Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1902-11-17

workers. let you can hnd today
church after church in our land that
is nothing more or less than a slaugh-
ter house for ministerial usefulness.
Their pastors will win great spiritual
successes before they come to them,
and those pastors will win great spir-
itual successes after they leave them,
but while they are in those spiritually
dead churches the pastors will stumble
about blinded and helpless, as did the
mighty Samson, bound with letters of
brass, with his two eyes out, grinding
about in the prison house of GAIA.
Those evangelistic ministers are spir-
itually helpless in such churches be-
cause the people, the common church
members, will not unite as a working
! force and personally present the gospel
! of Jesus Christ to the strangers who
come among them. Instead of derid-
| ing and Understanding the power Of
| the ministry, 1t is high time for some
one to thunder philippe against the
! Indifference of the selfish church mem
bers who refuse to spiritually support
the pulpit, as the pew always ought
Loyalty to do.
The gospel invitation should be pre-
scented by the church members to their
friends and to the strangers wherever
they may be found, because the vast
majority of sinners never enter the
church at all. Therefore, If they do
not have Christ presented to them on
the street, in the Office, in the railroad
trains and even In the kitchen, they
will never be invited at all. Mr.. Beech
er once powerfully said, 1.-THE longer
| l live the more confidence l have in
those sermons preached where one man
Is a minister and one man is the con-
gregatiOn, where there is no question
as to who is meant when the preacher
says, Thou art the man!" 1 believe
Mr.. Beecher was right when he made
that statement, but l believe he was
right even In a larger sense. The Ion
ger live the more confidence have in
those sermons that are preached where
one man Is minister and one man is
a congregation, because such a gospel
service can be held everywhere. 1t can
use the mechanics bench for a pulpit;
it can have the iceman's cart for a
moving tabernacle; it can carry the
Bread of Life to the sinner who would
otherwise never be willing to receive
that bread over the pulpit desk. Be
sides, the minister in such a case does
not have to be an ordained theological
student, but need be simply an earnest
consecrated layman pleading for Christ
with the sinner who is standing by his
side in the village store.
Saving a Sinful World.
If all church members were to be-
come earnest and consecrated evangel-
lists, it would not take very long for
this whole sinful world to see the sun
rise burst Of the millennial dawn. Sure
ly it would not be too much to expect
that one such evangelist as Mr.. Beech
er described should at least win one
soul year for Christ, yet DR.. William
Morley Punshon, the great English
Methodist, once made the STARTLING
statement: eff every disciple today
were to call only one person to Christ
each year and that one were to cal
one other, how swiftly the world would
be wholly converted! There are today
millions of true believers In the world
But If there were only 100 see how
quickly the work would grow. In less
than twenty-five years the world would
be converted for this would double the
number of disciples each year" After
such an impressive statement, will any
one say that the gospel invitation
which can be given daily by the church
members, would amount to but little
in the salvation of sinful world?
To show the Importance Of a Chris
tan layman's work l cannot do better
In closing this sermon than quote tive
illustrations from the personal expert
ence of H. Clay Trumbull, the wei
known editor of the Sunday SchoO
Times. Mr.. TrumbulPs early life wa
spent in Stonington, Conn. There ;
great revival swept the town. ant
many of the companions Of his you'll
Joined the church, among whom was ;
young man who was one of his mos
intimate friends. For many year
J these two as boys and young men live
near each other, but his Christian
friend never spoke to him about reli
|
, Mr.. Trumbull became an engineer il
Hartford; his Christian friend went t
Yale, but during his last year at col
lege he sent a letter to his old chun
: pleading wi h him to become Chris
tian That letter was the means o
| saving II. LAY Trumbull's soul. L
his engine room, upon the receipt of II
! he then and there gave his heart t
!, God.
5 He Immediately said to himself, 81
the personal work of layman can d
so much in the salvation of an immol
e tai soul, will never make the mistak
r my friend made with me by postpo1
n ing for so long a personal invitatio
l to another" So, the same night o
e which he was converted, Mr.. Trun
e bull went to one Of his fellow worl
q mon and fold him no had been pO1