RT Rewind: Henry Whipple - The Work Of A Missionary Church

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[00:00:56] Revived Thoughts is a production of Revive Studios.

[00:01:04] This is Troy and Joel and you are listening to Revived Thoughts.

[00:01:15] To turn aside from any suffering sinful man is to substitute man's selfishness in place of the overflowing love of God.

[00:01:26] Every episode we bring you a different voice from history and a sermon that they delivered.

[00:01:31] Today we're going back to the end of the 19th century to listen to a sermon in Minnesota by a man named Henry Whipple.

[00:01:40] Troy, how are you doing?

[00:01:42] I am doing pretty well. It's the middle of summer here and I mean summer break, which is very, very nice because we've I've got a lot of different things to work on and projects that I've been putting off till the summer break.

[00:01:55] So I'm excited to finally start getting digging into them.

[00:01:58] I'm a teacher, if you do not know.

[00:02:00] So usually I'm teaching classes eight hours a day at the school, which is great.

[00:02:04] I love what I get to do.

[00:02:05] Love getting to do all the things that I get to be a part of.

[00:02:07] But it's nice over the summer when I can finally do all the projects I've been putting off till the summer.

[00:02:13] You just got back from an anniversary vacation?

[00:02:16] Yes. So my wife and I have been married for 10 years.

[00:02:19] Woo hoo. And we did a short trip to the country of India.

[00:02:24] We were looking for like something we could do as a vacation.

[00:02:28] And on our five year anniversary, we got really cheap tickets to Mexico City.

[00:02:32] And it was really, really fun.

[00:02:34] That was one that me and my wife got to do without the kids.

[00:02:37] This trip, we went to India with the kids and where we are in Indonesia.

[00:02:41] It's pretty cheap to get to some places, but the cheapest place to get to was Chine, India.

[00:02:47] And so we used that as our launching point to visit India.

[00:02:50] And I got to say, it was an adventure.

[00:02:53] It was, if you've ever been to India, you probably understand.

[00:02:58] And if you are from India and you're listening, you probably understand that there, it is very different than other parts of the world.

[00:03:03] It is very busy, traffic-y, crowded.

[00:03:06] You know, a lot of things there that were an adventure to put it that way.

[00:03:11] The high highs of the trip were amazing.

[00:03:13] We got to see some really cool stuff.

[00:03:15] And I love the food.

[00:03:16] I never got tired of it.

[00:03:18] I ate it everywhere I went.

[00:03:20] I didn't mind the spiciness of it.

[00:03:22] I was all about the food the whole way through.

[00:03:24] My family, on the other hand, they were so tired of the food by the end of it.

[00:03:27] They were like, can we please eat something that's not Indian food?

[00:03:30] Where's the McDonald's in the airport?

[00:03:31] We will take anything at this point.

[00:03:33] So, but there was, it was a, it was overall very, very, very, very good.

[00:03:39] And it's just India is, you know, a little different.

[00:03:40] Like you'll be walking down a sidewalk and a cow will interrupt you and walk past you.

[00:03:44] And you, you're just like, oh, there's a cow.

[00:03:47] Coolest thing from a, just a nature coolness perspective.

[00:03:50] We were driving down the road and an elephant came out of the woods eating food.

[00:03:54] And we got to take a picture and see like a legit elephant in the wild, not like a zoo, just coming around.

[00:03:58] And I've never seen that before.

[00:04:00] That one was really super cool.

[00:04:02] And even the guy we were traveling with, he was like, I've only seen that happen like three or four times in my life.

[00:04:06] So that was pretty cool.

[00:04:08] So yeah, we really loved it.

[00:04:09] I can also, I'll say it this way.

[00:04:11] If you're from India, I love, I love so much of your country.

[00:04:14] If you've been to India, it was a great experience.

[00:04:16] I can also see why those tickets were so cheap and why, why, why that it was not a commonly traveled road.

[00:04:24] It wasn't the part of India we went to is not like a normally a touristy part.

[00:04:27] And it, there were, there were reasons for that, I think.

[00:04:30] So I came out of that both very happy and also very happy to be back home.

[00:04:35] Yeah.

[00:04:36] Yeah.

[00:04:36] I was in India about little, over 10 years ago at this point.

[00:04:40] And I still, I feel like I had my, my life supply, my life supply fix of curry at that point.

[00:04:46] I still have no desire to have more.

[00:04:49] I mean, I'll eat it.

[00:04:50] I'll eat it if it's served to me, but I'm not seeking curry yet.

[00:04:53] But for me, I think it's Indonesian food does not tend to be, and if anybody's listening

[00:04:58] is from Indonesia, they might hear this and they might go, how dare you?

[00:05:00] But I don't think it tends to be as flavorful as other parts of the food.

[00:05:03] I had the same thought when I was eating, when I was in Indonesia.

[00:05:06] Like I've lived in China.

[00:05:07] I've lived in, I've lived in Cambodia.

