Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-07-10


SS9 annual meeting Of the Christian
Endeayor Society At Cincinnati. his ser
mon shows him TO be in sympathy with
the great movement; text, Amos tx. ID,
Behold the days come. saith the Lord,
that the plowman shall orertake the
reaper"
Unable because of other important dn-
ties to accept the invitation to take part
in the great convention of Christian Eli
deavoTers at Cincinnati. begun last week.
| preach Il sermon of C0ngratulatton for
all the members OF that magnificent asso-
citation, whether now gathered in vast as
sembage or busy in their places of use
fulness, transatlantic and Cisatlantic. and
as it is now harvest time in the fields and
sic';les are flashing in the gathering OF
great crop, find mighty suggestiYenoss
in my text.
1t is "A picture of a tropical cline. with
q season so prosperous that The harvest
reaches clear over TO the planting time,
and the swarthy husbandman busy cut
ting the grain, almost feels the breath Of
the horses ON his shoulders. the horses
hitched to the pillow. preparing for II new
crop. Behold the days come, saith the
Lord, that the plowman shall overtake
the reaper" When is that? That is
now. That is this lay. when hardly have
you done reaping one harvest of religious
result than the plowman is getting ready
for another.
In phraseology charged with all venom
and abuse and carieature know that in
fdels and agnostics have declared that
Christianity has collapsed; that the Bible
is an obsolete book: that the Christian
church is on the retreat. | shall answer
that wholesale charge to-day.
Between 100000 and 100000 En-
deavorers sworn before high heaven that
they will do all they can to take America
for God, Europe for God, Asia and At
rica for God-are not the signs most
cheering? Or, to return to the agricul-
tural figure of my text, more than mil
lion reapers are overtaken by more than
a million plowmen. Besides this, there
are more people who believe in the Bible
than at any time in the worlds existence.
An Arab guide was leading French in
hdel across the desert. and ever and anon
the Arab guide would get down in the
sand and pray to the Lord. 1t Disguised
the French infdel. 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:
passed by our tent last night? know it
by the footprint in the sand. And you
want to know how know whether there
is any God? Look at the sunset. Is
that the footstep of a man." And by the
same process you and | have come to
understand that this book is the footstep
of God.
Growth of Christianity.
But now let us see whether the book
is last years almanac. Let us see
whether the church of God is Bull Run
retreat. muskets, canteens and haver-
sacks strewing all the way. The great
English historian Sharon Turner, man
of vast learning and great accuracy, not
a clergyman, but an attorney as we'll as
Il historian, gives this overwhelming sta
tistic in regard to Christianity and in re-
gard to the number of Christians in the
different centuries: In the first century
5000 Christians, in the second 1000
900 Christians in the third century
100000 Christians. in the fourth cen
fury 100000 Christians, in the fifth
century 100000 Christians. in the
sixth century 20,000000 Christians, in
the seventh century 24.000,000 Chris
tians in the eighth century 10000 900
Christians. in the ninth century 10000
600 Christians, in the tenth century so
100000 Christians, in the eleventh cen
fury T0,000,00n Christians. in the twelfth
century 10000, 900 Christians, in the thir-
teenth century 75,000,000 Christians, in
the fourteenth century S0,000,000 Chris
tians in the fifteenth century 100,000,000
Christians, in the sixteenth century 49,.
100000 Christians, in the seventeenth
century 100000 900 Christians. in the
s,.l,A ~.
tians--a decadence. as you observe, in
only one century and more than made up
in the following centuries. while it is the
usual computation that there were at the
close of the nineteenth century 10000
600 Christians. making us to believe that
before this century is closed the millen-
MUM will have started its boom and lift
ed it's hosanna
Poor Christianity. What a pity it has
no friends, How lonesome it must be.
Who will take it out of the poorhouse?
Poor Christianity. -Four hundred mil
lions in one century. In few weeks of
this year 100000 copies of the New
Testament distributed. Why. the earth
is ike an old castle with 20 gates and
park of artillery ready TO thunder down
every gate. See how heathendom is he
ing surrounded and honeycombed and at
tackled by this ali conquering gospel. At
the beginning of the nineteenth century
1870 missionaries; at the close Of that cen
tury 81 900 missionaries and native help
ers and evangelists. At the beginning OF
the nineteenth century there were only
10000 converts. Now there are over
100000 converts from heathendom.
You all know that an important work
of an army is to plant the batteries. 1t
may take many days 10 plant the batter
les, and they may do all the work in ten
minutes. These gospel batteries are be
ing planted all along the seacoasts and
in all nations Il may take good while
to plant them ana they may do all thei:
work in one day. They will.
The Force OF the Bible.
Suppose the Congress of the United
States should pass a law that there
should be- no more Bibles printed in
America an1 no Bibles read. If there
are G0000000 grown people in the init
ed States. there would be 100000 peo-
pie in an army TO pat down such law
and defend their right to read the Bible.
But suppose the Congress OF the United
States should make law against the
reading or the publication Of any other
book. how many people would 90 out in
such i crusade? Could you get 6u.V0,-
600 people 10 20 out and risk their lives
in the defense of Shakspeare's tragedies
OF GlaiStone's tracts or Macaulay ;