomorrow and
ride 500 miles to see him. The full
power Of the gospel has not yet been
touched. AS a sportsman throws up
his hand and catches the ball flying
through the air, just so easily will this
gospel after awhile catch this round
world flying from it's orbit and bring 1t
back to the heart of Christ. Give it
full swing and it will pardon every
sin, heal every wound, cure every trou-
bic, emascipate every slave and ran
som every nation. Ye Christian men
and women who go out this afternoon
to do Christian work, as you go into
the Sunday schools and the lay preach
ing stations and the penitentiaries and
the asylums l want you to feel that
you bear In your hand a weapon COM
pared with which the lightning has no
speed and avalanches have no heft and
the thunderbolts of heaven have no
power. 1t Is the arrow of the omnipo-
tent gospel. Take careful aim! Pull
the arrow clear back until the head
strikes the bowl Then let 1t fly! And
may the slain of the Lord be many!
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
into the Pennsylvania forests 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 coy
ote 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 secluded.
They do not come in your way. You
will have to go where they are. Yon-
der they are down in that cellar; yon-
der 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 hunter through
ha OF n+or icyh+ nf
partridge or roebuck. The trouble is
we are waiting for the game to come
to US.
A Command and a Promise.
We are not good hunters. We are
standing on some street or road, ex-
pecting that the timid antelope will
come up and eat out of our hand. We
arc expecting that the prairie fowl will
light on our church steeple. 1t is not
their habit. If the church should wait
100000 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 its feet
from damask ottomans and put them
In the stirrups. The church wants not
so much cushions as it wants saddle
bags and arrows. We have got to put
aside the gown and the kid gloves and
put on the hunting shirt. We want
pulpit on wheels. We have been fish
ing so long in the brooks that run I'M
der 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 Tupper's lake, where the first
swing of the gospel net would break 1t
for the multitude Of the fishes. There
is outside work to be done. What is it
that l see in the backwoods? 1t is a
tent. The hunters have made a clear
ing and camped 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
moose in the darkness steps into the
lake to drink, they hear 1t right away.
If loon cry in the midnight, they
hear it. So in the service of God we
have exposed work. We have got to
camp out and rough it. We are put
ting all our care on the comparatively
few people who go to church. What
are we doing for the millions who do
not come? Have they no souls? Are
they sinless that they need no pardon
Are there no dead in their houses that
they need no comfort? Are they cut
off from God to go into eternity-no
wing to bear them, no light to cheer
them. no welcome to greet them?
hear today, surging up from that lower
depth of our cities, groan that comes
through our Christian assemblages and
through our beautiful churches, and it
blots out all this scene from my eyes,
as by the mists of great Niagara, for
the dash and the plunge OF these great
torrents of life dropping down into the
fathomless and laundering abysm Of
suffering and woe. / sometimes think
that just as God blotted out the church
es of Thyatira and Corinth and Lao
dicea because of their sloth and stolid-
ity he will blot out American and Eng
lish Christianity and raise on the ruins
a stalwart, wide awake missionary
church that can take the full meaning
of that command: go We into all the
world and preach the gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved, but he that be-
lieveth not shall be damned" q COM
mand, you see, punctuated with a
throne of heaven and dungeon Of hell.
More Backbone Needed.
remark, further, If you want to sue
coed in spiritual archery you must have
courage. If the hunter stands with
trembling hand or shoulder that finch
es with fear, instead of his taking the
catamount the catamount takes him.
What would become of the Greenland
er If when out hunting for the bear he
should stand shivering with terror on
an iceberg? What would have become
Of Du Chaillu and Livingstone in the
African thicket with a faint heart and
a weak knee? When panther comes
within 20 PAGES of you, and 1t has its
eye on you, and it has squatted for the