Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-03-29

land will never be enve1oped with re-
vivals. While the pews on one side
the altar cry for mercy, the pulpits
on the other side of the altar must
cry for mercy. Ministers quarreling.
Ministers trying to pull each other
down. Ministers struggling for eccle-
siastical place. Ministers, lethargic
with whole congregations dying on
their hands. What a spectacle!
During our civil war the president
of the United States made proclama-
ton for $4,000 troops. Some of you
remember the big stir. But the King
Of the universe to-day asks for
loo, 00c,000 more troops than are en-
listed, and we want it done softly,
imperceptibly, no excitement, one by
one. You are dry goods merchant
on large scale, and am a merchant
on a small scale, and come to you
and want to buy 1000 yards OF cloth.
Do you say: "Thank you. I'll sell
you 1000 yards of cloth, but I'll sell
you 20 yards to-day and 20 tomorrow
and 20 the next day, and if it takes
me six months I'll sell you the whole
thousand yards. You will want cs
long as that to examine the goods.
and I'll want as long as that to exam
inc the credit, and besides that 1000
yards Of cloth is too much to sell all
at once?" No; you do not say that.
You take me into the counting-room,
and in ten minutes the whole transact
ton is consummated. The fact is we
cannot afford to be fools in anything
but religion.
That very merchant who on Satur-
day afternoon sold me the thousand
yards of cloth at one stroke the next
Sabbath in church will stroke his
beard and wonder whether it would
not be better for thousand souls to
come struggling along for ten years
instead of boiling in at one service.
It seems to me as if God is prePa--
ing the world for some quick and
universal movement. A celebrated
electrician gave me telegraph chart
of the world. On that chart the wires
crossing the continents and the cables
under the sea looked like veins red
with blood. On that chart see that
the headquarters of the lightnings are
in Great Britain and the United
States. In London and New York
the lightnings are stabbed, waiting
to be harnessed for some quick dis
patch. That shows you that the tel
egraph is in the possession of Chris
tianity.
It is significant fact that the man
who invented the telegraph was an
old-fashioned Christian, Prof. Morse.
and that the man who put the tele-
graph under the sea was an old-fash-
toned Christian. Cyrus w. Field, and
that the president of the most ia
nous of the telegraph companies OF
this country was an old-fashioned
Christian, William Orion, going from
the communion table on earth
straight to his home in Heaven. What
does all that mean?
do not suppose that the telegraph
was invented merely to let us know
whether flour is up or down or which
horse won the race at the Derby or
which marksman beat at the latest
contest. I suppose the telegraph was
invented and built to call the world
to God.
In some of the attributes of tho
Lord we seem to share on a small
scale. For instance, in His love and
His Kindness. But until of late fore
knowledge, omniscience, omnipres-
ence, omnipotence, seem to have been
exclusively Gods possession. God, de-
string to make the race like Himself,
gives us a species of foreknowledge
in the weather probabilities, gives US
q species of omniscience in telegraphy,
gives us species of omnipresence in
the telephone, gives US species of
omnipotence In the steam power. Dis
coyeries and inventions all around
about us, people are asking what next?
I will tell you what next. Next, a
stupendous religious movement. Next,
the end Of war. Next, the crash OF
| despotism. Next, the worlds expurga-
ton. Next, the Christlike dominion.
Next, the judgment. What becomes
of the world after that I care not.
It will have suffered and achieved
enough for one world. Lay it up in
the drydoclss of eternity, like an old
man of war gone out Of service, or fit
it up like a Constellation to carry
bread of relief to some other suffering
planet or let it be demolished. Fare
| well, dear old world, that began with
! paradise and ended with Judgment
confagration.
Last summer I stood on the Isle of
Wight, and had pointed out to me-
the place where the Eurydice sank
with 200 or 800 young men who were
in training for the British navy. You
remember when that training ship
went down there was thrill of horror
all over the world. Since then there
| was another training ship missing.
| The ATLANTA, gone down with all on
board BY order of her majesty's gov
ernment vessels went cruising up and
down the Atlantic trying to find that
| lost training ship in which there were
| SO many young men preparing for
| the British navy. Alas, for the lost
| Atalanta! Oh, my friends, this world
is only training shipi On it we are