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Show NO QUARTER TO WRONG DOING Taking for his text "Go In to possess pos-sess the land which tho Ix)rd your God gives you" Joshua I II Re. G F. Rossweller delivered an interesting sermon with home missions for his subject at the First iMcthodist church yesterday morning. Rev. Mr. Rosswoller said, in part. "The task before Joshua was to lake Canaan for God, make Its worship wor-ship His worship a"nd its morals His morals; In short, to make It a nation ovor which Jehovah should rule. "It was to supplant wickedness by morality. Canaan had sunk so low morally ns to sanctify iniquity, to make child burning a religious duty, to make licentiousness worship, and obscenity, piety. "Judaism was to supplant this with an ethical religion and establish devotion de-votion to childhood, chastity, sobriety, sobri-ety, brotherllneB8. liberty, pence, tho care of the needy, the protection of the servant against tho over-reaching master, and the poor against tho predatory pred-atory rich. "This Is the task God has given to the churches of this land. We arc to be a leaven of righteousness, a moral sale of the earth, soldiers of lightcousness, crusaders against the wrong. Wo aro to do something more than got memhors, and hold services. serv-ices. Wo should unhorse lnqulty, drive out graft from the political arena, are-na, bribery from the legislatures, Injustice In-justice and favoritism from tho courts, oppression from industry, exploitation from commerce, strife from business, wantonness from society and intom-peranco intom-peranco from all the land. "Joshua was not to compromise, but not to rest till every fire to Mo-lock Mo-lock had boon quenched, and every rovol to ABhtaroth had ceased, so wo dare give no quarter to wrong, nor rest complacontly ns long as one Iniquity In-iquity skulks anywhere in this land We "must always keep 'moving on their works.' "Again Joshua was to supplant the worship of many gods with the worship wor-ship of ono God. Thero are ao many polythoists In America. In politics they worship the god of gottlng on In business, tho god of tho Eoldcn treasury, In society the god of things as thoy aro; and In tho palucos of pleasure they worship tho god of the tingling nervo. They declare that Christ 1b not and cannot be tho ruler of these departments of life. 'Politics 1r no Sunday school tho market ia no placo for the sermon on the Mount, 'youth cannot onpoy Itself and he spiritual 'young men cannot bo Chrlsthians and bo manly etc., otc, tiro the expressions of their polytheistic polythe-istic creed "To bring all this under tho nway of our Christ Is the taBk before us. It Is for us to enthrone Christ in our civic l'fo, to Beat Him in jowcr In every office, to mako Him the truo leader of society, and the ma6ter of ceremonies in the pnlaces of pleasure pleas-ure "Wo aro also to mako captives Of Christ tho original Inhabitants of this land. It Is7S90$ 666 land If our past treatment of the Indian has been a century of dishonest dis-honest effort, let us make tho coming com-ing one a century of high honor In bringing tho red men Into God's estate. es-tate. "The Canaanltcs were called tho children of Ham These we also havo among us. Off from the wrlst6 of tho ton million freedmen we are to strike the still dangling shackles. If we degraded them with tho stake, let us exalt them with tho cross. Wo have given them freedom, wo must teach them its use, which wo are doing through the schools of the Freodmeu's Aid society. "Then there wero tho Hlvites and Jcbusites, tho dwellers in cities. Our future Is with the cities. One-fourth of our pouulatlon Is metropolitan, aud the cities aro growing three times as fast as the rest of tho country. Wo must make Christ dominant In tho cities, or we have lost Him this land. 'Again there were tho Perlzzltes, tho pleasant nation. Tho problem of the rural church Is perplexing. Country Coun-try churches uro closing their doors In large numbors. Thoy too need help The country regions that aro fat with God's material blessings must not bo allowed to bo lean townrd God. tho garden of frultfulncsB must not be loft to be a moral desert, nor that part of our land that has furnished the masters of the pulpit be allowed allow-ed to desert that pulpit 'Joshua had the Amorltcs or mountaineers moun-taineers also to conquer. So havo wo. Shall wo allow mountain states that raise their peaks like altars to God to be altars to Mammon, burning Incense In-cense to the Ashtaroth of profligacy, and leave them become the strongholds strong-holds of tho adoration of mere natural nat-ural forces? "Also there wore the Invading nations na-tions tho MIdlanltos and Amelek-ltes. Amelek-ltes. We too havo our immigrants Invading our land at the rate of a, million a year. And they aro pillaging pillag-ing from us our purltaulcal morals, breaking down prohibition laws, trampling the American Sabbath under un-der foot and setting up the continental continen-tal Sabbath. Theso too wo should win to a higher typo of Christian living. liv-ing. "Let us dare to stand like Joshua and move forward with unflinching footsteps." |