We need not stop to count members, to see whether it will be popular or unpopular, whether a majority are going on, or going back. Every true man is going on, and is intending to stand with every other true man and fight the good fight of faith. We stop not to see how many or how few are going ahead, nor how many are turning back. We would rather have been saved with the few in the ark than lost with the many who were drowned in the flood; to have been with the few who crossed Jordan than with the many who fell in the wilderness, and would rather be with the few that shall find the narrow way and pass the straight gate to the enjoyment of life, than to be with the many who tread the broad way that leads to destruction. We are now making the record on which these great matters will turn. Let us enter the field this year in the faith, with more determination than ever, and push the cause at every point; stand up all along the lines of the King’s army, every man in his place, presenting an unbroken front to the enemy, and unitedly move forward on the opposing ranks before us with a persistence, decision and determination that will command respect. Encourage the true and valiant, strengthen the weak and feeble-minded, stand by the faint-hearted and comfort them. Let there be no sympathizers with the enemy, none scheming mutiny, none demoralizing the forces, no deserters and no cowards. All stand firm and true, and move on in faith, “the full assurance of faith,” with power and courage, and the Lord of hosts will be our Lord—the King of saints will be our King. Let all men see that we have a right cause, and that we know it is right, and that we never intend to give it up, but that we intend to fill the world with the doctrine of the cross, make the Bible the power in this country. It is the book, the one book, the only book, setting forth the one religion for all peoples on all the face of the earth, and for all time. We can admit no rival to that book, nor any other that subverts or sets it aside, but are the settled and determined enemies to all others as divine authority. It is the supreme and the absolute authority. Rally to the book, men of God, and stand by it. You have the book that all admit to be right. Be true to it and show yourselves worthy of it, and the God of peace will be with you.
[WE ARE A MISSIONARY PEOPLE.]
IT will not do to conclude that we are not a “missionary people.” It is useless to reason against facts. That we have risen, and, in opposition to the established bodies of people in the different parties in this country, successfully planted the cause in the best parts of the country and among the most effective and intelligent people, and, in less than two-thirds of a century, made it one of the most formidable and powerful bodies in the land, and swelled the numbers above that of any Protestant parties in the United States, excepting the Baptists and Methodists, is now a matter of fact. This has been done and is now in history. A people “not a missionary people,” and not an evangelizing people, have never done the like of this. We are to-day going ahead and spreading more rapidly than any people in this country that depend on turning people to the Lord to augment their numbers. We say nothing about a people that count their infants as members of the church, and exclude nobody for disorder.
[RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS.]
