The Lexington intelligencer. [volume], July 13, 1901, Image 8

About The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949

Image provided by: State Historical Society of Missouri; Columbia, MO

                
HARVEST TIME HERE
A Sermon of Congratulation for
Christian Eadeavortrs.
pr. Talmtae Flails Mikly !-
limru In Ilia Te The Urawlk
avail Perfect f Ikrla
tlaalty. i
lOopyright, 1M. toy lu KU-psch, N. Y.J
Washington. July 7.
A '.though Ir. Taltnage was hindered
from tW'iiiii.K s ic great at:nual meet
ing of the Chn.-tiau udeavor society
at Cincinnati, his sermon sbowsuim to
lie in sympathy with the great movc
1 went; teat, Amos a:U: "Heboid the
! day come, saith the Lord, thai the
I plowman sha'! overtake the rear."
Unable because of other important
I duties to accept ihc invitation to take
Ipnrt in the great convention of Chris
' '.iau Ende avorrrs at Cincinnati, begun
.att week, I preach a sermon of con
gratulation for a II the number of that
magnificent association, nbuher now
gathered in vast assctublairc ir busy iu
their places of usefulues?, trausatian
tic ami cisatlantic, and as it is now har
vest tiuie iu the fields atid tickle-" are
flashing in the gathering of a great
crop, 1 find mighty suggti-tiveiie in
my text.
It is a picture of u tropical eliine,
with a eeaon so pro.-pcroiia that the
harvest rt ach s clear owr to the plant
ing time, and the s-war;hy busoand
?uan, busy cutting ;he grain, a'inost
teels the breath if ih' hi.rs-es his
shoulders, the horses hitched to the
plow, preparing for a new crop. "lie
hold the days come, saith the Lord,
-iia t the plowman bbail overtake the
reaper. When is that? That is now.
That is. this day, wheu hardly bate jou
(lore reaping ODe havel of religions
t suit than the plowman is g tting
jesy foranother.
In phraseology charged with ail ven
om and abuse and caricature 1 ki.nw
thai infijels and ogim.-tiis have 1
:'.arci that Christianity has coilapst C;
hat the It i i I c is an obsolete bm.k: that
The Christian church i on the n treat,
I fha'.l answer that wholcsa'.c charge
to-day. j
Between 3.00,(KK and 4,(Xi.OO0 Kn-
ieavorers tworu before h'gh Heaven
that they will do ail tbe can to take ,
America for Cod, Kurope ortioJ, Asia '
and Africa for (iod arc not the sin
most ebecriug? Or, to return to the
agricultural figure of my text, more
'ban a million reapers are overtaken
by more thau a million plowmen. He
side this, there are more people who
believe iu the Bible than at any time
in the world's existence. An Arab
ijuide was leading a French infidel
hctoss the desert, and ever and anon
the Arab guide would gi tdowu in the
hand and pray t the Lord. It disgust
ed the French induel, and after awhile,
cs the Arab got up from one of his ,
:ra,ur .' the lafldel said: "IIow do
ou know there is uny God?" And the
Arab guide said: "How do I know that
. a man and a r-p.ini-1 parsed by our tent
'att night? 1 Know it by the footprint
in the sand. And you want to know
how I know wl.ethf r there is any Ood?
Look at the sunset. I thit the foot
step of a man?" And by the same
process you and I have come to under
stand tlat this book is the footstep
of God.
Hut now li t us fee whether the book
is a :asi year's almanac. Let us see
whether the church of Ood is a Bull
Hunt retreat, linul.ets, canteen and
haversacks strewing all the way., The
great-Kugliah historian Sharon Tur
ner, a man of vast learning and gTeat
Jtccuracy, not a clergyman, but an at
torney as well as a historian, givea this
overwhelming statistic iu regard to
Christianity and in regard to the num
ber of Christians iu the different cen
turies: In the first century 500,000
Christians, in the second century 2,000,
00 Chrlftians, in the third century
r.,000.000 Christians, in the fourth cen
tury 10.0on.000 Christians, in the fifth
century l.'.oou.ooo Christians, jn the
i h century -0,uoo,00u Christian?, ju
the seventh century Ct.000,000 Chris-.
tian, in the eighth century 30,000.000
Christians, in the ninth century 40,000.
