The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-04-06

Text: LET US not be weary In we'll
doing; for in due season we shall reap
n we faint not"
To whom Is this heartening word
spoken? To a little company OF men
and women in the primitive fellow
ship of the Apostolic Church, who are
contending with stupsndous obstacles,
rowing against a voluminous stream.
1t is never an easy thing to resist
and antagoniZe the spirit of the age
and confront the solid majority. But
such was the condition Of the men and
women to whom this Epistle was
written. Here is little company who
are engaged in tilling q rough, tough,
and unpromising bit OF ground. un-
clean and heavy. pervaded with roots
OF hoary custom and tradition. But
you can contend with uncleansed
ground and drive your plough through
the most obstructive weeds, If only
the atmosphere is cordial
II, however to the resistance of the
impediments in the soil there be add
ed close, sultry, enervating atmo-
sphere, which makes the muscles limp
and brings a perlous lassitude and
, languor, the chances of progress are
reduced. That was precisely the con-
dition Of this church. The atmosphere
was heavy, sultry-little sections of
the people were beginning to take
portions Of the field for their own cul-
tivation, were beginning to pay atten-
ton exclusively to the salvation Of
their own souls, and looking every
man on his patch only and not on that
OF others.
| All this was terribly hard for the
earnest, Jealous workers, who had set
their sanctlfied ambition upon the en-
tire field, that they might turn the
whole area of the desert into garden,
and make it blossom as the rose. Many
times they had stopped, with limbs
weary, and sent up the tired cry to
| the bending Heaven: Lord, how
| long, how long," 1t was to men and
women who We're getting a little
weary at the pSough as they looked
at the furrow still remaining to be
cut that the apostle sent this heart
ening evangel: Let us not be weary
in we'll doing for in due season we
shall reap if we faint not"
1t is a most heartening figure for all
| Christian workers. Spiritual culture,
work among souls, cannot find its anal
ogies in the market or exchange. 1t
is not a matter OF safe investments
and deft transactions; it is matter
which concerns the mysterious pro-
cesses of the field. When we are deal
ing with souls we are not mechanics
dealing with that which is seen; we
are dealing with the invisible un-
known. If my work were to be judged
| by the standards OF the business man,
| the builder or mechanic, | should lay
| it down in sheer despair. But il | am
taken to the domain of agriculture, l
gain infinite hope. If ! read my text
rightly, 1t tells me that Christian
workers are not magicians, but farm
ers, who have to await the issue of
their labors.
Anybody can see a green field, but
who can tell just when the seed is be-
| ginning to germinate? Who can see
the invisible process by which the
seed receives its first pulse, and
/ passes through the first process of its
resurrection? Anybody can count
converts at a large mission; nothing
| is easier, it is like measuring the
green fields; but who can get back
| to the time when the first impulse was
felt? 1t took place in the dark.
What, then, are we to do while the
harvest tarries? We assume We are
| in league with a great, mysterious
Force, whose name is God. Suppose
we further assume that invisible pro-
cesses are going on about which we
know nothing, and which may any
moment appear above the surface.
While the harvest tarries what are we
to do? Our text is the answer, Let
us not be weary in well doing"
am going to alter that word
with the Apostles meaning, Let us
not be weary in beautiful doing" The
suggestion is that we have to put beau
tiful ministries into unlovely ground.
Because the bit OF land We have to
till is primitive, rough, and rude, We
are not to allow our methods OF cul-
ture 10 be primitive, rough, and rude
also. Everybody knows how exceed
ingly easy it is to do beautiful things
for beautiful people, but to 90 on do
ing beautiful ministries without seeing
any appreciable result, and among
people who in return simply glare at
you with the face OF relnetant de-
sert! Yet we must 20 on doing the
beautiful.
That counsel Is altogether sane as
a mere worldly maxim. II IL always
wise to proclaim the highest ideal to
the most primitive and rude. This is
a principle which We need TO observe
and obey in our Christian work