Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1901-01-10

rousing songs they will sing! Oh,
what earnest sermons they will preach!
Oh, what fervent prayers they will of.
fer! Now. in our time. what is called
a fashionable church is place where:
few people, having attended very \
carefully to their toilet, come and sit |
down-they do not want to be crowded,
they like a whole seat to themselves
and then. If they have any time left
from thinking of their store, and from
examining the style of the hat in front.
of them, they sit and listen to a SER
mon warranted to hit ne mans sins.
and listen to music which is rendered
by a choir warranted to sing tunes
that nobody knows, And then after
an hour and half of indolent yawning
they go home refreshed. Every man
feels better after he has had sleep!
In many Of the churches of Christ in
our day the music is simply a mockery.
| have not cultivated ear nor cult
waited voice, yet no man can do my
singing for me. I have nothing to say
against artistic music. The 81 or IS |
pay to hear one of the great queens of
song is good investment. But when
the people assemble in religious con-
vocation, and the hymn is read, and
the angels of God step from their
throne to catch the music on their
wings, do not let us drive them away
by our Indifference. l have preached
in churches where vast sums of money
were employed to keep up the music,
and it was as exquisite as any heard
on. earth, but | thought at the same
time, for all matters practical, l
would prefer the hearty. outbreaking
song Of backwoods Methodist camp
meeting.
Praising God In Song.
Let one of these starveling fancy
songs sung in church get up before the
throne of God how would 1t look stand
ing amid the great doxologies of the
redeemed! Let the finest operate air
that ever went up from the church of
Christ get many hours the start. it
will be caught and past by the hosanna
Of the Sabbath school children. know
a church where the choir did all the
singing, save one Christian man who,
through perseverance of the saints,
went right on, and afterward a COM
mittee was appointed to wait on him
and ask him if he would not please to
stop singing, as 1t bothered the
choir.
Let those refuse to sing
Who never knew our God,
But children of the heavenly King
Should speak their joys abroad"
Praise We the Lord; let everything
with breath praise the Lord" In the
glorious time coming in our cities and
in the world hosanna will meet ho-
sauna and hallelpjah hallelujah.
The Machinery of Love.
He goes on and gives plates of the
machinery by which this work is to be
done, and he says he only needs at the
start company in which the shares
shall be $50 each, and a hundred or
two hundred thousand shall be raised
just to make a specimen community,
and then, this being formed, the world
will see its practicability, and very
soon S2,000,000 or $1,000 900 can be OBJ
tanned, and in ten years the whole
earth will be emparadised. The plan
is not so preposterous as some | have
heard of, but / will take no stock in
that company. / do not believe it will
ever be done in that way by any me-.
chanical force or by any machinery
that the human mind can put into play.
1t is to be done by the gospel of the
Son of God-the omnipotent machinery
of love and grace and pardon and sal
walton. That is to emparadise the ma
tions. Archimedes destroyed fleet of
ships coming up the harbor. You
know how he did it? He lifted a great
sunglass, history tells us, and when the
feet of ships came up the harbor of
Syracuse he brought to bear his sun
glass, and he converged the suns rays
upon those ships. Now, the sails are
wings of fire. the masts fall, the YES
sells sink. Oh, my friends, by the sun
glass of the gospel converging the rays
of the Sun Of Righteousness upon the
sins, the wickedness of the world, we
will make them blaze and expire!
Gods Omnipotent Love.
Gods love will yet bring back this
ruined world to holiness and happiness.
An infinite Father bends over 1t in
sympathy. And to the orphan he will
be father. and to the widow he will
be husband. and to the outcast he
will be a home, and to the poorest
wretch that today crawls out of the
ditch Of his denominations, crying for
mercy, he will be an all pardoning Re-
deemer. The rocks will turn gray with
age, the forests will be unmoored in
the hurricane. the sun will shut Its
fiery eyelid, the stars will drop like
blasted figs, the sea will heave its last
groap and lash itself in expiring agony,
the continents will, drop like anchors
in the deep. the world will wrap itself
in sheet Of flame and leap on the flu
neral pyre Of the judgment day, but
Gods love will never die. II shall
kindle its suns after all other, lights
have gone out. 1t will be billowing
sea after all other oceans have wept
themselves away. 1t will warm itself
by the blaze of a consuming world. 1t
will sing while the archangel's trumpet
peals and the air is filled with the crash
OF breaking sepulchers and the rush Of
the wings Of the rising dead. Oh. COM
mend that love to all the cities, and
10 ma g,,z. - Iii