The Penn's Grove record., 1901-02-15

when do you rave the most rapturou
views of the next worldE
Go at him with a few such questions
and he will get so red in the face as t
suggest hpoplexy, and he will look at hi
watch and say he has an engagement ant
must 20. You will put hin in a sweai
that will beat a Turkish bath. You vii
nut him on a rort compared with which
our troops at Bull Run made no time al
all.
Arm yourself, not with arguments, but
interrogation points, and | promise yolu
victory. Shall such a man as you, shall.
such n woman as you, surrender TO one oil
the meanest spirits that ever smoked up
from the pit-the dumb devil spoken of in
the text?
But then there are occasions when this
particular spirit that Christ exercised
when He said. Il charge thee to come out
of him" takes people by the wholesale.
In the most responsive religious audience
have you noticed how many peopl" never
sing at all? They have a book, and they
have a voice, and they know how to read.
They know many of the tunes and yet are
silent while the great raptures OF music
pass by. Among those who sing not one
hear his own voice. They hum it. They
give a sort of religious grunt. They make
the lips go, but it is inaudlble. With
a voice strong enough to stop a street car
one block away, all they can afford in the
praise OF God is about half a whisper.
With enough sopranos, enough altos,
enough bassos to make a small heaven be-
tween the four walls, they let the oppor-
tunity GO by unimproved. The volume OF
voice that ascends from the largest au-
dience that ever assembled ought to be
multiplied two t~housandfold. But the
minister rise and gives out the hymn, the
organ begi IS, the choir or preceptor leads,
the audience are standing SO that the
lungs may have full expansion, and a
mighty harmony is about to ascend when
the evil spirit spoken of in my te:t-the
dumb d~evil-spreads his two wings over
the Inns of ,ne-half the audience, and the
orner wing over the lips of the other half
of the audience, and the voices roll back
into the threats from which they started,
and only here and there anything is
ana nj .e.tenths of the holy power
is destroyed, and the dumb devil. as he
flies away. says, Il could not keep Isaac
Watts from writing that hymn, and l
cclld not keep Lowell Mason from com
posing the tune to which it is set, but |
5mote into sil~1ce or half silence the hips
which it would have spread abroad
% bless neiZhborhoods and cities and
hen mount the wide open heavens" Give
he long meter doxology the full support
IF Chrstendom and those four lines would
AXE the whole earth for God.
Tom, the drummer boy in the army,
vas found crying, and an officer asked hun
what was the matter. oh" he SAID, I
lad a dream last night. My sister died
en- years ago, and my mother never was
herself again, and she died soon after.
night | dreamed | was killed in bat
lie. and that mother and sister came
down to meet me" After the next battle
VS. over some one crossing the held
hard a voice that he recognized as the
voice of Tom, the drummer boy, singing,
Jesus, Lover of Ny Soul But at the
end of the first verse the voice became
very feeble, and at the end of the second
it stopned, and they went up and
Tom, the drummer boy, leaning
against a stump and dead.
While much of the modern music is a
doggerel, a consecrated nonsense,
a sacred imbecility, | would like to see
some great musician of our time lift the
baton and marshal Luther's Judgment
Yarmouth, Dundee, Ariel, Brattle-
street, U~xbridge, Pleyels Hymn, Harwell,
Mount Pisgah and Coronation,
with a few regiments of mighty tunes
made in our own time, and storm Asia,
Africa and America for the kingdom of
God. But the first thing to do is to drive
out the dumb devil of the text from all
cur churches.
Do not, however, let us lose ourselves
in generalities. Not one of us but has
had our lives sometimes touched by the
evil spirit of thc text-this awful dumb
devil. We had just one opportunity of
snying a Christian word that might have
led a man or woman into a Christian life.
The opportunity was fairly put before us.
warning came to the inside gate of the
but there it halted. Some hinder
ing power locked the jaws together so that
they did not open. The tongue lay. fat
and still in the bottom of the mouth as
though struck with paralysis. We were
mute. Though God had given US the ply
Biological apparatus for speech which, by
the command of our will, could have made
the laryngeal muscles move and the vocal
vibrate. W. were wlckedly and IA
tally silent. For all time and eternity we
missed our chance. Or it was a prayer
meeting, and the s%er-ice was thrown open
for prayer and remarks, and there was a
yard at midnight. Indeed, it was a
graveyard and midnight. An embarrass-
ing pause took place that put a wet bian-
on all the meeting. Men, bold enough
business exchange or in worldly circles,
shut their eyes as though they were pay
ing in silence, but they were not praying
at all. They were busy hoping somebody
else would do his duty. The women
flushed under the awful pause, and made
their fans more rapidly tiutter. Some
brother, with no cold, ~coughed, by that
sound trying to fill up the time, and the
meeting was slain. But what killed it?
The dumb devil.
that the stupidest places on earth are
some prayer meetings. l do not see how
a man keeps any grace if he regularly at
tends them. They are spiritual refrigera.
tors. Religion kept on ice. How many of
US have lost occasions of usefulnessl
In a sculptor's 9.udio stood a figure Of
the god Opportunity. The sculptor had
made the hair fall down over the face of
the statue so as to completely cover it,
and there were wings to the feet. When
asked why he so represented Opportunity
the sculptor answered, The face of the
statue is thus covered up because we do
not recognize Opportunity when 1t comes
and the wings OF the feet show that OPP
portunity is swiftly gone"
But do not let the world deride the
church because OF all this, for the dumb
devil is just as conspicuous in the world,
The great political parties assemble at the
proper time to build platforms for the
candidates to stand on. A committee OF
each party is appointed to make the plat
form. After proper elaboration the com
mittees come in with a ringing report,
whereas" and whereas and whereas"
Pro%nunciantentos all shaped with the one
idea Of getting the most votes. All eX-
preston If regard to the great moral evils
of the country ignored, No expression in
behalf of temperate living, for that would
lose the vote OF the liquor traffic. No ex-
preston in regard to the universal attempt
at the demolition of the Lords day. No
recognition OF God in the history OF ma
tions, for that would lose the vote of
atheists, But whereas" and whereas"
and whereas" Nine cheers will be given
for the platform. The dumb devil of the
text puts one wing over the one platform
and the other wing over the other plat
form. Those great conventions are opened
with prayer by their ehaplains. Ii they
avoided platitudes and told the honest
truth in their prayers they would say:
30 Lord, W. want to be ~postmasters and
cOnsuls and foreign ministers and United
Slater distrio attorneys. For that we are
here and for that we will strive till the
election next November, Give US office or
we die. Forever and ever, Amen"
The world, to say the least, is no bet
ter thar the church on this subject of ST
lcnce at the wrong time, In other words,
is it not time for Christianity to become
pronounced and aggressive as never be.
fore? Take sides for God and sobriety
and righteousness.