T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S ENTHUSIAST—WHY NOT? The late Rev. Rowland Hill, in once addressing the people of Wotton, rais ing himself, exclaimed, “ Because I am in earnest, men call me an enthusiast. When I first came into this part of the country, I was walking on yonder hill, and saw a gravel pit fall in and bury three human beings alive. I lifted up my voice tor help so loud that I was heard in the town below, at the dis tance of near a mile; help came and rescued two of the sufferers. No one called me an enthusiast then; and when I see eternal destruction ready to fall on poor sinners, and about to entomb them irrecoverably in an eternal mass of woe, and call aloud on them to es cape, shall I be called an enthusiast now? No, sinner, I am no enthusiast in doing so; and I call on thee aloud to fly for refuge to the hope set before thee in the Gospel.” KEEP WITNESSING ANYWAY The Countess of Huntingdon was walking in her garden one day near to where a workman was preparing part of the garden wall. She spoke to the man about his soul, but the word seemed to have little effect. Years after, while speaking to another workman, she said, “ Thomas, I fear you have not yet looked to Christ for salvation." “ Your ladyship is mistaken,” >replied the workman, “ I have looked, and I am saved.” “How did it happen?” inquired the countess. “ It was while you were speaking to James, my fellow- workman, whSn we were repairing the garden wall.” “How did you hear?” “ I was on the other side, and heard your words through a hole in the wall.” “ Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Rom. 10. 17.) ¿at ate ate
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by his side along the way. Take a church of 250 members and let us suppose that 200 of them do nothing, but that the other fifty make each one effort a week to bring some one to Christ, and let us suppose that nine out of every ten efforts thus made completely fail, do you know that in one year there would be added to that church 260 souls and her membership more than doubled? Do' you know that if the Methodist ministers of this land would bring each one, just one, soul per month to Christ, 460,000 souls would be added to the church of Christ in Just one year? If the Baptist ministers would do the same thing there would be 426,000 more, and if all the Protestant minis ters performed this small service for Christ the membership of our churches would have been increased in a single year to the magnificent number of 1,792,644 souls. Do you know that we could save every individual in this land for Christ in two years’ time if each Christian would win but'one a year? Oh, what a mighty change would take place and what a glorious age it would be if every Chris tian would only “ do his bit” and show to the world that he really believes the religion which he professes to have saved his own soul. We would find the tides rising higher and higher until the church would become “ bright as the sun, fair as the moon and terrible as an army with banners,” and we would cease to wonder why the King dom of our Lord and His Christ did not hasten on to its glorious consummation. May the Spirit of the mighty God stir us to a sense of our responsibility, and touching us anew with the endue- ment of His own mighty power, send us out to the task which the church must either accomplish or leave to God’s unfailing sufficiency to compass in some other way.
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