Newspaper Page Text
CHRISTIAN CHAR.AITER. I _witch The Bind of Christians T'1h't Aire dith Needed in the World. when tuies The lll-a, 1-11-alt Sort the Greatcst Ob" benut Sstaclcs to (thurch Atvrancement- ly tel 11ow 1Ieat to QUalify for And 1 Christian Duties. peopi I their lRev. Dr. 'ralinage, in the fot.o ing there sermon, points out the style of Chris- left it tian charucter requiredl for the times Td in which we live. The text is: dam f'Vhe know ;th whether thou .rt come to the m ktingom fl, r uch a time id thi.E-- Etflr i*., used Esther, the beautiful, was the that of Anasuetus, the abotninable- The corn time had come for her to present a pe wtoul titiou to her infamous husband in be gron half of the Jewish nation, to which shel hadl ,ace belonged. She was afraid t d unut'--,tale the work. lest she shoulC amo lose her ownl life; but her cousin lor i decgul, who 1.ud brought her up, encour befo stgd her with the suggestion thatwan probably she had been raised up of char God for that peculiar mission. in tl knfwetih whether thou art come to the nes kingdot: for such a time as this?" upo Esther hui her God(-appointed work. trial You and 1 have ours. It is my busi- th I mess to tell you what style of men and in t v ucni you ought to ihe in order that ha-l you mieet the demands of the age in p which God has cast your lot. So this titn discourse will not deal with the tech- und nicalities, but only with the practica- ti: bilities. \Vhen two armies have el rushed into battle, the officers of to either armuy do not want a philosoph- oft ical diizussion about the chemical h prpecrticS of htmaun blood or the na- C turn of gunpowdir; the' want some i 1 Onu to tonli the batteries and take out of the guns. And now. when all the dot forcet- of light and darkness, of Heaven b, and hell, have plunged into the fight, 9,, it is no time to give ourselves to the h le detinitions and formulas and techni- p calities and conventionalities of re l- m gion. What we want is practical, te earnest, concentrated, enthusiastic and th triumphant help. fri In the first place, in order to meet th the special demand of this age, you need to be anuninistalable, aggressive Christian. Of half and half Christians we do not want any more. The church ye of Jesus Christ will be better without su them. They are the chief obstacle to a the church's advancement. I am speak- ti lung of another kind of Christian. All F S .the appliances for your becoming an t earnest Christian are at your hand, g and there is a Straight path for you in- tl to the broad daylight of God's forgive- F ness. You may this moment be the a bondmen of the world, and the next a 'moment yon may be priuces of the s Lord God Almighty. You remember ii what excitement there was in this v country, years ago, when the prince of Wales came here-how the people c rushed out by hundreds of thousands a to see him. Why? Because they ex- T pected that some day he would sit up- . on the throne of England. But what t was all that honor to which God calls you-to be sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty; yea, to be queens and 4 kings unto God. "'They shall reign with Uiim forever and forever." But you need to be aggressive Chris tiaus, and not like those persons who spend their lives in hugging their Christian graces and wondering why they do riot make progress. How much robusttess of health would a man have if he hid himself in a darkl closet? A great deal of the piety of to-day is too exclusive. It hides itself. It needs more fresh air, more outdoor exercise. There are more Christians who are giv .. I their entire life in self-examina +*rmb. ae feeling their pulses to everyday worotr I was once amid the wonderful, be- prntin witching cactus growths of North Caro- tracts, iiva. I never was more bewildered ingme with the beauty of flowers, and yet persax when I would take up one of these cac- drink, tunes and pull the leaves apart the i paks beauty was all gone. You could hard- brean ly tell that it had ever been a flower. loons And there are a great many Christian death people in this day just pulling apart of de their Christian experiences to see what f so' there is in them, and there is nothing curse left in them. been a This style of self-examination is a wise, damage instead of an advantage thing e to their Christian character. 