The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-02


 times.
 Campaign Must Be Planned.
 Thus coming campaigns or the mili-
 tary lines of summer operations are plan
 ned for the most part by the different
 commanders of invading armies while
 their enemies are incamped in winter quarters. Therefore the question which l at this season naturally forces itself on
 my mind is this .What is the gospel campaign ahead of the Christian church? ! I am a captain In the army of Christ | How am l to lead my people? Where am
 I to go? In the beginning of this winter
 work I am exactly in the same position
 as the military leader of an invading l army who is about to break up winter | quarters. Summer is really the time for
 winter quarters in a city church. l When July comes many Christian sold | iers in a large city pastorate hie them l selves away to sea beach or mountain
 stream for rest. They are very tired | from their winters labor. But by the 1 time the middle of September is here the | their winter homes and are filling their | of the city congregations are back to l their winter homes and arefilling their
 church pews When they arrive and
 start out for gospel work the Christian
 soldiers of each church naturally ex- pect to know the kind of a gospel cam | paign which is ahead.
 Christ is our great commander, and as
 a captain under him I would here and
 now point out to you the mighty oppor- l tunities which are before us. l would ' sketch the line of campaign we as | church are about to enter. And further more. not only want to show you how
 we are to fight where we are to fight, but also to try to encourage you by re- | minding you of the great agencies of | our time which are going to help us Tn this coming years struggle.
 The glorious twentieth century is open l ing wide it's doors to let the church or | the Lord Jesus Christ pass forth into
 Gods conflict, aided by scientific and
 social facilities that no other age pos 1 sessed, whereby each man can double and treble and quadruple the amount of work which his grandfather or his great | grandfather was able to do. It is saying | to us: Man, if the length of your life is to be estimated by the amount of work | you shall be able to accomplish l will let you live longer than did Jacob, who died of old age at the age of one hundred and forty-seven, or Isaac who lived one hundred and eighty years, or Abraham who lived to be one hundred and seventy five years or Noah, who lived to be nine hundred and fifty years, or Methuselah
 who only lacked thirty years of being one thousand years old. I will let you
 
 complish in the course of their lives will seem to be as nothing to what you shall be able to accomplish The twentieth century speaks thus not to one man, but to all.
 Advantages of Inventive Age. | This inventive age has literally doubled and quadrupled and almost infinitely multiplied the material producing power l,.f, rl1f. ,,fIt ,,f munication! Supposing I wish to plead the cause of Christ with some friend clear across the American continent. I sit down and pen my appeal. In a few minutes 1t is in the postman's hands. little later it is in the mail wagon on its
 way to the depot. Soon It is in the mail car going at lightning speed over the mountains and across the alkali deserts
 and across the rivers until 1t is dropped
 in the eastern home It has taken only 3 few days for that message to reach it's
 destination in the east, and in few | days longer an answer comes back to me 1 that my appeal has been read, and under l Gods blessing 1t has been made effectual I to the salvation of a soul. Think how
 many times such an effort might be null tiplied and how largely the facilities of communication might be utilized for the ] spread of the gospel.
 Il advantages of man can be made to act and react nightly for good in the com ing campaign of the church of Christ against sin. Matthew Simpson, the great bishop of the Methodist church. once de- livered lecture to show how God is preparing the way for the glory of his coming millennium in the inventions and the social movements of everyday life The other day a book came into my hand entitled gThe Romance of Invention" But no romance of inventions has ever been written which can fully depict the Christian romance of the uses to which these inventions can be applied in the extension of Christs kingdom as Bishop Simpson explained them. One item alone of that lecture comes to my mind. 1 speak it in my own language, as l re- call it from a blurred memory. The Methodist orator wanted to show how every modern facility was appropriated and used in the late civil war. The sew ing machine had just been invented. It was employed to insure the soldiers be- ing properly clothed. The steam engine was utilized to carry the armies quickly to the scene of the conflict so that the carnage might sooner end. The modern improvements in arms were adopted. and so the terrible destruction of life In sin gle combats by the old fashioned ax and spear was avoided. And as man used modern inventions for carrying out his purposes, so might God use the terrible curse of slavery itself for the benefit of the colored race. The negro torn from his African home and sold as 8 slave might be Christianized in the land of his bondage and return as a missionary to carry the tidings of the gospel to his people still on the banks of the Kongo. Can we not believe, as did Matthew Simpson, that in the invention of the sewing machine, the typewriter, the tel ephone, the steamboat. the electric car. in the great foundries and factories, in improved fire arms and the wonderful printing presses giving birth to newspa- per and magazine, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ can have an increased power spiritiuall for the spreading of the gospel of Jesus in the coming years campaign against sin?
 Enemies From Within. | I find the church of the Lord Jesus | splendidly equipped materially and tenn | porarily for this winters campaign | against sin But, more than that. I find | that there never was a time when the | great evangelical churches were so thor | oughly in accord on the fundamental doctrines are held firmly, intelligent and devoutiy and Christ the Saviour of the world has the whole souled allegi-
 ance of his people. Before a general goes
 forth to invade an enemy's country it is
 very important for him to know that his
 own soldiers are loyal to his country's
 standards and are of one heart one mind
 and one purpose. When a Christian
 church goes forth into a winters cam | ,,ion apainst sin if is just as important