OOo Christians, in the tenth centurv 50.-
('60,000 Christians, in the eleventh cen
f irylO.OOO.OOOChrlstians.in the twelfth
century Ki.OOO.OOO Christians, in the
thirteenth century 75,000.000 Cbris
lians, in the fourteenth century 80,000.
000 Christians in the fifteenth ceniurv
lOOXW.OOO Christians, in the sixteenth
Tentury 125,000,000 Christians, in the
eventeenh century 155,000,000 Chris
riani, in the eighteenth century 00.
000,000 Christians a decadence, a you
observe, in only one century and more
than made up in the following cen
turies, while it is the usual computa
tion that there were at the close of the
nineteenth century 470,000,000 Chris
tians, making us to believe that before
this century is cloned the inillenium '
will have started its boom and lifted '
itshosanna. I
Foor Christianity! What a pity it j
has no frlendl How lonesome it must I
btl Who will take It out of the poor- J
house? Foor Christianity! Fourhnn-i
'red millions in our century. In a few
weeks of this year 2,5tK),0O0 copies of
the New Testament distributed. Why,
the eurth is like tin old castle with L'O
abates and u pin k of artillery ready to
thunder down every gate. See how
heathendom is being surrounded and
honeycombed and attacked by this all
conquering Gospel. At the beginning
of the nineteenth century 150 mission
aries; at the close of that century M,
000 missionaries and native helper
and evangelists. At the beginning of
the nineteenth century t here were only
CO.OOO converta. Now there are over
1,000,000 converts from heathendom.
You all know thatan important work
of an army is to plant the batteries. It
may take many days to plant the bat
teries, and they may do all the work iu
ttu mi miles. These (jopel batteries
are beii.g j-ianteu all along the sea
roasts and iu ail nations. It may take
a fcVod while to plant tbetn, and they
may doaii their work in one day. Ihey
will. Nations are to be boru in a day.
Hut just come back to Christendom
and recognize the fact that during the
last teu years as many people have con
nected themselves with evangelical
churches as coLnected themselves with
the churches in the first 50 v ears of last
century. So Christianity is falling
buck, and the Bible, they say, is be
coming an obsolete bi ok. I go into a
court, and wherever I find a judge's
bench or a clerk's desk 1 find a Bible.
I on what book could there be uttered
the solemnity cf an oath'.' What book
is apt to be put in the trunk of the
young man as he leaves for city life?
The Bible. What shall Iliudin nine out
of every ten homes in this city V The
Bible, In nine out of every ten homes
in Christendom? The Bible. Voltaire
wrote the prophecy that the Bible in
the niuet(rn;h cci.-tury would become
extinct. That century is gone, and I
have to tell yi.u that the room in which
Voltaire wrote that prophecy not long
ago was crowded from floor to ceiiintr
with Bibles from Switzerland.
Suppose the congress of the United
States should pass a law that there
should be no more Bibles printed in
America and no Bibles read? If
there arc GO.OOO.uoo grown people in
the United States, there would be 00,
000,000 people in an army to put doivn
such a law and defend their right to
rend the Bible. But suppose the con
gress of the United States should
make a law against the rending or
the publication of any other book,
how many people would go out in
Mich a cninde'.' Could you get 60,
000,000 people to go out and risk their
lives in the defence of -Shakespeare's)
tragedies or Gladstone's tracts or
Macaulay's "History- of F-ngland?"
You know that there are a thousand
men who would die in the defense of
this book where there is not more
than one mun who would die in the
defense of any other book. You try
to insult my common sense by tell
ing ine the Bible is fading out from
the world. It is the most popular
book of the centuries.
Ifow do I know it? I know it juat
as 1 know In regard to other books.
How many volumes of that history
are published? Well, you say 5,000.
How many copies of another book
are published? A hundred thousand.
