The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1901-05-17

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| symbol of that Gospel which is sharp
er than o two-edged sword, piercing
to the dividing asunder of soul and
body and Of the joints and marrowI
| Would to God we had more faith in
that Gospel The humblest ma in the
world, if he had enough faith in il.
could bring a hundred souls to Christ
perhaps 500. just in proportion as
this age seems TO believe less and less
in IL, I believe more and more in it..
What are men about that they will
not accept their own deliverance?
There is nothing proposed by men
that can do anything like this Gospel
Again, il you want to be skillful in
spiritual archery you must hunt in
unfreQuented and secluded places.
Why does the hunter go three or
four days in the PonnsylvBnia for
ests or over Baquette lake into the
wilds of the AdirondacilsP IL is the
only way to do. The deer are shy,
and one "hnng" of the gun clears the
forest. From the California stage
you see, as you go over the plains,
here and there coyote trotting
along almost within range OF the
gun-sometimes quite within range
of IL. No one cares for that. II is
worthless. The good game is hidden
and secluded. Every hunter knows
that So many of the souls thnt will
be of most worth for Christ and OF
most value to the church are Sc
cluded. They do not come in our
way. You will have to go where they
are. Yonder they are down in that
cellar. Honder they are up in that
garret-far away from the dooV Of
| any church. The Gospel arrow has
not been pointed az them. The tract
distributor and the city missionary
sometimes just catch a glimpse Of
them. as a hunter through the trees
gets a momentary sight of a par
fridge or roebuck. The trouble is we
are waiting for the game to come to
us. We are not good hunters. We
are standing on some street or road
expecting that the timid antelope
will come up and eat out of our hand.
We are expecting that the prairie
fowl will light on our church steeple.
1t is not their habit. If the church
should wait 100000 of years for
the world to come in and be saved,
il will wait in vain. The world will
not come.
What the church wants now is to
lift its feet from damask ottomons
and put them in the stirrups. The
church wants not so many cushions
as it wants saddlebags and arrows.
We have got to put aside the gown
and the kid gloves and put on the
hunting shirt. We want a pulpit on
wheels. We have been fishing so
long in the brooks that run under
the shadow of the church that the
| fish know US, and they avoid the
hook and escape as soon as we come
to the bank, while yonder is Upper
Saranac and Big Hupper's lake, where
the first swing of the Gospel net
would break it for the multitude Of
the fishes. There is outside work to
be done. What is il that l see in the
backwoods? 1t rs a tent. The hunt
ers have made a clearing and camped
out. What do they care if they have
wet feet or if they have nothing but
a pine branch for pillow OF for the
northeast storm? If q moose in the
darkness steps into the lake to drink,
they hear it right away. If loon
cry in the midnight, they hear it,
So in the service of God we have
exposed work. We have got to camp
out and rough II. We are putting all
our care on the comparatively few
people who go to church. What are
we doing for the millions who do
not come? Have they no souls? Are
they sinless that they need no par
don? Are there no dead in their
houses that they need no comfort?
Are they cut off from God to go into
eternity, no wing TO bear them, no
light TO cheer them, no welcome to
greet them? I hear to-day surgin2
up from the lower depth of our cities
a groan that comes through our
Christian assemblages and through
our beautiful churches, and il blots
out MI this scene from my eyes to-
day, as by the mists OF great NJ
agara, for the dash and the plunge
of these great torrents of life drop
ping down into the fathomless and
laundering abysm of suffering and
woe. I sometimes think that just as
God blotted out the churches Of Thy
atira and Corinth and Laodlcea be-
cause OF their sloth and stolidity he
will blot out American and English
Christianity and raise on the ruins a
stalwart, wide-awake missionary
church that can take the full mean.
ing of that command: $50 We into
all the world and preach the Gospel
TO every creature. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved, but
he that believeth not shall bedamned"
"a command, you see, punctuated
with a throne of Heaven and dun
geon of hell.
l remark, further, if you want to
succeed in spiritual archery you must
have courage. If the hunter stands
with trembling hand or shoulder that
tiinches with fear, instead of taking
the catamount the catamount takes
him. What would become of the
Greenlander if when out hunting for