The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1901-07-23

" N~heAs anu bue DlDle Is all aDlaZe with
eplgram, words surprisingly put and
phraseology that must have made the au-
diences of Paul and Christ nudge each
other and exchange glances and smile and
then appropriate the tremendous truths Of
the gospel. There are some evils you can
laugh down easier than you can preach
down. The question Is always being asked,
Why do not more people go to church,
prayer meeting and other religious meet
ings! / will tell you. We of the pulpit
and the pew are so dull tuey cannot stand
1t. But when we ask why people do NOT
go to church we ask a misleading cues.
ton. More people go now to church than
ever IN the worlds history. and the rea-
son is in all our denominations there is a
new race of ministers stepping into the
pulpits which are not the apostles of hum
drum. Sure enough, we want in the
lords army the heavy artillery. but we
want also more men who like Burns. a
farmer at gettysburg, took a musket and
went out on his own account TO do little
shooting different from the other SOL
dlers.. The church of God is dying of the
proprieties.
Is your talent that OF persuasion? Make
good use of it. We all have It TO some
extent, yet none of us think of it as a
Talent But 1t ia the mightiest of talents.
10 you know that this one talent will
tetch the world back to God? Do YOU know
It is the mightiest talent of the high
heavens! Do you know that IL is Tho ono
talent chiefly employed bv all the angels
OF God when they descend to our world
the talent of persuasion?
10 you realize that the rough lumber
lifted INTO n cross on the hill hack az
Jerusalem was in persuasion az we'll as
sacrifice? That is the only. absolutely the
only, persuasion that will ever induce the
human race to stop its march toward the
city OF destruction and wheel around and
start Tor the city of light Now may the
Lord TINS moment show each one of us
that to greater or less extent we have
one talent of persuasion and impel us to
the right use of il.
on say you cannot preach sermon.
put cannot you persuade some one to 20
ana near sermon? You say you cannot
sing, but cannot you persuade some ono
to go and hear the choir chant ON Christ
mas or Easter morning? Send a bunch az
Movers to that invalid in the hospital
win message about the land where the
inhabitants never say. az am sick"
mere Is child of the street Invite
him into the mission school. There ia
man W no has lost his fortune in snecnla-
non Instead of jeering at his fall 90 and
tell him of riches that never take WINGS
and fly away. Buckle on that one talent
OF persuasion, o man, o woman. and
you VIII do work that heaven will cele-
brate 10000 wears.
Among the $4,000 words of Noah Web.
sters vocabulary and the thousands of
words since then added to our Fnolisb
vocabulary there is one outmastering
word the power of which cannot be es-
tmated, and it reaches so far ND and so
IIar, down, and that is the word come"
IL mas drawn more people away from the
wrong and toward the right than any
word / now think of. It has at times
crowded all the twelve gates of heaven
with fresh arrivals. It viii yet rob the
path of death of the last pedestrians. lie
VIII WI yet chime so loudly and gladly that
an the toillng bells of sorrow will be
drowned with the music. 1t is piled up in
the Bibles climax and peroration, "And
the spirit and the bride say come. and
let him that heareth say come, and let
MN that 10 athirst come" Have it on the
point OF your pen, have it on the tin of
your tongue; Monosyllables are mightier
than polysyllables, and that word Come"
Is the mightiest of monosyllables. Shakes.
peare says of one of his characters, "She
speaks poniards, and every word stabs."
We may cay of others, they speak words
winch are OF balm and music, are light and
life. Master one of those words, harness
one OF those words. project one of those
words, prove the full plentitude and DOW
er Of one of those words
David Garrick, the dramatist, said he
would give 100 guineas if he could say
oh, as George Whitefeld said it, What
come" as Jesus said it? Some one has
said that syllables govern the world. and
L think that one syllable might save the
world. But l cannot particularize What
ever be your one talent, cultivate it.
Once fully realize that you have some
thing with which to enhance heaven and
take hold of the eternities and il will
add a new bank of keys to the music of
your soul. You are ordained to some kind
OF work by the laying on OF the hands of
the Lord God Almighty.
If you cannot do anything else, 60
around and feel sorry Tor somebody When
some one asked, What is the secret of
William Wllberforce's power" the an
swer was, His power of sympathy" And
there are. 100000 people who have the
same qualification if they only knew it.
sympathy! If you cannot restore the
child to that bereft parent or the fortune
to that bankrupt financier or health to
that confirmed Invalid or an honorable
name 70 that wrecked character, you can
at least feel sorry for the misfortune or
the bereavement or the suffering
Sympathy If you have not the means
to do anything else. go and sit down and
cry with them. That is the way Christ
did when He went out TO the desolated
home in Bethany and the sisters told
their sad story. He cried with them. Oh,
cultivate that one talent of sympathy
After the resurrection day and all heav-
en- rs made up, resurrected bodies joined to
ransomed souls, and the gates which were
so long open are shut, there may be some
day when all the redeemed may pass in
review before the great white throne. If
so, L think the hosts passing before the
King Will move in different divisions.
With the first division will pass the mighty
ones of earth who were as good and use
full as they were great. In this division
will pass before the throne all the Martin