Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1898 — CHAT OF THE CHURCH [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CHAT OF THE CHURCH

WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE RELIGIOUS WORLD. New* Nelea iom All Lands Regarding Their Religions Thought and Movement—What the Great Denomination* Are Doing.

MR. MOODY was recently challenged by the Manhattan Liberal Club to debate I j the merits of Christianity with £ two of the leadng Secularists of the world. Mr. Moody’s reply is worthy of readIng: “I cannot ac2ept your invitation to debate

with leading Secularists for many reasons, of which I shall only refer here to two. In the first place, my mind is made up on the question proposed, namely, the -relative merits of Christianity and infidelity, under whatever name it appears. Nobody who studies history need hesitate in answering the question; and I know what Jesus Christ has done for me during the past forty years, since I have trusted Him. Let the members of your club accept Christ as their personal Savior, and they need not waste time discussing such a question. If I had a remedy that never failed to cure a disease for forty years, I should not stop to consider its merits with another remedy. “My other reason is that the times call for action, not for discussion. Hundreds of thousands of men and women are dropping into drunkards’ and harlots’ graves every year right here in New York. Now, let us all join hands and do what we can to save them. I will try to reach them with the Gospel. I will tell them of a Savior who came to seek that which was lost, who died a cruel death on the cross in order that their sins might be blotted out in His precious blood. If there is any merit in infidelity let your members likewise put it into practice. Let them reach out a helping hand to those unfortunates who are sunk in vice and misery. “Then, when they are restored to purity of life, we shall have time to turn aside to discussion.—Yours truly, D. L. Moody.” The Preaching that Tells. “I leave these thoughts, with you.” Who does not recognize that as the familiar conclusion of a contemporary sermon? Some preachers still perorate, but perorations are old-fashioned and ineffective, and so, many conclude with a few telling lines of poetry or with a sentence meant to be specially felicitous, memorable, and surprising. But what has become Of the application? It has not entirely disappeared, but where it exists it is generally as a meager tail-piece, stuck on at the end. Even then it is seldom an application to the unsaved. It has somehow come to be taken for gu.nted that everyone to be found within the walls of a Christian church is a Christian, and that all he needs is stimulus to ascend. Now, it has never been thus in periods where the gospel was doing its work. The great principle of sermons followed by conversions is that there should be applications all through, or at least that a constant vein of application should pervade them. “This is for you and this is for you.” The sermon is not to be a formal discharge fired off as a matter of course which disturbs nobody. It should be directed with intention and earnestness. It should be full of light and fire and love. Certainly the solicitors and seducers of the soul are as clamorous in their importunity as ever they were, and they will easily win the prize from embarrassed and halting pleaders. They only will succeed who recognize that preaching means a stern and terrible struggle, and it may be a single opportunity.—British Weekly.

Have You To-day? Have you and I to-day Stood silent as with Christ, apart from joy or fray Of life, to see by faith His face, And grow, by brief companionship, more true, More nerved to lead, to dare to do, For Him at any cost? Have we to-day Found time, in thought our hand to lay In His, and thus compare His will with ours, and wear The impress of His wish? Be sure Such contact will endure Throughout the day; will help us walk erect Through storm and flood; detect, Within the hidden life sin’s dross, its stain, Revive a thought of love for Him again; Steady the steps which waver; help us see The footpath meant for you and me. —George Klingle. Security of the Lord’s People. The Lord’s people are to enjoy security in places of the greatest exposure: wildernesses and woods are to be as pastures and folds to the flock of Christ. If the Lord does not change the place for the better, He will make us the better In the place. The wilderness is not a place to dwell in, but the Lord can make it so; in the woods, one feels bound to watch rather than to sleep, and yet the Lord giveth His beloved sleep even there! Nothing without nor within should cause any fear to the child of God. By faith the wilderness can become the suburbs of heaven, and the woods the vestibule of glory.—C. H. Spurgeon. Forming Character To-day. One who does right to-day need not be troubled about doing right to-mor-row. Every act done is a seed that will bear fruit, each after its kind. The man who is generous to-day will find it easier to be generous to-mor-row. An act repeated often enough becomes a habit, and the fruit of habit is character. Subjects of Thought. The sun, reflecting upon the mud of strands and shores, is unpolluted in his beam. Covetousness, like a candle ill-made, smothers the splendor of a happy for- j tune Ln its own grease. A man can carry his mind with him as he carries his watch; but like the watch, to keep it going he must keep it wound up. A man that studieth revenge keepeth his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well. It is the character of consummate merit to be able to live in a retreat with honor, after one has lived in public with splendor. How will you find good? It is not a thing of choice; it is a river that flows from the foot of the Invisible Throne and flows by the path of obedience. The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice

so mean and low that every person o sense and character detests and despises It Opinion is a light, vain, crude and imperfect thing, settted lh the imagination, but never aririving at thfcunderstanding, there to obtain the tincture of reason. We should manage our fortunes as we do our health—enjoy it when good, be patient when it is bad, and never apply violent remedies except in an extreme necessity. A heavenly life is the freest from sin, because it has truer and livelier apprehensions of spiritual things. He hath so deep an insight into the evil of sin, the vanity of the creature, the brutishness of fleshly, sensual delights, that temptations have little power over him. Very few men can be found who have no unfulfilled desires which they are striving to gratify, or who are so absolutely secure of the future that they may give literal heed to the Biblical command to take no thought for the morrow. But this forethought is not worry—at least it need not be worry—it is merely incertitude, prudent care for the future, or even slight anxiety. Harassing impatient expectation, disproportionate fear of the unknown—this is worry, and this is what causes the heart to struggle, the arteries to weaken, and the mind to fall.