Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-01-25

- my boyhood next 10 the country
'schoolhouse there was an orchard OF APP
pies owned by very lame man who, al
though there were apples in the place per-
petually decaying ard by scores and scores
of bushels, never would allow any Of us to
touch the fruit. Sometimes the lads Of the
school, in the snfulness Of 4 nature in
herited from our frs parents, who were
ruined by the same temptation, invaded
that orchard, but they soon retreated, for
the man carae after them at speed reck-
less of making his !ameness worse ard
cried out, Boys, drop those apples or l
viii set the dog on you"
Well, my friends, there are Christian
men who have the church under severe
guard. There IL fruit in This orchard for
the whole world, but they have rough
and unsympathetic way of accosting out
siders, as though they had no blidiness
there, though the Lord wants all to
come and take tn, choicest and the ripest
fruit or the premises. Have you all idea
that because you were baptized at eight
months of age and because You have all
your life been under hailowed influences
YOU therefore have o right to one whole
side OF the Lords table, spreading your
self out and taking up the entire room! J.
tell you no. You will have to haul in
your elbows, for we will place on either
side of you those whom you never eX.
pected would sit there; for, as Christ said
to His people long ago, so lie says to you
and to me, "Other sheep have which are
not of this fold"
Mcdonald, the Scotchman, has thou
sands of head of sheep. Some of them arc
browsing on the heather, some of them
are lying down under the trees, some are
strolling over the mountains, some OF
them are in his yard. They are scattered
all around in many places. Cameron, his
neighbor, comes over and says: Il see you
them" mo" says Mcdonald, II have.
this yard. Some are here, and some are
elsewhere. ! have 1000 or 5000 in my
focks. Other sheep have which are not
of this fold.'" So Christ says to US. Here
is knot of Christians, but they make up
a small part of the flock. Here is the Epls-
copal fold, the Methodist fold, the Luth-
eran fold, the Congregational fold, the
Presbyterian fold, the Baptist and the
Pedo- Baptist fold, the only difference be-
tween these last two being the way in
which they wash the sheep, and so they
are scattered all over. And we come with
our statistics and say there are so many
thousand of the Lords sheep, but Christ
responds: mo, no; you have not seen
more than one out of thousand OF MY
flock. They are scattered all over the
earth. Other sheep have which are not
of this fold.'"
OF all the mcrciful institutions which
bless this city not one more thoroughly
enters into the spirit Of the text than does
the Bowery mission, whose twentieth annl-
yersary we to-day celebrate. During the
past wear 5000 souls have been saved
through its fundamentally, and during its
existence 1t has put its temporal and spir-
itual benediction upon hundreds of thou
sands of the poor and suffering and lost.
With tie bread of this life in one hand
and the bread of eternal life in the other,
it is doing a stupendous work, and to all
its patrons Christ is saying: II was hun.
fsy, and We fed Me; naked, and We clothed
Me; sick and in prison, and We visited Me.
Inasmuch as we did it unto Me, one OF the
least of these, We did it to Me-"
We need, as churches, to go into SYM
pathy with the great outside WORLD and let
them know that none are so brok>1 heart
ed or hard beset that they will not be well
coined. mo" says some fastidious Chris
tan, az do not like to be crowded in
church. Do not put any one in my pew"
Ny brother, what will you do IN heaven,
when great multitude that no man can
number assemblies? They will put fifty in
your pew. What are the people assembled
in Christian churches compared with the
miehtier millions outside? Some churches
are like hospital, that should advertise
that its patients must have nothing worse
than toothache or runrounds, but no bro.
ken heads. no crushed ankles or fractured
limbs Bring there for treatment moder-
ate sinners, velvet coated sinners and sim
ners with a gloss on.
IL was as though at great battle there
were left 10000 wounded and dying on the
field, and three surgeons gave oil their
time to half dozen patients in barn hos.
pital. The Major General comes in and
says to the doctors: Come out here and
attendance" mo" say the three doctors
standing there tanning their patients, 1--WE
| have half dozen important cases here,
and we are attending to them, and when
we are not positively busy with their
| wounds it takes all our time to keep the
| flies off"
In this awful battle Of sin and sorrow,
| where millions have fallen on millions, do
| not let us spend all our time in taking care
| of few people, and when the command
comes, "Go into the world" say practi-
cally, "No, / cannot go; | have few
choice cases, and am busy keeping off the
flies"
We need, as churches, TO stop lombard
! ing the old iron-cad sinners that have
been proof against thirty years of Chris
| tian assault and take aim in other direc-
| tions
Years ago I visited New England fac
tory village. | went up to the door OF a
| factory, and / saw on the outside the
words, "No admittance" Of course |
went in, and coming to the second door
saw the words, mo admit lance" Getting
clear on into the factory I saw they were
| making pins useful pins, and nothing but
pins. So think there is sometimes an
exclusiveness among some of the churches.
| The outside world comes up and looks
at the door and there is something which
seems to say, "No admittance," and the
world comes ND to the pew door and sees
written over it, "No admittance," and
looks at the pulpit and there is something
| there which seems to say mo admit
lance" while we stand inside of the same
churches hammering out our little nlcetles
of religious belief, making pins.
Oh, for deeper appreciation OF the sentl-
ment of my text, "Other sheep L have
which are not of this fold"
| I have to remark that the heavenly
Shepherd will find many sheep amid the
non-churchgoers. There are congregations
where there are all Christians, and they SEEM
10 be completely finished, and they remind
pne of the skeleton leaves which by chem
] ical preparation have had all the green
| ness and verdure taken off them and are
left cold and white and delicate, nothing
wanting but glass case to put over them.
| The minister of Christ has nothing to do
with such Christians but to come once a
week and with ostrich feather dust off the
accumulation of the last Elk days, leaving
them bright and crystalline as before. But
the other kind Of church is an armory,
with perpetual sound of drum and fife,
! gathering recruits for the Lord Of Hosts