The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-05-14

they will not accept their own deliver
ance? There is nothing proposed by
men that can do anything like this gospel.
The religion of Ralph Waldo Emerson
was the philosophy Of ~icicles; the religion
OF Theodore Parker was a sirocco of the
desert, covering up the soul with dry
sand; the religion of Renan was the ro-
nance of believing almost nothing; the
religion Of the Huxleys and the Spencers
is merely a pedestal on which human phi
losophy sits shivering in the night of the
soul, looking up TO the stars, offering no
help to the nations that crouch and groan
at the base. Tell me where there is one
man who has rejected that gospel for an
other who is thoroughly satisfied and
helped and contented in his skepticism
and / will take the car tomorrow and ride
500 miles to see him. The full power of
the gospel has not yet been touched. As
a sportsman throws up his hand and
catches the ball flying through the air,
just so easily will this gospel after awhile
catch this round world flying from its or
bit and bring it back to the heart of
Christ. Give it full swing, and it will
pardon every sin, heal every wound, cure
every trouble, emancipate every slave n
ransom every nation. Ye Christian men
and women who go out this afternoon to
do Christian work, as you go into the
Sunday schools, and the lay preaching
stations, and the ~penitentiaries, and the
asylums, l want you to feel that you bear
in your hand a weapon compared with
which the lightning has no speed and
~ayalanches have no heft and the thunder
bolts of heaven have no power; it is the
arrow Of the Omnipotent gospel. Take
aornfrI osrf Dbl A. f~~. Lozl.
until the head strikes the bow. Then let
1T fly. And may the slain of the Lord b.
many.
Again, if you want to be skillful in
spiritual archery you must hunt in I'M.
frequented and secluded places. Why
does the hunter go three or four days in
the Pennsylvania forests or over Ra.
quette lake into the Willis of the Adiron
dacks? 1t is the only way to do. The
deer are shy. ana one bang of the gun
clears the forest. From the California
stage you see. as You go over the plains.
here and there a coyote trotting along al
most within range Of the gun-sometimes
quite within range of it. No one cares
for that. 1t is worthless. The good
game is hidden and secluded. Every
hunter knows that. So many of the souls
that will be- of most worth for Christ and
of most value TO the church are secluded
They do not come in our way. You will
have to 90 where they are. Yonder they
are down i'll that cellar. Yonder they
are up in that garret-far away from the
door ut any church. The gospel arrow
has not been pointed at them. The tract
distributor and the city missionary some
times just catch a glimpse of them. as a
hunter through the trees gets a momen
tary sight of Il partridge or roebuck. The
trouble is we are waiting for the game la
come to Us. We are not good hunters.
We are standing on some street or roo !
expecting that the timid antelope will
| come up and cat 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
| 10,000.0O of years for the world to come
in and be saved. it will wait in vain. The
world will not come.
What the church wants now is to lift
its feet from damask ottomans and pu,
hem in the stirrups The church wants
not so much cushions as il wants sadtl,.
bags and arrows. We nave got to put
aside the gown and the kid gloves an.
put on the hunting shirt We want d
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 4:
soon as We come to the bank, while yon
der Is Upper Saranac and Big Upper:
lake, where the first swing of the gospe
net would break it for the multitude o
the fishes. There is outside work to b,
done. What is it that / see in the back
woods! 1t is a tent. The hunters hav,
made q clearing and camped out. VIVA
do they care if they ave wet feet or i
they have nothing but a pine branch 70
a pillow or for the northeast storm? If
moose in the darkness steps into the lax,
to drink. they hear it right away. II
loon cry in the midnight. they hear it. s
in the service of God we have expose,
work. We have got to camp out an,
rough it. We are putting all our care Of
the comparatively few people who go t
church. What are we doing for the mi
ions who do not come? Have they q
soulsf Are they sinless that they nee
no pardoni Are there no dead in thei
Houses that they need no comfort? Ar
they cut ui from ti"l TO go into eternity
no wing ~ hear them. no light to chez
them. liz w-Icuue to greet them? / hea
today surglng up from that lower dept
Of our cities a groan that comes throug
OuT t.uTlSiidB disadvantages 8OO IuTOuS
our beautiiT: churches. and il blots on
all this Scenr from my eyes today. as b
the miSts of q great Niagara, for the das
and the plunge of these great torrents Q
life dropping down into the fathomless an
laundering abysm OF suffering and woe.
sometimes think that just as God blotte
out the churches of Thyatira and Corint
; and Laodicea because Of their sloth an
!. stolidity he will blot out American an
: English Christianity and raise on th
, ruins q stalwart. wide awake mi~ssionar
church that can take the full meaning q
: that command: Go We into all the worl
and preach the gospel to every creatur,
t He that believeth and is baptized sha
be saved. but he that believeth moi sha
be damned"-a command. you see. pun,
tuated with n throne of heaven and
dungeon OF hri.
| remark. further. il you want to SIT,
coed in spiritual archery you must hav
! courage. Ii the hunter stands with irpn
. bling hand or shoulder that 6inches wit