The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-10-15

during the grand parade Of the Union
troops Just before they disbanded after
the civil war Hour after hour the re-
turning soldiers fled past that review
ing stand. But the Christian army Is
greater in numbers than any that ever
followed q Grant. Sherman or Lee,
You may have read about the great
host which Xerxes organized for his
invasion OF Greece. When the Asiatic
general approached the Hellespont he
had in his ranks over million lighting
men. But the gospel army Is larger
than that. The finest military organl-
cation today Is that commanded by the
German kaiser On its peace footing
Germany has today an army Of nearly
million men. Then it has two grea
reserve corps. the land vehr and the
landsturm. That means that evcrs
, ablebodied man in the German "'npire
is part of the nucleus OF p. i,nent
Each man has his plac, - - M
tional call to arms all t!l. - from
the farm, the counter and t. Office
repair to their modifying a,:ition<
There the uniforms and the gun avail.
them. Each horse and saddle il th,
empire is numbered. And at q given
signal every ablebodied man from
| twenty to sixty can be swung to tht
! 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. 1t is not
decreased by the limitation of age. Old
men belong to it. Children belong to
| it. Husbands and wives and brothers
and sisters belong to it. White and
red and black and yellow skinned
races, all belong to it. This army is
made up Of all kinds of people of all
| churches. And yet, strange to say
there are some mistaken men and wo
men who think the gospel church is
not an army at all. They suppose it is
a mere aggregation of a few corporal
| guards whereas it is numerical!
greater than all the combined armies
Of England and Germany and France
and Italy and Austria and 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 host is mighty one Is dem
onstrated by the marvellous statistics
of missions both home and foreign. 1t
was only few years ago comparative
ly that William Carey died. He died in
1894 Yet up to his time but little was be-
ing done for the salvation of the outside
world, 1t was only In the beginning of
the last century that five humble stu
dents met behind a haystack in Will
Jamestown, Mass, to form the Amerl-
can Foreign Missionary society. Yet
there are today 2S,3S6 mission stations
in heather lands. There are organized
thousands Of churches among the ma
lions cropping about in idol worship
And there Is not a strategic point In
any island or upon any continent which
today has not gospel missionary
preaching there.
Study today your muster rolls of the
Christian Endeavor 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 vision Of the other world
we can cry as we see this gospel army
marching. AFTER this l beheld, and
10. great multitude that no mar
could number, of all nations and kin
dreds and peoples and tongues, stooc
before the throne and before the Lamb
| clothed with white robes and palms II
their hands, and cried with lout
voice, saying, Salvation to our Lore
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 it's marching soldiers.
An Army With Banners.
Next to the vastness Of this army Of
the church of God am impressed
with the banners which are flutterint
over it. You know that what the mill
tary uniform is to the soldier as an In
dividual the flag or banner Is to thu
army as a whole. 1t is the sign b!
which the soldiers of one nation arr
distinguished from the soldiers Of an
other nation. Because our own be
loved American flag represents 81
, much you always find It the most hon
ored emblem in the camp or In tn
field. was never more impressed
with this fact than some time ago
when went to the Preside, or arm.
quarter Of San Francisco. Invent Their
with very important message to tn
commandant Of the post, Colonel Lun
deem, from the commanding general
the coast, Lieutenant General MacAl
thur Suddenly, while / was talkin
to the colonel, the sunset gun was fire.
and the post flag began to futter down
At once Colonel Lundeen stopped talk
1 c~1 FoooH hc,yk oY1I Sfn0t