1 re- great member when I was a boy I Christ used to have a small piece in the garden ences that I called my own, and I planted tears corn there, and every few days I tism, would pull it up to see how fast it was awful growing. Now, there are a great phem many Christian people in this the lc d day whose self-examination merely worst armounts to the pulling up of that Ag: which they only yesterday or the day meet before planted, Oh, my friends, if you mnd want to have a stalwart Christian hand character, plant it right out of doors, on th iO in the great field of Christian useful- to tE ne..s, and though storms may come upon it, and though the hot sun of ý. trial may try to consume it, it will ologi '- thrive until it becomes a great tree, man in which the fowls of Heaven may city at here their habitation. I have no thin] in ps;ience v ith these flower-pot Chris- they is tinus. They keep themselves they h- un der shelter, and all their Chris- New - ti: a experience in a small, ex- o ve el aive circle, when they ought atlba of to plant it in the great garden rem h- of the Lord, so that the whole atmos gal pl- re could be aromatic with their brot la- C( istian usefulness. What we want mer me in the church of God is more strength the )ut of piety. The century plant is won- But he d rfully suggestive and wonderfully 'en beautiful, but I never look at it with- The ht, out thinking of its parsimony. It chu the lets whole generations go by before it bee, ml- p ts forth one blossom; so I have really thn cli- more admiration when I see the dewy soa cal, tears in the blue eyes of the violets, for met and they come every spring. My Christian the friends, time is going by so rapidly ite meet that we can not afford to be idle. ter you A recent statiststioian says that human tial sive life now has an average of onto sY9ilg h years. From these 39 years you msthe gout subtract all the time you take for sleep P .e to and the taking of food and recreation: sue eak- that will leave you about 16 years. me All From these 16 you must subtract all of gan the time that you are necessarily en- h and, gaged in the earning of a livelihood; an u in- that will leave you about eight years. fr ive- From these eight years you must take He the all the days and weeks and months- t1 next all the length of time that is passed in ts the sickness-leaving you about one year st mber in which to work for God. 0 my soull R4 this wake up! How darest thou sleep in th ce of harvest time, and with so few hours in sp eople which to reap? So that I state it as a 't lands simple fact that all the time that the te r ex- vast majority of you will have for the he t up. exclusive service of God will be less h what than one year. calls *"But," says some man, "I liberally f the support the Gospel, and the church Is 0 s and open, and the Gospel is preached; all t reign the spiritual advantages are spread be fore men, and if they want to be saved a Chris- let them come and be saved-I have g s who discharged all my responsibility." Ahl a their is that my Master's spirit? Is there d 3 why not an old Book somewhere that com- a much inmands us to go out into the highways, 1 have and the hedges and compel the people 0 bt? A to come in? What would become of C is too you and me if Christ had not t needs come down off the hills of = rcise. Heaven: and if Hie had not C re giv- come through the door of the _ smina Bethlehem caravausary; and if He had ~ ss to not with the crushed hand of the eruci lr spir- rxion knocked at the iron gate of the i San sepulebre of our spiritual death, oary 4o ý- : :fir= ", i.i ast:- wu n sey Li'' l1:i printing presses are publishing infidel tracts, when express trains are carry ing messengers of sin, when fast clip pers are laden with opium and strong drink, when the night air of our cities is polluted with the laughter that breaks up from the ten thousand sa- O: loons of dissipation and abandon ment, when the fires of the second death already are kindled in the cheek~ of some who, only a little while ago, -I were incorrupt. QL, never since t LI curse fell upon the earth has there I J been a time when it was such an un wise, such a cruel, such an awful thing for the church to sleep. The great audiences are not gathered i Christian churches; the great audi ences are gathered in temples of sin d tears of unutterable woe their bap tism, the blood of crushed hearts the `s awful wine of their sacrament, blas- C 1 i phemies their litany, and the groans of r.