Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-09-30

Rev. Mr. Sunday this afternoon
at the tabernacle took as the sub
ject about which he wove his SER
mon, Martha and Mary" a story
of the raising of Lazarus. in which
he emphasizes the necessity of CO.
operation in conducting the revival
now in progress to insure the
greatest possible good in its re
suits.
You will find two texts this aft
ernoon in the 18th chapter of John
the 28th and seth verses-"The
Master is come. and falleth for
thee" and Take We away the
stone"
L once heard a sermon on the
18th chapter of John, and the man
who preached the sermon made it
analogous to a revival of religion,
and l was SO impressed with the
appropriateness of what he said
that l took copious notes; and
then | read a sermon on the sub
ject, and the hearing of the sermon
and the reading of others led me to
study the bible with that in view,
with the result that 1 bring you
this message today to help you.
If l had been made to pray these
words for eyars never could have
made them sound as they must
have sounded when they fell from
the lips of Martha. You know we
all have a sort of professional way
for saying, 81 feel sorry for you"
when we see someone in mourning
or weeping, or who has just come
back from the cemetery, and we
mean it insofar as our experience
goes. But if you followed a loved
one to the cemetery, when you
come back there would be a diff
ferent tone in your voice and diff
ferent look on your face when you
said, Il am sorry" Don't you see?
1t isn't cold and metallic like other
words would be. And if you passed
through a similar experience you
will know what l mean
When death comes it takes pre-
cedence over everything. And SO
whenever death does come he takes
the one that we can spare the least.
l think if God had selected me as
the death angel TO go down there
and select a member of that family,
1 would have chosen one of the two
or Mary-instead of
Lazarus, the brother. But I think
we all see why the Lord did it that
way.
l say death takes precedence
over everything. When death en-
tiers your home no matter what
your engagements, you will with
draw them. If you have sent out
invitations you will recall them.
You will stop work. You will close
the store. Grape will flutter from
your doorknob, whether you live
on the boulevard or in a back alley.
When Mckinley died, every wheel
and every factory in America stood
still for five minutes. Not a wheel
turned, not a yard of cloth was
sold, not pound of any commod-
ity was weighed, to pay respect to
him.
Now I don't mean to convey the
impression that people are in more
danger in time of revival than any
other time, but | hold this: That
in a campaign like this, this meet
ing ought to have precedence over
everything. You ought to give God
the right of way. Other things can
wait. Never mind your Iiteraries.
You can read your paper on THE
Lady of the Lake" later on, and
if you have one prepared on Rus
kin, that is all right, but hold it and
give God a chance once in a while
in this old world.
The more you put into this the
more you will get of it. That's
true with everything.
Peoples Indifference.
People are not more dead spirit
ually and morally in time of re-
vivaI than any other time People
are Just as dead spiritually and
morally now as they were before
this campaign started. but 1 be-
Iieve there is more and more dan
ger now in time of revival than
any other time. Why? Because i.
is Gods set time to call men and
women from their sins and their
apathy and Indifference, and don't
you dare lift your infinitesimal rea-
son and mediocre personality, and
your pigmy intellect up in defiance
of God. You would be just as big
a fool if you would step out there
and say:
God. I don't like to pillow and
plant in April"
Then God says: You stsrve to
death if you don't like the way I do
it. You starve to death. That is
my way of doing it. If you want to
plow and plant in January, go to
it,"
God says, This is my way Of