Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-05-13

Galilean, thou hast cOnQueredr
In the armory of the Earl Of Penn
broke there are old corselets which show
that the arrow of the English used to
go through the breastplate, through
khe body of the warrior and out
! through the backpIate. What a sym
Dol of that gospel which is sharper
than a two edged sword, piercing to
the dividing asunder of soul and body
nnd of the joints and marrow! Would
II 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 five hundred. Just in pro-
portion as this age seems to believe
less and less in it 1 believe more and
more in it. What are men about that
they Will not accept their own deliver
ance? There is nothing proposed by
men that can do anything like this
gospel.
An Omnipotent Weapon.
The religion of Ralph Waldo Emer-
son was the philosophy of icicles; the
religion of Theodore Parker was a 81
rocco of the desert covering up the
|
nan was the romance of believing al
most nothing; the religion of the Hulk
| leys and the Spencers is merely a ped
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 | will take the car tomorrow and
ride 500 miles to see him. The full
power of the gospel has not yet been
touched. AS 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 it
back to the heart of Christ. Give it
full swing, and it will pardon every
sin, heal every wound cure every trou-
BILE, emancipate 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 [ 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 bow! Then let it fly! And
II, rJ.,;,, :
Again, if you want to be skillful in
spiritual archery, you must hunt in
Infrequented and secluded places. Why
does the hunter go three or four days
into the Pennsylvania forests or over
Raquette lake into the wiIds 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 coy
ote trOtting along almost within range
Of the gun-sOmetimes quite within
range of it. No one cares for that; it
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
glimpse of them, as a hunter through
the trees gets mOmentary sight of a
partridge or rOebuck. The trouble is
we are waiting for the game to come
to US.
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
are 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 it's 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 a
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 it
for the multitude Of the fishes. There |
Is outside work to be done. What is it |
that | see in the backwoods? 1t is a
tent. The hunters have made a clear |