Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-10-17

cation today IL that commanded by the
German kaiser. On It's peace footing
Germany has today nm army of nearly
million men Then II has two great
reserve corps, the landwehr and the
landsturm. That means that every
ablebodied man In the German cmpire
is part of the nucleus of a regiment.
Each man has his place. At the m.
tional call TO arms oil the men from
the farm. the counter and the Office
rcpair to their modifying stations.
There the uniforms anu the guns await
them. Each horse and saddle in the
empire is numbered And at given
signal every ablebodied man from
twenty to sixty can be swung TO the
frontier for defensive or offensive pur.
poses But the gospel army is larger
than that of the combined armies of
the German empire.
The Gospel Army.
The gospel army Is not limited to
any one nation. 1t is not restricted. as
other armies are. to one sex. It Is not
decreased by the limitation Of nse. Old
men belong to it. Children belong to
1t. Husbands and wives and brothers
and sisters belong to It. White and
red and black and yellow skinned
races, all belong to II. This army is
made up Of all kinds of people of oil
churches And yet. strange to say,
there are some mistaken men and wo-
men who think the gospel church Is
not an army nj all. They suppose it Is
a mere aggregation Of a few corporal
guards" whereas 1t IS numerically
greater than all the combined armies
Of England and Germany and France
and Italy and Austria ard Russia and
Japan and China put together. If we
could only get all Christians to form
into line and march side by side and
keep step the pounding Of their united
feet would make this old earth trem-
bic Great Great! Infinitely great is
| the gospel army.
That the hos Is mighty one Is DEM
onstrated by The marvellous statistics
Of missions both home and foreign. It
was only q few years ago comparative
/
1894. Yet up t. his time but little was be-
/ ing done for the salvation of the outside
world. II Wa only In the beginning OF
the last century that five humble stu
dents met behind a haystack in Will
| Jamestown. NJ SIS, to form the Ameri-
can Foreign Missionary society. Yet
there are today 29.3S6 mission stations
/ IN heat lands. There are organized
! thousands of churches among the ma
tons cropping about in idol worship.
And there Is not strategic point in
any island or upon any continent which
today has not Il gospel missionary
prea ching there.
Study TO-DAY your muster rolls Of the
Christian Endaavor societies and your
Brotherhood Of Andrew and Philip
and your Epworth league. Study to-
day your enrolment of denominational
churches. How the number swells!
Larger and larger it grows. Like st.
John in his sion of the other world
We can cry as We see this gospel army
marching. after this | bcheld, and,
10, great multitude that no man
could number, If all nations and kin
dreds and peoples and tongues, stood
before the throne and before the Lamb
clothed with white robes and palms in
their hands. and cried with a loud
voice. saying, salvation to our Lord
which stitch upon the throne and unto
the Lamb" The first great fact which
ought to impress us as to the church
army of Jesus Christ Is the infinite
numbers Of its marching soldiers.
An Army With Banners.
Next to the vastness Of this army OF
the church of God am impressed
with the banners which nre nutterine
over It. You know that what the mill
tary uniform is 10 the soldier as an in
dividua the flag or banner Is to the
army as a whole It is the sign by
which the soldiers of one nation are
distinguished from the soldiers of an
other nation. Because our own be
loved American flag represents SC
much you always find 1t the most hon
ored emblem in the camp or in the
field. | was never more impressed
with this fact than some time ago
when | went to the Presdio or army
quarter Of san Francisco. went there
with a very important message to the
commandant of the post. Colonel I.un
deem, from the commanding general OF
the coast. Lieutenant General MacAr
thur Suddenly, while I was talking
to the colonel the sunset gun was free
and the post flag began to Outer down
At once Colonel Lundeen stopped talk
ing to me and faced about and stood
ut attention before those falling colors
Not one word would he speak until the
ceremony of lowering the flag wa:
ended.
The flag, the American flag, means
so much. It is the protecting emblem
Of our national government. In tm'
of battle it is the great rallying poln
for our soldiers. Where the flag goe
our soldiers always follow When thu
nag goes down confusion reigns; henc,
one Of the most dangerous yet mos
honored posts in the army is that Of {
0lor guardsman. SO precious are thu
= s,gimental colors that they are Away
surrounded by the best and the braves
soldiers when the regiment is in thu
field.
Now, il Is appropriate for the gospe
army to have a flag like any other ar
my. What kind of banner Is floating
, over this great army OF the church