( s the lost world the organ dirge of their _ y worship. Again, if you want to be qualified to lRE y meet the duties which this age de "h mands of you. you must, on the one n hand, avoid reckless iconoclasm, and, on the other hand, not stick too much to things because they are old. The e air s full of new plans. new projects, N of new theories of government, new the ologies, and I am amazed to see how so many Christians want only nov dy elty in order to recommend a e thing to their confidence; and so they vacillate and swing to and fro; and s they are useless, and they are unhappy. New plans-secular, ethical, philo ht- sophical, religious, cisatlantic, trans ht atlantic-long enough to make a line en reaching from the German universities - to Great Salt Lake City. Ah, my eir brother, do not take hold of a thing ý t merely becase it is new: Try it by oth the realities of the judgment day. m. But, on the other hand, do not adhere h-y to anything merely because it is old. t- There is not a single enterprise of the et church or the world but has sometime been scoffed at. There was a ily time when men derided even Bible y societies, and when a few young men ( for met in Massachusetts and organized an the first missionary society ever organ *dly ized in this country there went laugh ter and ridicule all around the Chris- Bona Oan tian church. They said the undertak- La 31 ing was preposterous. And so also so' lst the work of Jesus Christ was assailed. Leep People cried out. "Who ever heard of ion: such theories of ethics and govern- \ ars. ment? Who ever noticed such a style Sallof preaching as Jesus has?" Ezekiel en- had talked of mysterious wings If l ood; and wheels. Here came a man ears. from Capernaum and Gennessaret, and take He drew His illustrations from the h- lakes, from the sand, from the moun- - ad in tain, from the lilies, from the corn- I) year stalks. How the Pharisees scoffed: soull How Herod derided! And this Jesus p in they plucked by the beard, and they Lrs in spat in His face, and they called Hrim on as a "this fellow!" All the great en- Co t the terprises in and out of the church r the have at times been scoffed at, and there less have been a great multitude who have thought that the chariot of God's Al irally truth would fall to pieces if it once got rch is out of the old rut. And so there are d; all those who have no patience with any .d be- thing like improvement in church saved architecture, or with anything like DE have good, hearty, earnest church singing, Ahl and they deride any form of religious there discussion which goes down walking 81 Scom- among every-day men, rather than ways, that which makes an excursion people on rhetorical stilts. Oh, that the me of church of God would wake ups d not to an adaptability of work! We is of must admit the simple fact that the not churches of Jesus Christ in this day do I the not reach the great masses. There are ro had 50,000 people in Edinburgh who never - eruci- hear the GoslpeL There are 1.000,o0oo00 of the people in London who never hear the h, ory. Gospel. The great majority of the in babitaMs ata of this capital come not un e. re the islaistrtioa of Christ's truth, -;·r··· r4 f; .) " t." 'UJ u~l l R I] 1e ·.. - ·. i::;' · i.· 'siý A R v.r l-.v.- " Drug s:ore, M ark't a:r l .x - -tr, -s. HEv- T, L( i. ANA.. bL. E. T --i 1 AS, ATTOl; EY VFT AW ANI) N&TA Ic-Y 'UBL1C. WT'. ?. LTOiN. JUSTICE OF "i liE PEACE J1 S~ 211 _'.1nIti S S Shre vep.rt, LuAi -iana. g j -ý' R. T. <', Ct.!-<G1_. 1 I1 DE JE TIST, j e ': O~ir<le in c<,diaj, T:.·!.. e' : s .t . le V'p SSt.VincGt s Aadu my r i- Near t'< rper-oth'n Limits, h- Shreverort, Ia., "s- Boarding and Day St hcol for Young k- Ladies and Chi(c:rcn. Your p:atronlage so solicited, For uarticulars address. o "1IOTiELR SUPER.IOR. Mechanrics' Exchange, H. LIlI'MAN, Prep. ine V:nes Liu: r-.. and C ivars. he onv Faust Ce!bcratcd MAuhr.huser-Busch ou :allwiys on t1., 31h : d - . LODgING 2:c. D R. JOHN COMEGY S D)entist, u Office ovcx F. W.-Bow,. - Cor. Market and T xa - ' AUGUST ABEFlI, " , ' D . - " T ee Dealer in Ha n.-, H r Cc ._ - First class wocrkm;alsip ir cer to 'as Price:. Q k e: x So TEXAS 'T'R':; 1). F Frcd x'la 1` up NURSIRYLIN. do 'f;it ; 4P - . Lie Ti/ S. l.'clA. I lH ^0L. TTOR'4NEY ~~,T L.VJT MaN FIaELD, - LOQ