The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1901-07-13
HARVEST TIME HERE
A Sermon of Generalization for
Christian Endeavorers.
DR.. TaImnge Finds a Eighty Sugges-
tiyeness in His Text-The
and Perfection OF Chris
tianity.
downright, 1901, by Louis Klopsch. N. ~
Washington,

eOt
Although DR.. Talmage was hlndered
from attending the great annual meet
ing of the Christian Endeavor society
at Cincinnati, his sermon shows him to
be in sympathy with the great move
ment: text, Amos 9:13: Behold the
days come, saith the Lord, that the
| plowman shall overtake the reaper"
Unable because of other important
duties to accept the invitation to take
partin the great convention OF Chris
tan Endeavorers at Cincinnati, begun
last week, l preach a sermon of con-
graduation for all the members of thai
magnificent association, whether now
gathered in vast assemblage or busy in
their places of usefulness, transatlan-
tic and cisatlantic, and as it is now har-
vest time in the fields and sickles are
| flashing in the gathering of a great
crop, l find mighty suggestiveness in
my text.
1t is a picture of a tropical cline,
with a season SO prosperous that the
| harvest reaches clear over to the plant
ing time, and the swarthy husband
man, busy cutting the grain, almost
feels the breath of the horses on his
shoulders, the horses hitched to the
plow, preparing for a new crop. BE
hold 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 you
done reaping one harvest of religious
result than the plowman is getting
ready for another.
In phraseology charged with all ven
ON and abuse and caricature l know
that infdels and ~agnostics have de-
clared that Christianity has collapsed;
that the Bible is an obsolete book; that
the Christian church is IN the retreat.
/ shall answer that wholesale charge
to-day.
Between 5000, 900 and 1900, 900 En-
deavorers sworn before high Heaven
that they will do all they can to take
America for God, Europe for God, Asia
and Africa for God-are not the signs
most cheering? Or, to return to the
agricultural figure of my text, more
than a million reapers are overtaken
by more than a million plowmen. Be
sides this, there are more people who
believe in the Bible than at any time
in the worlds existence. An Arab
guide was leading a French infidel
across the desert, and ever and anon
the Arab guide would get down in the
sand and pray to the Lord. 1t disgust
ed the French infidel, and after awhile,
as the Arab got up from one of his
prayers, the infidel said: How do
you know there is any God?" And the
Arab guide said: "How do know that
n man and a camel passed by our tent
last night? know it by the footprint
in the sand. And you want to know
how 1 know whether there is any God?
Look at the sunset. Is hat the foot
step of a MANI" And by the same
process you and l have come to under
stand hat this book is the footstep
of God.
But now let us see whether the book
is a last years almanac. Let us see
whether the church of God is a Bull
Runt retreat, muskets, canteens and
haversacks strewing all the way. The
great English historian Sharon Tur-
ner, a man of vast learning and great
accuracy, not a clergyman, but an at
torney as well as a historian, gives this
overwhelming statistic in regard to
Christianity and in regard to the num-
Der of Christians in the different cen
turtles: In the first century SOC, O0C
Christians, in the second century 1000
600 Christians, in the third century
5000, 900 Christians, in the fourth cen.
fury 0,000, 900 Christians, in the fifth
century $4,000, 900 Christians, in the
sixth century 20, 700 900 Christians, in
the seventh century 4,000, 900 Chris
tians, in the eighth century 30, 900 .OoC
Christians, in the ninth century 40, 900.
900 Christians, in the tenth century So.
100000 Christians, in the eleventh cen.
fury 70 900 900 Christians, in the twelfth
century 10000, 900 Christians, in the
thirteenth century $4,000, 900 Chris.
tians, in the fourteenth century so, 900,
600 Christians, in the fifteenth century
100, 900 900 Christians, in the sixteenth
century 125, 000, 900 Christians, in thu
seventeenth century $4,000, 900 Chris.
tians, in the eighteenth century 200.
DOC, 900 Christians-a d~ecadence, as YOU
observe, in only one century and more
than made up in the following cen,
turtles, while it is the usual compute,
ton that there were at the close of the
nineteenth century 470, 900 900 Chris,
tians, making us to ~l,elieve that before
this century is closed the millennium
will have started it's boom and lifted
its hosanna.
Poor Christianity! What a pity il
has no friend! How lonesome it must
be! Who will take it out of the poor
house? Poor Christianity! Four hun.
dred millions in one century. In a few
weeks of this year $500, 900 copies OF
the New Testament distributed. Wby
the earth is like an old castle with q
gates and a park of artillery ready to
thunder down every gate. See how
h~eathendom is being surrounded ant
~honeycombed and attacked by this al
conquering Gospel. AT the beginning
of the nineteenth century $50 mission
aries; at the close of that century s4.
600 missionaries and native HELPERS
and eyangelists. At the beginning OF
the nineteenth century there were onl,
I IN mn wa 49,