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why is that? Because business men are the very first men to appreciate honesty and truth. That is the one thing upon which a good successful business man bas2s his operation, and until Christianity does produce men who are true and honest it will always be on a drag. Oh! it seems to me that the thing that must grieve the heart of Jesus, is the fact that His people are so careless about their business integrity. It is so easy for a man to imagine it is not any sin at all for him to be slack in his business, or his business methods; just so he is punctual to the church, makes a good testimony and can talk glibly, I had rather never have another testimony in my church than to have everybody testifying whose lives are crooked, or whose business methods are cen surable. Let us understand that the world is look ing at Jesus through us. They have no other way of looking at Jesus, for we are the epistles unto the world of Jesus Christ, and as we live the world views Christ. If we are crooked in our business methods, the world looks upon Christ as a crooked leader. If we refuse to pay honest money, then Christ is discounted; we men are very little, but we are discounting Christ, and to discount Christ is to thwart the purpose and the power of Christ among men today. How careful, therefore, we ought to be. More and more I am trembling under the weight of the responsibility of a Christian. You say it is a small thing to profess Christ. Don’t you ever say it again. It is an awful thing to profess Christ, I tell you; so awful that we ought to see it, that before we dqre to do it we have made up our minds to live straight by His help. We say it is a very simple thing to join the church; yes, it is a very simple process—that is, the external part of it. But I say to you, it is an awful thing to become a member of the church of Christ. The moment you do, you step out before the world as a representa tive of Jesus; and tell me that it is not an awful responsibility to represent Christ? It is enough to make us tremble with awe and shake with the weight of responsibility; it is enough to bring us today upon our knees and to keep us there for the rest of our lives, at least in spirit. The Unity and Fellowship of the Saints. One thing today that puts Christianity at a dis count before the world is the division in the ranks of the army of Jesus Christ. I have recently been talking with a missionary from China. I said, “Tell me what is your greatest drawback in China? 1 ' She said, “It is hard to say, but certainly I would say that one of the greatest hindrances to the pro gress of the Gospel in the foreign land is the di vision in the ranks of the army of God. There is one set pulling in this direction, and another pull ing in that and another pulling in this, and the poor deluded Chinamen knows not what to do. Why it is hard for us to tell here what to do with all of our training, and even in the ranks of any one • partment of the army of God, it is so hard to get us to work in parallel lines. There is division and strife; there is personal aggrandizement, and glory and promotion and the like that we have to deal with in the army of the Lord Jesus Christ. The world looks upon, sees and discounts the cause of Christ in .proportion to it. Lord Nelson, it is said, before the great battle of Trafalgar, one of the greatest battles the English ever fought, was greatly perplexed on account of a disagreement between two of his great officials. They so disagreed, and were so at enmity one with the other that they could not help to plan for the success of each other; they were so at outs that they could not even rejoice in the victories of each other. Lord Nelson knew that he was defeated with an army divided like that, and so he called his men together, the night before the great battle was to be fought, and he pointed out in the distance to the enemy’s fleet, and when he got them to see it, he said, “Now, men, there is your enemy, shake hands and be friends and fight.” They took in the situation; they say that it was utter folly to talk about fighting when they, themselves, were divided, and so they shook hands across the chasm of divis ion; they became friends and then they fought, and The Golden Age for July 5, 1906. fighting as friends they conquered the enemy. Now, Christ wants just that same thing on the part of His church. You tell me Jesus Christ is pleased with all this division that we have today in the army of God? I don’t believe it. I have heard people say that they believed that Jesus Christ was the Father of all the denominations of Christians in the world; I don’t believe it; I don’t believe He is the Father of any of them. I believe that Jesus Christ wants His people to be as He prayed that they might be—ONE. Not that each community will not endeavor to adapt its methods to its need; not that each church will do the same thing, but one in general spirit and one in general method, is the purpose of Jesus Christ with respect to His church. But my brethren as His representatives, He wants us to stand for unity. God being my help er, I am going to do it. I want, and I pray, that the time will come when all God’s people every where will be one in the work of Jesus Christ. Why I go in little towns all over this country and see ex hibitions of the supremest religious nonsense that ever cursed the world. Take a little town of three of four hundred people and there will be three or four struggling denominations of Christians, none of them self-supporting, and all of them appealing to their mission boards for their support, and do you know a great deal of our mission money today is going to the support of that kind of contention in the church. I say it is nonsense; it is folly. To represent Jesus Christ in this day and time, it seems to me that we have got to champion and press forward the movement of the unity of the people of God. But, again: We Represent Christ in Our Zeal. Jesus Christ had zeal for lost men; He had so much zeal for lost men that it was said of Him that He was beside Himself, that He was crazy. What He wants of His church today is that it shall take His place in being zealous for the salvation of men. Why if we were to judge from the quiet complacent deportment of