The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-03-11
ENTERS ACTIVE SERVICE
Interest in Missionary Service of Con-,
gregational Church.
Word OF the Lord Delivered in the
Country District.
The Soldiers of Jesus Christ Take
Up the Labor.
From Mondays Daily.

From Mondays Daily.
Considerable interest has been aroused
among the other churches in the state by
the missionary policy of the First Con-
gregational church in Mankato. Work
was done last summer in outlying dis
tricts, and now a young man, Mr.. Par
sons, has been commissioned as associate
pastor of the church, to work in Me-
Pherson and Decoria. The aim is tn
open stations in country districts which
are without English service, and help
weak fields to help themselves, the church
in Mankato giving financial backing to
the work. The communion service yes
terday was treated as a conservation of
the church to active service. Rev. E..
L. Heermance, the pastor, took as his
text, Tim. 2:3-4, "Suffer hardship with
me as good soldier of Jesus
Christ. No soldier on service entangleth
himself in the affairs of this life; that
he may please Him who enrolled him as a.
soldier" He said in part:
When one of the Roman soldiers, to
whom Paul refers, enlisted in the army,
he took a solemn oath of obedience and
fidelity. As he stood before the standard
of his legion, he pledged him honor to de-
fend it even unto death. This oath was
called the "sacramentum." 1t was re-
peated at intervals during his term of
service.
eve are soldiers in a higher army,
that of Jesus Christ When we first en-
tered his service, we took, like the Roman
soldier, sacrament, an oath of obedi,
ence and fidelity. At intervals we re-
new this sacrament as we do today.
''We are a company of soldiers in the
army of Jesus Christ. That is what a
church is, company of soldiers. Christ
opened a recruiting station here. And
as one and another came forward to take
his stand for him, he organized us into
a company, to wear his uniform, to be
under his orders, his personal leadership.
There is drill in his company, months
and years of drill. Our private and pub
lie worship is drill, 1 take it. 1t is meant
to make us more efficient soldiers. To
teach us faithfulness and self-control, to
make us love as Christ loves. To awak-
en- our undynig loyalty to the banner of
the cross. To develop our sense OF the
unseen leadership of Christ. We ought
to learn these things as we obey God and
worship Him together Sunday after
Sunday. But the Great Captain means
this drill to be preparation for service
McClelland's army drilled and drilled
and drilled, and built itself up into
splendid fighting machine, but it never
did any fighting. 1t must not be so with
a church of Christ. We must use our
trained soldiery, our efficient organiza-
ton, to accomplish something for the
cause. We must be ready to go into bat
tie when the call comes to us.
''The call came to us last summer. we
were led to feel the need of certain fields
living near us. We took the sacrament,
and marshalled our forces for active SER
vice. We did not know what would come
of it. We did not know whether anys
thing would come of it directly. This
was Christ's call to us, and we were
simply following his orders. But Gods
hand was in the work, and this first cam
paign only served to show us the oppor-
tunity which lay before us as church OF
Christ.
@And now, after six months inter-
val we enter again on active service. IL
is the church membership which is tax
ing the sacrament today. Your pastors
must bear the brunt of the battle, give
to the work the most of time and
strength, though hope not all of it. But
thew are only working in your name
You must give to the work the faith, the
inspiration, the prayer, if the day is to
be won by Christ.
1--WE are pledging ourselves today to do
our utmost for him in this compalgn.
That is what our sacrament means to US.
Let us not enter on it lightly. Let us not
take again this oath of loyalty unless we
mean to keep it, giving to the cause our
utmost of money and thought and pray
err. And remember that we are enlist
ing now, not for three months but for the
war. We cannot lay down our arms now
until the victory is won, until these fields
within our reach are conquered for
Christ, until every family in northern
Blue Earth county has the opportunity
to hear the gospel in the English tongue