The Tupelo journal., 1902-09-12


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the sense of their W obligations TO-
wards others and felt a special call
service. 1t is the spark that is
from the flint which can set
the finder into a blaze, and not the
flint or the piece of steel by itself. 1t
is the lightning flash which spits out
the ball of electrical fire, and not
the thunder clap which rolls through
the heavens. 1t is life in touch with
life that quickens and produces re-
suits. 1t is real heart and life ex
~periences which supply inspiration
for the most stirring testimonies.
A Suggestion for Rally Day.-And IT
you want to make Rally Day in your
church and Sunday school an occasion
of great profit and blessing, and stir
the meeting to it's foundations, and
stimulate to more and better work
than ever before, cut out all the fine
cut and dried speeches OF welcome, all
the fulsome praise, all the good prom
Uses to larger and better service, and
get two or three or four, who nav
been about the Masters business dur
ing the summer and are all alive with
His work, to tell their experiences.
Pick your speakers carefully. Let
your choice be determined not by
fluency of speech and ease of manner,
but by the fact that those who are to
speak have had an experience in soul
saving and are burning with a desire
to tell it. Theories as to methods of
work and exhortations to service are
all well enough sometimes, but there
is more power to the square inch in
the Paul and Barnabas Rally Day meth
DDS than in all the theories and elo-
quent speeches you can crowd into the
audience room of the meeting house.
Try it and see. And if your church and
field should be so destitute of spirit
ual life and activity as to make it i'm
possible to find one or more who can
tell of the power of God in soul saw
ing and relate heart-throbbing eXpe-
~riences, who can tell of suffering for
Christ's sake, who have known what it
is to love with the love of Christ and
to be willing to get down into the gut
ter if necessary to help a poor, fallen
brother, if there is not such an n
in your midst, then go elsewhere and
get your man, your m Go to
Antioch for your Paul or Barnabas,
if need be. Go outside your denomina-
ton, 60 outside your church or Sun
day school, go outside your city or
your country for your man with a real
live experience. Only get him and have
a Rally Day that will blessedly echo
down all the days of the coming fall
and winter.
The Need of Going Away.-In order
to fully appreciate the thought of the
Home Coming, let us go back of our
text to the time of the departure of
Paul and Barnabas from Antioch on
their missionary journey. Undoubt-
eddy there vas a double purpose in the
Lords calling these two men to new
fields of labor. First, the needs of 9TH
ers were greater than those of the
church at Antioch. and second, the
church at Antioch had reached a con-
dition where it required the stimulus
of the Home Coming. Your going away
from home or your church ought to
be marked by the same conditions or
motives. You are going away or have
been away? If it vas in response to
the call of God (and we ought never
to go anywhere or do anything except
He does call us and lead us), it was not
at any sacrifice of real duty to home
or church. If the Lord calls us away
it is because we are nc longer needed
there. but have a mission to perform
elsewhere, and because, the time of
separation ended and the mission per-
formed, the home and the church
needs the inspiration and blessing of
the return home.
Christ said to His disciples: at is
~expedient for you that 1 go away"
Why? Because His going away meant
His return in fuller measure in the
person of the, Holy Spirit. 1t was ex-
pedient for Paul and Barnabas to go
away, not alone to carry a blessing
to all the dark places they visited, but
that they~might return filled with ex-
p%eriences and lessons which would
stir the church at Antioch and inspire
to greater effort than ever before. It
is e~xpedient for you to go away, some
times, not only to live the Christ life
amidst new scenes and surroundings,
but that the Home Coming may be
fragrant with fresh and inspiring ex-
periences, that will put new life and
animation into those about you.
And not only was it needful for Paul
and Barnabas to go away to carry the
Gospel to others, but because they
were absolutely not needed any longer
at the church at Antioch and would
have been in the way of the work OF
the Lord if they had remained. A
great many parents tie themselves up
in the home and a great many Chris
tian workers tie themselves up in the
church and Sunday school under the
work cannot survive their absence,
when if the leading of the Lord were
followed, they would go away for a
season to be revived and quickened and
returned home again to be a greater
blessing than ever before. Philip was
called from the great revival he had
been instrumental in starting at Sa-
maria out into the desert not alone
because he was needed to preach the
Gospel to the eunuch, but because he
was no longer neede5 at Samaria, and
perhaps would have spoiled a large
part of the work he had accomplished
had he remained. If there was a
closer following of the leading of the