[00:05:09] I've visited Thailand and South Korea and Japan.

[00:05:12] I'm not saying I dislike Indonesian food.

[00:05:14] Like I just, I'm just saying the flavors are not as strong.

[00:05:18] And so going from there to India where every single meal is just packed to the brim with

[00:05:22] like so much flavor, your mouth almost hurts.

[00:05:24] For me, that was like, oh, thank goodness, flavor, flavor.

[00:05:27] Finally, like I can, you know, I can taste a bunch of things happening.

[00:05:30] But I, I, I, again, my, my kids were just like not for Indian food.

[00:05:33] We want, we want McDonald's.

[00:05:35] We want something else.

[00:05:36] We're so done with, you know, every meal burning our tongue.

[00:05:38] So again, I, I, I am, I am extremely grateful.

[00:05:43] 10 years of marriage with my wife can't beat it.

[00:05:45] We've had, we had an amazing time.

[00:05:48] But I, I, I don't know that I have any plans to currently go back unless there's, you know,

[00:05:53] a ministry reason that I need to.

[00:05:55] Mm-hmm.

[00:05:57] Uh, Troy, um, at my house, I have a deck in my backyard that overlooks, it's an elevated

[00:06:04] deck that, that overlooks the backyard.

[00:06:07] And living under that deck is a large snake that is very upsetting to me.

[00:06:16] And, uh, that's what I came home to today after work was, uh, a large snake that we saw last

[00:06:21] year hanging out.

[00:06:22] Yeah.

[00:06:23] And I thought it, I thought we got it, we got, we shooed away.

[00:06:26] It, it, it found another home.

[00:06:28] Uh, but I guess it was just hanging out over the winter because the literally exact same

[00:06:33] snake.

[00:06:33] And it's like, it's a harmless black rat snake, but it's a big snake.

[00:06:37] Like it's probably five, six feet long.

[00:06:40] Uh, and I don't want it.

[00:06:42] I don't like, I don't, so I, I don't, I don't do snakes.

[00:06:46] I don't, I don't, some people.

[00:06:47] That's true.

[00:06:47] You don't.

[00:06:48] I remember you did not like snakes.

[00:06:50] You were, I'm the one who doesn't like spiders and you're the one who didn't like

[00:06:53] snakes.

[00:06:53] Yeah.

[00:06:54] We make a good team that way.

[00:06:55] I'll kill your spiders.

[00:06:56] You kill my snakes.

[00:06:57] Uh, and we'll call it even, we'll call it good.

[00:06:59] Yeah.

[00:06:59] I don't mind spiders one bit, but, um, but I don't do the, the snakes.

[00:07:03] My wife looks at me like I'm crazy.

[00:07:06] Uh, and my son, uh, very cute.

[00:07:09] Three year old, uh, he named it Frank and he says, don't worry.

[00:07:14] It's a nice snake.

[00:07:15] It's, it's a, it's a, it's a friendly snake.

[00:07:17] Yeah.

[00:07:18] It's not, it's not a mean snake at all.

[00:07:20] It's friendly.

[00:07:20] So they're like best friends now.

[00:07:22] Um, don't know what I'm going to do.

[00:07:25] I'm, I'm not a, I, I am, I'm upset in, uh, in my inner being.

[00:07:29] I do not want to snake in my house.

[00:07:31] So, uh, don't know what I'm going to do.

[00:07:33] Cause it's sneaky.

[00:07:34] I can't figure out where it's going.

[00:07:35] It's, it, it slithers down from, from up above the deck to down below the deck, but

[00:07:40] I can't figure out where it's going.

[00:07:42] So see growing up in Florida, we would have where I lived.

[00:07:45] We had snakes get into our yards and stuff on a not infrequent basis.

[00:07:48] And so my dad was showed me that you just go get the shovel and you pound it on the head

[00:07:53] till it's dead.

[00:07:53] And that was, I did that multiple times as a kid.

[00:07:55] Yeah.

[00:07:56] But the thing was our snakes were water moccasins and stuff.

[00:07:58] So we were trying to kill them for good reasons.

[00:08:00] Good night.

[00:08:01] Um, I don't know.

[00:08:03] I don't know about your snake.

[00:08:04] It's not really a poisonous snakes.

[00:08:06] I don't, I feel bad.

[00:08:06] I'm not above killing it.

[00:08:07] I'll kill the snake.

[00:08:08] I ain't got, I ain't got no cores.

[00:08:10] Our shovel to the head till it's dead was the, was the motto that we had as a kid.

[00:08:15] Um, so you know, that, that is something you can consider and you might want to, maybe

[00:08:19] I'll, I'll bring up a shovel.

[00:08:22] I, I, I, I haven't had like an opportune attack moment.

[00:08:26] It's a, it's been my wife sending me videos of it and or like me seeing it as it's slithering

[00:08:32] away to hide underneath the deck.

[00:08:33] There hasn't been a real angle of attack that I could have on this thing, but maybe, maybe

[00:08:38] I need to keep that shovel off.