the church today we would think that there is no special concern about lost souls. There are men in this city with whom Christian people come in contact every day of their lives, who have never been spoken to, personally, about their soul’s salvation. I talked to a druggist about his personal salvation, and though he was a man past middle age, he said, “Dr. Broughton, you are the first man that has ever spoken to me, personally, about my soul,” and yet the man was married to a Christian wife. I said, “Hasn’t your wife ever talked to you?” He said, “Never in her life.” Now, you know—oh! I know, how that man feels about his wife; you couldn’t get that man to say that he did not believe in his wife’s religion to save his life, and would knock you down if you said you didn’t, and yet, how can he believe in her sincerity, knowing that he is lost and she is saved, but yet she has never said a word to him about personal sal vation. There is a man in that store with whom you come in contact daily, and you have never open ed your mouth to him, personally, about salvation; do you believe that man believes you believe what you say you believe? There is that cook in your home cooking your meals, and you have never even asked her if she is a Christian; do you believe that cook could be made to believe that you believe what you say you believe? Oh! we are very great en thusiasts about soul winning, provided other people do it. But when and where did we get our dispen sation not to do it ourselves? We send our mission aries to Africa; look at the Africans in Atlanta and in our homes unsaved, and nobody takes any interest in them. Now my brethren, I am going to say something right here that you do not like—l can’t help it, I feel it, and I am going to speak it: Dur ing our whole month of soul winning, there was not one thing said about going out and trying to save the colored peope of this town, and I believe that God Almighty has a curse registered against ns in the South for this miserable, selfish, sentimental, picayunishness, we have with respect to white peo ple trying to save the negroes in our community. Not even one service was held for the colored peo ple. We blame them for their lack of honesty, and truthfulness and integrity, and we have got enough to blame them for, but listen! How can you ex pect anything else when we withhold from them our personal touch and instruction, and turn them over simply and wholly to the personal touch and instruc tion of their own race? I want you to think about it; I want you to think about it in the light of the souls of men for which Jesus died. My brethren we have brains enough and heart and power enough in this Southern country to see to it that this neglected race does have some of the cream that comes to the white people in this country. What we have got to do is to get zeal for lost men, not for the white race, or the yellow race or any other race, but a zeal .for souls. The soul has got to become the great thing the church is for. Then again, we have got to represent Jesus Christ In Our Spirit of Resignation to the Will of God. This is the hardest thing that we are called on to do. It is easy to love; it is easy to sympathize; it is easy to be true; it is easy to be one in fellow ship with the rest of the world of Christians; it is easy to be zealous for souls; but oh! when it comes to personal resignation to the will of God, there is where the hard thing comes in. It is easy for us to be resigned to the will of God when every thing goes pleasantly, when everybody is compli menting us, but oh! when the world grows cold; when the so-called friends begin to turn their backs, and to slacken their hand-grip when they shake our hand, it is then going to be a struggle to be resigned, but then is the time for the Christian to shine. I believe that it is possible for us to do more good under such circumstances, by simple resigna tion to the will of God, than it is in all the others I have spoken of, as vauable as they are. Here is a woman into whose home God has come and taken out her only child and left her alone, it may be upon that child she had relied for strength and comfort, and now for her to say from her heart, “Thy will be done,” for her to smile through her tears, is a hard thing to do, but it is a great thing to (To, for the world looks on under such trying circumstances, and s°vs. “Now let’s see how a Christian can stand trial.” Oh! that we could realize this morning what it means to represent Christ; oh, that the awful ness of the responsibility of it could settle upon vs. Jesus Christ never said, “Make your light shine;” He said. “Let your light so shine.” What we have got to do that we may be the representatives of Christ in all that is helpful to the cause that He came to estabish is to be so filled with His Spirit so that we shall the globes of our lives clean and let the Christ light that is in us shine for Christ. A Missionary Wedding. Pastor D. H. Parker, of Boston. Georgia, writes to the Editor of a beautiful wedding which took nlace at Dixie, Ga.. on the sixth of June—“beauti ful” he says, “because of the deeply spiritual as pects of it.” Miss Rena Groover of Dixie and Rev. John Wat son Shenpard of Lebanon, Tenn., the ceremonv be ing performed by Dr. W. S. Carver of the Semi nary at Louisville, a brother-in-law of the groom. These consecrated young people are under anpoint ment of the Foreign Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, and will sail for Montreal. Canada, Julv ISth, going byway of Scotland and England to Rio to spread the Light of the World in Brazil. The Editor of THE GOT DEN AGE re members well the touching and r»ro p onndlv impres sive evening service at Thomasville, Ga.. during the session of the Mercer Association some years ago when Miss Groover was adopted as the “child of the Association.” Rev. J. M. Rushin who had been her pastor since childhood paid a beautiful tribute to the fidelity of her Christian life. A tender, powerful sermon had been preached by Dr. B. D. Ragsdale. and all hearts were mellowed by the manifest nresence of the Spirit of God. Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard will spend several weeks among the churches nf that section, linking the peo ple to the special field to which God has called them. 5