Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-05-17

how many of us hide under the
church pew or the communion table?
There is so much invested in it we
are afraid to assault it. Millions of
dollars in barrels, in watts, in spigots.
in corkscrews, in gin palaces with
marble floors and Italian top tables
and chased ice coolers, and in the
strychnine and the logwood and the
tartaric acid and the nux vomica that
go to make up our ''pure" American
drinks. I Hooked with wondering eyes
on the Heidelberg tun." It is the
great liquor vat of Germany, which is
said to hold 500 hogsheads of wine,
and only three times in 100 years it
has been filed. But as I stood and
looked at it I said to myself: THAT
is nothing-s00 hogsheads. Why, our
American vat holds 10000, 900 barrels
of strong drinks and we keep 800, 1000
men with nothing to do but to see
that it is filed
Oh, to attack the great monster of
intemperance and the kindred mon
sters of fraud and uncleanliness re-
quires you to rally all your Christian
courage. Through the press, through
the pulpit, through the platform you
must assault it. Would to God that
all our American Christians would
band together, not for crack-brained
fanaticism, but for holy Christian re-
form! L think it was in 1898 that
there went out from Lucknow, India,
under the sovereign, the greatest
hunting party that was ever project
ed. There were 10000 armed men in
that hunting party. There were cam
els and horses and elephants. On
some princes rode, and royal ladies
under exquisite housings, and 500
coolies waited upon the train, and
the desolate places of India were in
vaded by this excursion, and the rhi-
noceros and deer and elephant fell
under the stroke of the saber and
bullet. After awhile the party
brought back trophies worth $4,000
rupees, having left the wilderness Of
India CHASTITY with the slain bodies of
wild beasts. Would to God that in
stead of here and there a straggler
going out to fight these great mon
sters of iniquity in our country the
millions of membership in our
churches would band together and
hew in twain these great crimes that
make the land frightful with their
roar and are fattening upon the
bodies and souls of immortal men!
Who is ready for such a party as
that? Who will be mighty hunter
for the Lord?
I remark, again, If you want to be
successful in spiritual archery you
need not only to bring down game,
but bring it in. I think one of the
most beautiful pictures of Thorwald-
sen is his Autumn" It represents a
sportsman coming home and stand
| ing under a grapevine. He has a
staff over his shoulder, and on the
other end of that staff are hung a
rabbit and q brace of birds. Every
| hunter brings home the game. No
| one would think of bringing down a
| roebuck or whipping up stream for
trout and letting them lie in the
woods. At eventide the camp is
adorned with the treasures of the
forest-beak and fin and antler.
If you go out to hunt for immortal
souls, not only bring them down I'M
der the arrow of the Gospel, but bring
them into the church of God, the
grand home and encampment we have
pitched this side the skies. Fetch
them in; do not let them lie out in
the open field. They need our
prayers and sympathies and help.
That is the meaning of the church of
| God-help. o We hunters for the
Lord, not only bring down the game,
but bring it in.
If Mithridates liked hunting so well
that for seven years he never went
to have who are hunting for immor-
tai soulsi If Domitian practiced arch
! cry until he could stand boy down
in the Roman amphitheater with a
hand out, the fingers spread apart,
and then the king could shoot an ar
row between the fingers without
| wounding them, to what drill and
| what practice ought we to subject
| ourselves in order to become spirit
ual archers and mighty hunters be-
fore the Lordi" But let me say you
will never work any better'than you
pray. The OLD archers took the bow,
put one end of it down beside the
foot, elevated the other end, and it
was the rule that the bow should be
just the size OF the archer. If it were
just his size, then he would go into
! the battle with confidence. Let me
say that your power to project good
in the world will correspond exactly
to your own spiritual stature. In
other words, the first thing in prep
aration for Christian work is person
al conservation.
oh, for q closer walk with God.
A calm and heavenly frame,
A light to shine upon the road
That leads me to th -emb!
There is in forest in Germany a
place they call the s'deer leap"-two
cragS, about IS Yards apart: between