Which is the more popular? Why, of
course, the one that has the hundred
thousand circulation. And if this book
has more copies abroad in the world,
if there are five times as many Bibles
abroad as any other book among civ
ilized nations, does not that show you
that the most popular book on earth
to-day Is the word of God?
"Oh," say people, "the church is a
collection of hypocrites, and it is los
ing its power, and it is fading out
from the world." Is it? A bishop
of the Methodist church told me that
that denomination averages two new
churches every day. In other words,
they build 730 churches in that de
nomination in a year, and there are
at least 1,500 new Christian churches
built in America every year. Does
that look as though the Christian
church were fading out, as thoutrh it
were a defunct institution? What
stands nearest to the hearts of the
American people to-day? I do not
care in what village or what city or
what neighliorhood you go. What is
It? Is it the post office? Is it the
hotel? Is it the lecturing ball? Ah.
you know it is not! You know that
that which stands nearest to the
hearts of the American people is the
Christian church.
The infidels say: "There is great
liberty now for infidels; freedom of
platform. Infidelity chows its power
from the fact that it is everywhere
tolerated, and it can say what it
will." Vhy, my friends, infidelity is
not half so blatant in our day as it
was in the day of our fathera. Do
you know that in the days of our fa
thers there were pronounced infidels
iu public authority, and they could
get any political position? Let a man
to-day declare himself antagonistic to
the Christian religion, and what city
wants him for mayor; what state
wants him for governor; what na
tion wants him for president or for
king? let a man openly proclaim
himself the enemy of our glorious
Christianity, and he cannot get a ma
jority of votes in any state, in any
city, in any county, in any ward of
America.
I am mightily encouraged because
I find, among other things, that while
this Christianity has been bombarded
for centuries infidelity has net de
stroyed one church, or crippled one
minister, or uprooted onn verse of
orm chapter of all the Bible.' If that
Iiiih been their magnificent record for
the centuries x.i the rt. what msy
we expect for the future? The church
all the time getting the victory, and
their shot and shell all gone.
And then I find another most en
eouraging thought in the fact that
the secular printing press and the
pulpit seem harneved in the same
team for the proclamation of the
Gospel. Kverv banker In this capital
to-morrow, every Wall street banker
to-morrow in New York, every State
street banker to-morrow In Boston,
every Third street banker to-morrow
in Philadelphia, every banker In the
United States ami every merchant
will have In his pocket a trcntlse on
Christianity, W. 20 or 30 passages of
Scripture in the reports of sermons
preached throughout the land to-day.
It will be so In Chicago, so in New
Orleans, so in Charleston, so in Bos
ton, so in Philadelphia, so in Cincin
nati, so everywhere. I know the tract
societies are doing a grand and glo
rious work, but I tell you there is no
power on earth to-day equal to the
fact that the American printing press
is taking tip the sermons which are
I preached to a few hundred or n few
thousand people, and on Momlny
morning and Monday evening scnttcr
ing that truth to the millions. What
au encouragement to every Christian
man!
Then you have noticed a mora sig-nitii-mit
fact if you have talked with
people on the subject, that they art
getting disgusted with worldly philos
ophy as a matter of comfort. They
say it does not amount to anything
when you have a dead child in the
house. They tell yon when they were
sick and the door of the future seemed
openingthe only comfort they could
fiud was the Gospel. People are hav
ing demonstrated all over the land
that science and philosophy cannot
solace the troubles and woes of the
vvorld, and they want some other re
ligion, and they are talking Christian
ity, the only sympathetic religion
that ever came into tho world. You
just take a scient itic constant ion into
thai room where a mother has lost
lier child. Try iu that case your
splendid cloi-trine of the ''survival of
tho fittest." Tell her that child died
because it was not worth as much as
the other chut'ren. That is your
"survival of the fittest." Just try
your transcendentalism, your philoso
phy, your fccience, on that widowed
soul, and tell her it was a geological
necessity that her companion should
be taken away from her, just as in
the course of the world's history the
megatherium and the ichthyosaurus
had to pass out of existence, and then
you go on in your scientific consola
tion until you get to the sublime fact
that 50,000,000 years from now we
ourselves may be scientific specimens
on the geologic shelf, petrified speci
mens of an extinct human race. And
after you haver got all through with
your consolation, If the poor afllict
cd soul is not crazed by it, we will
seud forth from any of our churches
the plainest Christian we have, and
with one-half hour of prayer and
reading of Scripture promises the
tears will be wiped away, aud the
house from lloor to cupola will be
flooded with the calmness of an In
dian summer sunset. There la whert
I see the triumph of Christianity.
