Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-03-20

shouldered. his gun and marched
through mud and blood and slept in
cold and rain and suffered hunger and
privation. He did all this as a brave
soldier; but when he got into the midst
of the f=st. with cannon booming and
muskets rafting. he dropped his gun.
That soldier had the sacrificing cour-
age, the joining courage, the march
ing courage, the starving courage. but
he didn't have the grit that would
stand up in the face Of she'll and
death. So, / said, with many in the
ministry They will tell worldly gain
and comforts goodby and take their
wife and children by the hand and join
the ranks of the ministry, and suffer
privation and want, but when it comes
to shooting in the holes their deacons
and elders are in, like the soldier, they
say, 81 will throw my gun away and
take to my heels before will shootin
there" There's all sorts of courage,
gentlemen, but the courage that win
wake this country up and run the devil
out Of this land is not joining cour-
age, nor marching courage, nor starv-
ing courage. but it is fighting cour-
age. Men of the ministry have all sorts
of courage except the sort we most
need now.
I affirm it. that if a fellow has some
thing to say he can get hearing, ana
the fact that any minister does not
get a hearing may be traced TO the
other fact that he does not say much
to those who do hear him They all
preach truth. but they must preach
THE truth that finds the heart and
conscience If they would arouse the
conscience of men and win their hearts
TO a better life. 1t is no trouble TO
get soldiers of the cross to deny them
selves and take up their crosses and
drill and march with the army, put
whenever friction and opposition sets
in and cannons boom and muskets rat
tie. then comes the tug of war. II
the ministry are not scared at times
they are monstrous uneasy
know they will not thank me for
talking this way, and they will say l
abuse the ministry. / am willing to be
misjudged. and what / say am willing
that It be misconstrued. The God who
shall Judge US all at last knows, for
He knows all things. that I have but
the kindliest feelings towards every
minister alive. I have taken up the
walking circuit preacher and put MIN
astride a good horse and sent him on
his way rejoicing. I have paid Tor
homes for the wives and children OF
ministers who had died and left them
homeless. 1 never turned away empty
one of them who came to me for heip
or succor. If I am not friend 70 the
minister of the gospel of Christ. then
I am a friend of nobody and ask no
body to be a friend of mine.
But, however tine your rhetoric. and
however polished your scholarship,
and however faultless your theology
may be, gentlemen, after all 1t Is the
plain truth of God, baptized with a
superhuman power that moves men
from sin and moves men towards hoh-
ness and heaven. A sermon that
don't move men upward or downward
or backward OF forward had better not
been preached at all. There's too much
preaching, so called, and too little ex-
horting You have to hit fellow to
hurt him. 1 have been trying to md the
rule for thirty years by which could
hit a rascal hard enough to knock him
over away from where he is over into
the territory where he ought toe be
and still hit him easy enough not 20
hurt him. That thing can't be done,
gentlemen. The preacher who ismoYing
men is the preacher who not only
flashes the light upon great Gospel
truths, but he has a sledge hammer
with which to drive them home. Take
the illustration IN Atlanta: when DR..
Broughton announces that he is going
10 preach about something or agin
something, his tabernacle is packed
and TANNED with more than three
thousand pepole. The average pull
piteer is preacher, Broughton is a
hitter.
fear some preachers are like the
fellow in Texas the other day. TEL
low asked him could he read ritin, ana
he said. "No, he couldn't read read
in" 1 heard one nice little preacher
preach one day, and when the service
was over got up and went home
feeling Just like a baby had slobbered
in nv ear, knew something had gone
on. but I couldn't tell what 1t was. IL
may have. been the noise OF many
waters Yours truly.
SAM P. JONES.