The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-04-16
Great Sacrifices.


Where did the American church come
from? Did the first great explorers
who came across the seas find the lttl"
white meeting houses i'm the center Of
every Indian village aud planted upon
every hilltop and dotted here and there
over the broad praDes of the west?
ooh. no. you say. 1T was only by
the greatest sacrifices of Marquette
and Eliot and Roger Williams and mis-
sionaries Of such ilk that the church
Of Jesus Christ WAS ever planted upon
American shores. Then after the
churches were established in the east
the backwoods preachers like Peter
Cartwright and Ravens and the daring
missionaries like Bishop Whipple lcd
on their cohorts of evangelists. Far
Their and farther west they carried the
cross, and farther and farther west
they went until a. last that cross
reached the Pacific coast. The Mora
vians penetrated into the snow and lee
Of the arctic with the news, and hy
and by Sheldon Jackson lifted the
cross and carried it far north amid the
Alaska SHOWS. So. step by step, the
brave missionaries have struggled and
starved and in many places have died
consecrating with their bodies the land
they had won" Yes. the American
church came as the results Of the hum
BILE sacrifice of thousands of obscure
ministers OF whom the world knows
nothing.
Paul once asserted that In his work
he was surrounded by a great cloud of
witnesses As we gather about our
church affairs today cannot we see the
faces Of the noble self sacrificing mis-
sionaries who have made such a church
service as this a possibility? Are they
not standing above this pulpit today?
An eyewitness once declared that the
most beautiful part Of all Father Tal-
lor's ministry was his Intense realiZa-
ton of Christ's presence The things
he would say and do might have been
irreverent in another, but In Taylor
they seemed only evidence Of Christ's
reality. Sitting one Sunday Mt the
Lords table to administer the com
muni0n, he concealed the cup. Then in
deeply solemn tone he said. children.
I bring you gift from Jesus. some
thing to remind you of him" Then. his
voice breaking he said. at is the wine
of the covenant his own blood shed for
you, and he bids me say. Drink We all
OF IT." And he brought forward the
cup, and. looking at It. he wept. Yes:
all the good we enjoy has come to us
as that wine by sacrifice. They lived
their lives Of sacrifice to give us this
gospel sanctuary. We are today gath
ering In their ripeDed harvests. cone
man soweth. and another reapeth."
Humble Sewers.
But we do not have to go alone into
the past centuries to find the sewers.
All those who have planted harvests
for their fellow men are not t" be
found alone In the damp, darkS'ells of
a Sayonarola or a Huss. You remeIn
Der well seed planter who never
wore monks cowl Her face was
wrinkled and her hair was white and
her hands very thin when you last saw
her. Her throne room was the nursery
and the kitchen. Her realm was the
old home Of your boyhood. The world
ut large never thought that she amount
ed to much She never had lar;:e
harvest. She was always sowing. Oh"
was sowing her life In the heart ana
brain of this child and that child and
the other child She had a good sec
ond In her sowing That other sower