People are dissatisfied with every
thing else. They want God. They
want Jesus Christ.
The fact is that infidelity and ag
nosticism are founded on igno
rance geological, ignorance chemical,
ignorance astronomical, ignorance
geographical. We have heard what
the enemies of Christianity have had
to testify. Now I put before you the
testimony of the church on earth and
the church in Heaven. Not fifty, not
a thousand, not a million, but all of
the church on earth and all of the
redeemed in Heaven. Will you take
the evidence of those who have wit
nessed as well as felt the power of
religion, or will you prefer the tes
timony of those who begin by declar
ing that they have never witnessed
or felt its power? Yon tell me that
on a certain 4tb of March, 20 years
ago, a president of the United States
vvas inaugurated. IIow do I know It?
You tell me there were 20,(k0 per
sons who distinctly heard his inimgu
ral addresn. I deny both. I deny
that he was inaugurated. I deny that
his inaugurul address was delivered.
You ask why? I did not see it. I
did not hear it. But you say there
were 20,0u0 people who did see and
hear him. Is not the testimony of
the 10,000 who were present worth
more than the testimony 6f one who
was absent? Now. there are soma
men who say they have never seen
Christ crowned in the heart, fend they
do not believe it is ever done.) There
is a group of men who say they i,ae
never heard the voice of Christ; that
they have never heard the volcu of
God. They do not believe that any
thing like it ever occurred. I point
to twenty, a hundred thousand or a
million people who say: "Christ ws
crowned in our heart's affections, we
i-ceii xmu bih inn nim in our
aonl, and we have heard His voice; we
nave neard it in the storm and dark
ness; we have heard it airnin and
again." Whoso testimony will you
take? These men who sav thev hnva
not heard the voice of Christ, hnve
not seen t tie coronation, or will you
i ueneve the thousands and tens of
I uiousanus or Christians who testify
j of what they saw with their own eyes
Spring
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Mil m me inoniniy vona magazine
iUMW And the Weekly Intelligencer
What the Monthly World Newspaper Magazine Is,
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In collecting and preparing for publication the literary matter and art sabtt i,
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and heard with their own ears? "
Vounr man. do not be ashamed in
i a friend or the HIble. Do not put
your thumb in your vest, as younir
men sometimes no, and swagger
about talking of the glorious light of
nature and of there beinjr no need
of the llible. They have the light ot
nature in India aud China and in nil
the dark places of the earth. Bid
you ever hear that the light of
uature gave them comfort for their
trouble? They have lancets to cut
and juggernauts to crush, but no com
fort. Ah, my friends, you had better
stop your skepticism. Suppose you
are put in a crisis .like that of Col.
Ethan Allen. 1 saw the account and
t one time mentioned it in an ad
dress. A descendant of Ethan Allen,
who is an infidel, said it never oc
curred. Soon after I received a let
ter from a professor in one of oar
colleges, who is also a descendant of
Ethan Allen and is a Christian, lie
wrote me that the incident is accu
rate; that my statement was authen
tic and true, ihe wife of Ethan Allen-was
a very consecrated woman.
The mother instructed the daughter
in the truths of Christianity. The
daughter sickened aud was about to
aie, and she said to her father: "Fa
ther, shall I take your instruction or
shall I take mother's instruction? I
am goinir to die now: I must h..
the matter decided." That man, who
had been loud In his Infidelity, said
to his dying daughter: "Mv He.-.
you had better take your mother's
religion. .My advice is the same to
you, 0 young man! You know rell
prion comforted her. You know what
she said to you when she was dving.
