The Yale expositor., 1901-07-12

Talmage was hindered from attending
the great annual meeting of the Chris
tian Endeavor society at Cincinnati,
his sermons show him to be in SYM
patty with the great movement;
text, Amos tx, Is, Behold the days
come, saith the Lord, that the plow-
man shall overtake the reaper"
Unable because OF other important
duties to accept the invitation to take
part in the great convention of Chris
tan Endeavorers at Cincinnati. began
last week, l preach sermon OF con-
graduation for all the members of that
magnificent association, whether now
gathered in vast assemblage or busy
I'm their places Of usefulness, trans
atlantic and cisatlantic, and as 1t is
now harvest time in the fields and
sickles are flashing in the gatherings
of a great crop, find mighty sugges-
'tiveness in my text.
1t is a picture Of a tropical cline,
with a season so prosperous that the
harvest reaches clear over to the
planting time, and the swarthy hus-
bandman, busy cutting the grain, al
most feels the breath of the horses
on his shoulders, the horses hitched to
the pillow, preparing for a new crop.
Behold the days come, saith the Lord,
that the plowman shall overtake the
reaper" When is that? That is now.
That is this day, when hardly have
ligious result than the plowman is
getting ready for another.
In phraseology charged with all
venom and abuse and caricature
know that infidels and agnostics have
declared that Christianity has col
1apsed that the Bible is an obsolete
book; that the Christian church is on
the retreat. l shall answer that whole
sale charge today.
Growth of Christianity.
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 strewing all the way. The
great English historian Sharon Tur-
ner, man of vast learning and great
accuracy. not clergyman, but an at
torney as well as a historian, gives
this overwhelming statistic in regard
to Christianity and in regard to the
number of Christians In the different
centuries: In the first century, 100000
Christians; In the second century,
100000 Christians; in the third CEN
fury, 100000 Christians; in the fourth
century 100000 Christians; in the
I,vf,N H.,
the sixth century 20000,0O0 Christians;
in the seventh century 24000 900
Christians: in the eighth century, 3d.
100000 Christians; in the ninth CEN
fury 10000 900 Christians; in the tenth
century 50,0O0,00O Christians; in the
eleventh century 70,000,000 Christians;
In the twelfth century S0,000,000 Chris
tians; in the thirteenth century 75,-
100000 Christians; in the fourteenth
century S0,000,000 Christians; in the
fifteenth century 100,000,000 Chris
tians; in the sixteenth century, 1885,
600, 900 Christians; in the seventeenth
century 155, 900, 900 Christians; in the
eighteenth century 200000,000 Chris
tians-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, 900 900 Christians, making
us to believe that before this century
is closed the millennium will have
started its boom and lifted it's hosan-
ma.
Poor Christianity! What a pity it
has no friends! How lonesome 1t must
be! Who will take it out of the poor
house? Poor Christianity! Four hun
few weeks of this year $500, 900 copies
of the New Testament distributed.
Why, the earth is like an old castle
with 20 gates and park of artillery
ready Go thunder down every gate.
See how heathendom is being sur
rounded and honeycombed and at
tackled by this all conquering gospel.
At the beginning of the nineteenth
century $50 missionaries; at the close
of that century $4,000 Missionaries and
native helpers and evangelists. At
the beginning of the nineteenth CEN
fury there were only $4,000 converts.
Now there are over 1000, 900 converts
from heathendom.
The Force of tho Bible
Suppose the congress of the United
States should pass a law that there
should be no more Bibles printed in
America and no Bibles read. II there
are 60,000,000 grown people in the
United States, there would be so 900, :
900 people in an army to put down
such law and defend their right to
read the Bible. But suppose the con-
.gress OF the United States should
make a law against the reading or the
publication of any other book, how
many people would go out in such a
crusade? Could you get 10000, 900
people to go out and risk their lives in
defense of Shakespeare's tragedies or
sGladstone's tracts or Macaulay's His
tory Ct England?" You know that
there are a thousand men who would
die In the defense OF this book where
there is not more than one man who