“Mrs Hamilton returned about forty dollars as the result of her labors. Miss Fannie Siebold, a vivacious young woman with auburn hair and with eyes that sparkle, was visiting friends in the place. She never lost an opportunity to show her interest in the little church. Her host, curious to see if she could not be made to retract from her offers, told her he would give her fifty cents if she would ride one of his spirited horses without, a saddle.
“She was told that she might ride any fashion. Miss Siebold made all the male portion of the family promise to remain indoors, where they could not observe her during the performance. They agreed to this, but people passing along the road were surprised at the sight of a handsome young lady galloping over the fields on the flying charger in a manner that would do credit to any man.
“As a result of all the industry, $208.54 was raised, the sheriff's placard was taken down from the church-door, and a thirty days' extension secured on the $2,500 remaining to be paid.”
The following article, recently published in a God-fearing, religious paper, contains weighty and powerful truths, and should awaken the reader to the present condition of things in this dark, seducing, and soul-deluding, sinful world.
“There has been for many years a rapid decline among the Protestant churches of the spirit of revivals and of the manifestations of the power of the Holy Spirit. Not only is there great ignorance on [pg 468] the doctrines of the Bible, but almost universally a positive antagonism to anything like the supernatural in religious experience.
“Just as Jesus was rejected and crucified by the professed church at the close of the Jewish age, so the Holy Spirit is being despised and crucified by the professed church at the close of the Gentile age. Just as Jesus was rejected from the nice homes of Bethlehem, and had to go into a stable to find a place to be born, and where he could utter his infant cries, so the Holy Spirit to-day is utterly rejected from thousands of Protestant churches, and he has to go into rented halls, slum missions, canvas tents, and woods meetings to find a place to utter his voice through the lips of those who know and feel him. Just as there were a few who had supernatural discernment to recognize and worship the infant God, so there are now a few who discern the personality and operation of the Holy Spirit, and pour out to him their gold and frankincense and myrrh. Just as the people of Bethlehem, who had turned the unborn Savior from their door were soon made to wail by the king's order of assassination, so the thousands of nominal churches which now reject the work of the Holy Spirit from their doors will soon wail under the awful tribulation that is rapidly coming on all the earth. Oh, if the Protestant churches could only see the day of their visitation, and that the history of the way the Jews treated Jesus is being exactly repeated over and over again in the way the modern churches treat the Holy [pg 469] Spirit, and that the same doom that overtook the Jewish church for rejecting Christ, will speedily overtake the modern churches for rejecting the Holy Spirit!
“Another feature of the present crisis is, God is working mainly through individuals, and not so much through machinery. Thousands of individuals in Europe and America have been called of the Spirit to launch out into soul-saving work along lines of personal enterprise more than ever in past ages.
“There never was a time in the world's history when Christian men and women felt so led of God not to wait for committees nor the red tape of ecclesiastical authority, but to hurry forth under a personal call from God and do what they could with their individual means and talents for the saving of souls, the sanctifying of believers, and preparing the chosen few to meet Jesus. There never seemed a time when anything like church machinery would run to seed so quick as now. Even if an enterprise that is started definitely as a holiness work gets a few officers and committees in it, in a few days or months it gets just as churchly and high-headed and dictatorial as an old popish institution. For this reason God is utilizing individuality in his kingdom as never before.
“Another feature of the present crisis is, that God will test the faith of his waiting ones, and all those persons who are making almanacs for the Lord, and fixing dates for the fulfilling of certain prophecies, are going to be disappointed. We are living a life of faith in every particular, clear down to the last [pg 470] moment of his appearing in the sky. The Scriptures are very clear in setting forth two facts concerning Christ's coming. On the one hand we are told of the signs that would precede his coming, and we are told to watch those things, and they will indicate his coming as near; on the other hand we are expressly told that the day and hour of his appearing will never be made known beforehand, and our wisdom lies in not forgetting the signs on the one hand, nor in fixing dates on the other. Hence Jesus commands us to keep in the attitude of a watcher, always ready, always expecting, yet not knowing. In the parable of the ten virgins, our Savior clearly intimates that the bridegroom will tarry beyond the time that his people expected him. The picture is that of a crowd of passengers sitting in a station and waiting for a night train which is behind time, and while they are yet waiting they get drowsy and nod. The sentence, ‘They all slumbered and slept,’ should more properly be, they became ‘drowsy and nodded.’ This applies to the very elect, who will be taken into the wedding, and indicates a crisis of the trial of the faith of the sanctified ones.
“But the most significant of all things in the present crisis is the testing of true faith in all points of doctrine. There never was a time since the fall of Adam when the human race was so drenched with the muddy waters of heresy. Everything moves with lightning rapidity. The principles that lie hidden in every system of government, education, social life, [pg 471] and manifold forms of religion, are swiftly pushing themselves to prestige and open manifestation. Sin is not only working out every species of wickedness that can be invented, but the intellect of the so-called Christianized world is showing signs of decay in its ability to grasp sturdy Bible truth, and is largely turning from the Bible to old worn-out heathen ideas. Every doctrine of the Bible is being twisted into fanciful theories. The scriptures teaching of sin and the need of broken-hearted repentance is practically ignored by thousands of ministers and church-members. The absolute divinity of Jesus is growing weaker in the faith of many who claim to teach his gospel, and some who profess to be very orthodox say they do not pray to Jesus. The literal resurrection of the body taught by the Scriptures is caricatured and treated lightly by professed theologians, ministers, and professed Christians. The immortality of the soul and its conscious existence, either in heaven or hell, during the sleep of the body in death, is being rejected for the old heathen notion. The experience of justifying and sanctifying grace, attested by the personal Holy Spirit, is rejected by millions of church-members. Everlasting reward and punishment is laughed at as an old tradition instead of a serious doctrine of the Bible.