You had better take your mother's
religion.
Needed in Kvery
Home ....
Noth.ng is productive of more
happlnt-HH in the family than
a good Sewinu Machink aud
THE SINGER
Is the best machine on earth.
It In always in order and can be
depended on to do every kind of
lf VJ0U are interested,
write or send word to
L. W. BRELSFORD,
Local Agent, Lexington. Mo.
Look Pleasant.
, Hot Weather Prices.
Have yuur pl(ture, Miu.su's
O AtLMT at KrcatiT reduced price, on ,5
prices. Ve run save you money. Over
Se.lw,ck More LMlngtnn. Mo. "
I
i
n
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summer
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THE INTELLIGENCER, Lexington, Mo.
.G.aiiCAU6liA.J'D. Pres. B. E. IRELAND. Cashier. LE54.BLl'SHEB, Vp,
The Traders Bank,
r-cxxnoTorr. mo,
EMIJCO UP CAPZTAL OJ3O.QQ0.
Tblcbfink noes a reneral bonking business and solicits the accounts of
Missouri Valley College RS,
Course of otody as lllghns in any Eastern Colu .- Mentlnc Courw.
, ..... Mathematical Oourw
llvautlful grnnnds. Marshall Lis beautiful city of A0 I i.i.u,c
population, loHaliue County. lb rlche-it ' nu n ty In Mis- i.ins;uisiic course
sourL It Is UvHiMd at the trrt!nij of th- I'hlcaKO A Alton Conservatory ot Unlit
K. It. and Ihe Missouri I'sclnc K. II Eor cati!okn or rVbool of Fine Arti
other Information write , Acadi-mlc L'ourtr
President W. M. BLACK, D. D.. Manhall, no. wwtal 15!
Why Pay Rent or Interest
wnrcNxm:
Home Co-Oerative Co.
Will buy you a home in any locality
and give you Id years and 8 months to
pay for it at the rate of &35 per
month, without interest. In case at
death or total disability a clear deed
will be given. Stricter invebtlfatio
Courted.
Mat Office, 541th Floor
Rom 6o8, boo, aod 6it
A.Y1HVICAN BANK BCILIMNO
Kaasas City, Mo,
J. A. 5TULTZ, Agent.
Lexington, Mo.
Grand Central Hotel,
Reopened and
Newly Furnished
Good Meals and best nervice. Yw
patroaago solicited.
D. M. FJRAZIER. Prop
A RARE CHANCE.
Uavtng decided to close oat mv soM
leicsofeows sod belters. soid60 bfd.i
offer for sale one and all. My Hoe com
prise Hhortboro. Angus ilerelorda
Jersey mixed. All were selected wIC
reference to milk strata, formerly W
l creamery hosiers. Some Twentyw4
with raif at tmt -...4 I . m i to Mil
shortly. Price raogloi from 35 to P
par uraa. i-aii oa oe aridr.
TatBOT SiMPsoiti
prSTyear 1 Aollvllle, U
' FINAL 8KTTLKMENT.
Notice la kenthv l vn io fill oreillttl Sj
othw persona luierestod Iu tli euu)
Martin May. dweMMxl, tbitl tb unf
slirnwt adniiilNtrawr will apply t
Dtwr.1 MiUlcinant of .aid mtatn. t-t the AuT
term, ivoi. of I bo pro bail court of UfW""
county. Missouri, to be benun n4 blf
be probate, court room, in the eitr of '
Ingtoa, on the swond Monday In Awni-ty1
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"IStA Public AdiufaWU
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Uth.,rlno May, deoeatod. that the WW
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settlement ,,f said tal. .it ibe
tTin, WW, of Uiu iirobato court l H'"J
ootinty, MisKiiiri, to be begun ami bew."
probate court room, In the city of l-e"1'1
vu lint st-uuoil Mom ut In A li in it.
M. II. Wll..'-V
"Ul" Put lit) Adiulultfu-