ong the captains, and
majors, and the adjutants! Suppose word came to head-quarters that
these delinquents excused themselves on the ground that they had
overslept themselves, or that the morning was damp and they were
afraid of getting their feet wet, or that they were busy cooking
rations. My friends, this is the morning of the day of God Almighty's
battle! Do you not see the troops? Hear you not all the trumpets of
heaven and all the drums of hell? Which side are you on? If you are on
the right side, to what cavalry troop, to what artillery service, to
what garrison duty do you belong? In other words, in what
Sabbath-school do you teach? in what prayer-meeting do you exhort? to
what penitentiary do you declare eternal liberty? to what almshouse do
you announce the riches of heaven? What broken bone of sorrow have you
ever set? Are you doing nothing? Is it possible that a man or woman
sworn to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ is doing nothing? Then
hide the horrible secret from the angels. Keep it away from the book
of judgment. If you are doing nothing do not let the world find it
out, lest they charge your religion with being a false-face. Do not
let your cowardice and treason be heard among the martyrs about the
throne, lest they forget the sanctity of the place and curse your
betrayal of that cause for which they agonized and died.

May the eternal God rouse us all to action! As for myself, I feel I
would be ashamed to die now and enter heaven until I have accomplished
something more decisive for the Lord that bought me. I would like to
join with you in an oath, with hand high uplifted to heaven, swearing
new allegiance to Jesus Christ, and to work more for His kingdom. Are
you ready to join with me in some new work for Christ? I feel that
there is such a thing as claustral piety, that there is such a thing
as insular work; but it seems to me that what we want now is concerted
action. The temple of Berith is very broad, and it is very high. It
has been going up by the hands of men and devils, and no human
enginery can demolish it; but if the fifty thousand ministers of
Christ in this country should each take a branch of the tree of life,
and all their congregations should do the same, and we should march on
and throw these branches around the great temples of sin, and
worldliness and folly, it would need no match, or coal, or torch of
ours to touch off the pile; for, as in the days of Elijah, fire would
fal