Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-09-17

the priests had gone to the devil
with the rest of the bunch. God
pitv US when the preao hers become
| a lot of novci-reading. highly-per-
fu,ned sissies. breathing the per-
tGIfe from their curly locks. The
Lord pity them when they break
their fool necEs trying to please
the worldly gang that sits in the
pews and they all backslide and go
TO the devil together
Some of the preachers have
me down. Some OF thcTn think
more OF drawing their salaries and
their breath than thew do anything
else. They meier ge- out after
soul to try and win it for Jesus
christ. and never put mp 4 scrap
for Jesus Christ. against the devil.
T"s never make a statement bat
they I.eutraliEe il.
So they did this: The priests
rent into the inner house of the
Led and they cleansed themselves
snd they brought out all clean
be- dies and they sanctiicl me
rouse OF the Lord. They begun on
the first day of the month and on
the sixteenth day of the month
they ended it. 1t took is days t.,
dig through the dirt into the altar.
And then they went in and Hez-
ekiah brought out all the vessels
of the house of the Lord and he
ris the first thing he did. He began
with the priests. We will MAKE
them analogous to the preachers
of our day. If God Almighty could
convert the preachers of this coun-
try and if they'd go to preaching
His gospel and hold up the bleed
ing form of Jesus Christ, and take
old, hardened sinners and hold
them over the pit of hell until they
could smell the sulphur fumes as
they are vomited uphold up the
bleeding form of Jesus Christ and
cry to people Repent, Repent,
Repent" you'd see the greatest
moral awakening the world ever
recorded.
Preachers To Blame.
I don't blame the people as
much as l do the preachers, for
not preaching the truth. There are
a lot of people here preaching the
biggest lot of tommyrot and nom
sense that ever went abroad. They
are standing in orthodox pulpits,
too.
Then the inner part of the house
are the officers. the deacons. elders.
stewards, credential committee or
vestrymen. Sunday school teachers
and ofhcers-the inner part of the
house of the Lord.
Be clean, Be clean, We that bear
the vessels of the house of the
Lord, Many of them today are
not in any position to carry the
vessels of God and stand in official
positions in the church. God pity
any whose life isn't right who is
trying to touch the hand OF the
Lord and then the church with
holds her power-the power being
Slapped by the worldliness. by the
indifference and by the apathy and
the formality and the ritualisms
We have drifted into,
Then he restored the vessels in
the house of the Lord. Certain
church. First of all, the bible. I
call upon you; go home; if you
have a bible get it out and put it
on the center of the table Read it
and live by it. If you haven't one,
go out and buy one. If you haven't
money to buy one, the American
Bible society will give you one. Get
the bibles in the homes; l tell you
it was a disgrace to America when
they kicked the bible out of the
public schools of this country. /
feel like old Rufus Choate of Mas
sachusetts, when they talked about
banishing the bible from the pub
lie schools. Old Rufus Choate said, |
What, Danish the bible from the
public schools of America? Never, |
Not as long as there's a piece OF
Plymouth Rock left big enough to |
make a gun flint"
Restore Bible.
So, bring the bible back into our |
homes! Many a preacher will go !
and serve a church; he breaches |
tommyrot, stakes a claim out on |
Jupiter: breaches $40 Isaiahs in
stead of one, and that somebody |
else wrote Hebrews beside Paul. |
He will spend his time, my friends |
dealing in non-essentials and he |
will wreck the faith of the people |
in the church of Jesus Christ.
Then when he goes, some other |
preacher comes who believes the |
bible and he's got to spend all his
time getting the bible back into
the church, into the homes,> into |
the hearts of the people. That's
one trouble today. So bring the |
vessel back-the bible. 1t is COM
mitted to the world-bring it back! |
Like Andrew Jackson, who said,
That book is the rock upon which
the American republic rests"
Bring it back!
Prayer! o Prayer, Prayer is
not a performance; prayer is when
your hearts feel what your lips
express. Prayer is not simply
killing time-not at all. 1t was
master stroke for the devil when
be got the church to give up
prayer.
Music. Well. the Lord pity us
when the music is not for the
praise of God, Some people sing
TOR compliments. some for show,
some for money. Oh, my friends.
when you get to heaven you will
be surprised to find out how many
people have been pushed into the
pearly gates and pulled through
Dy the memory OF some song! Oh,
the influence of music upon the
I