The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-05-16

Jou SSC, do you ~ over luS pidluS, here
and there a coyote trotting along al
most within range of the gun-some-
times 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 the most value to the
church are secluded. They do not
come in our 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 ar
row has not been pointed at
them. The tract distributor and
the city missionary sometimes just
catch glimpse of them, as hunter
through the trees gets momentary
sight of partridge or roebuck. The
trouble is we are waiting for the game
to come to us. We are not good hunt
ers. We are standing on some street
or road expecting that the timid an
telope 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 100000 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 much cushions as it
wants saddlebags and arrows. We
have got to put aside the gown and the
kid gloves and put on the hunting
shirt. We want a pulpit on 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 Tup-
per's lake, where the first swing of
the gospel net would break it for the
multitude of the fishes. There is out
side work to be done. What is it that
| see in the backwoods? 1t is tent.
The hunters have made a clearing and
camped out. What do they care if
they have wet feet or if they have
nothing but pine branch for pillow
or for the northeast storm? If moose
in the darkness steps into the lake to
drink. they hear it 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 putting 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?
Must Have Courage.
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
finches with fear instead of his taking
the catamount the catamount takes
him. What would become of the Green
lander if when out hunting for the
bear he should stand shivering with
terror on an iceberg? What would
have become of Du Chaillu and Living
stone in the African thicket with
faint heart and weak knee? When a
panther comes within 20 PAGES of you
and it has its eye on you and it has
squatted for the fearful spring, STEADY
there" Courage, o we spiritual arch
Thnra 80
iquity proving all around about the
community. Shall we not in the
strength of God go forth and combat
them? We not only need more heart,
but moro backbone. What is the
church of God that it should fear to
look in the eye any transgression?
There is the Bengal tiger of drunken
ness that prowls around and instead of
attacking it how many Of us hide un-
der 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 mar
BILE floors and Italian top tables and
chased ice coolers, and in the strych-
nine and the logwood and the tartaric
acid and the nux vomica that go to
make up our pure" American drinks.
looked with wondering eyes on the
Heidelberg tun." 1t 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 filled. But as I stood and looked
at it said to myself: "That is moth
ing-S00 hogsheads. Why, our Ameri-
can vat holds 100000 barrels of
strong drinks, and we keep 300,0 600 men
with nothing to do but to see that it is
filed"
The Great Monster.
Oh, to attack this great monster of
intemperance and the kindred mons
ters of fraud and uncleanness requires
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 Ameri-
can Christians would band together,
not for cracked Drained fanaticism,
but for holy Christian reform! think
it was in 1898 that there went out from
Lucknow, India, under the sovereign,
the greatest hunting party that was
ever projected. There were 10000 arm
ed men in that hunting party. There
were camels and horses and elephants.
On some princes rode and royal ladies
under exquisite housings, and 500 cool
InC tNI