[00:08:39] You're a trained marksman.

[00:08:39] Are you against, are you, are you above shooting her?

[00:08:43] I've considered it on multiple occasions.

[00:08:45] I mainly don't want holes in my deck, uh, is the main thing.

[00:08:48] That makes sense.

[00:08:49] Also, I live in a...

[00:08:49] Well, but I mean if you, if that hole is in the deck and it's, and it's a, it's a,

[00:08:53] a battle wound of a snake, I mean that could be a story in and of itself.

[00:08:56] It's a story, yeah.

[00:08:57] I've been, I've been to your deck if you remember I was there last summer.

[00:09:00] It's, it's a beautiful deck.

[00:09:01] If there was one bullet hole where a snake bit it, that could be, that could be, I think

[00:09:05] you could make it work.

[00:09:06] Yeah, that's, that's, that's assuming A, I hit it the first time.

[00:09:10] Uh, and B also, it sounds like someone speaking from a non-homeowner point of view, man.

[00:09:16] Yes, of course.

[00:09:17] That's, I got repair costs on that thing.

[00:09:19] I got, I'm factoring in a air conditioning replacement, you know, that's eventually,

[00:09:23] the new roof that...

[00:09:24] Not to mention, the neighborhood value going down because now guns are being fired.

[00:09:29] Yeah, that's true.

[00:09:29] So, yeah, that's true.

[00:09:30] Neighborhood violence really went, oh, there's gunshots reported in my neighborhood all of

[00:09:34] a sudden, my house isn't worth as much.

[00:09:36] Yeah, there, there's a, there's a lot to consider there, but no, I'm not above killing it.

[00:09:40] I just haven't had a good opportunity to.

[00:09:42] And also, now my, now, now my son would be traumatized if I killed his friend Frank.

[00:09:48] I do.

[00:09:48] So, if you shoot Frank, that's, that's gonna, that's gonna be harmful to your son's relationship

[00:09:52] with you, I think.

[00:09:53] That's gonna be rough.

[00:09:54] Yeah.

[00:09:54] So, you actually gotta get rid of Frank in a way that, that son doesn't find out.

[00:09:57] I will say, we did have a snake get into our house, but we know, we live in Indonesia,

[00:10:00] so that's much more of a scary thing.

[00:10:02] And I didn't have a shovel.

[00:10:03] I couldn't find a shovel.

[00:10:04] Um, what did I, I, I dropped a theology book on his head and squished him that way.

[00:10:10] So, um, Herb and Bavin came in handy and took out a snake that had slipped into our house.

[00:10:15] I didn't, I didn't have time to look up if it was poisonous.

[00:10:17] It was kind of trying to get into my kid's room, literally going under the door and a

[00:10:21] theology book to the head dropped him dead.

[00:10:23] So that might be another thing.

[00:10:24] If you have one of those heavy 1200 page theology books, it's good for killing the snake and good

[00:10:29] for getting rid of Satan, right?

[00:10:30] This is the other snake.

[00:10:31] No, that was too much.

[00:10:33] Troy, uh, what you just described is literally my most horrifying nightmare to have a snake

[00:10:39] in my house trying to get under a door.

[00:10:42] Uh, there are a few things in life that I can imagine as a more horrifying scenario.

[00:10:47] So thanks for giving me nightmares, buddy.

[00:10:49] No worries.

[00:10:49] No worries.

[00:10:50] Well, we had just, so thankfully we had just gotten our dog.

[00:10:53] He, he would probably, we had him for one month.

[00:10:55] He was sniffing like crazy.

[00:10:56] We looked over and there was a snake.

[00:10:57] Now I looked it up where there's 90% chance that snake was out of the snake.

[00:11:02] It's actually not poisonous.

[00:11:03] There's a 10% chance that it was super poisonous, but I'm pretty sure it was not that kind of

[00:11:07] snake.

[00:11:08] There was like four different kinds of snakes with like a yellow line on their back.

[00:11:11] And like most of them were fine.

[00:11:12] One of them was really bad.

[00:11:13] I think it was one of the fine ones, but it was the middle.

[00:11:16] It was late at night.

[00:11:16] I didn't have time to check the Google tracker and I wasn't going to let him get into the

[00:11:20] kids room at in the dark to find, to have that battle in there.

[00:11:23] So I took them out.

[00:11:24] It's red on yellow.

[00:11:26] Kill a fellow red on black.

[00:11:28] Then I'm your dead Jack.

[00:11:29] Yeah.

[00:11:30] I always, I always heard it was red on yellow to kill a fellow red on black.

[00:11:34] You're dead Jack.

[00:11:34] Just kill the snake with a shovel.

[00:11:36] Get it done.

[00:11:37] Don't worry about it.

[00:11:38] That's the model.

[00:11:38] I scream run.

[00:11:40] Yeah.

[00:11:41] If it's a snake, take it out and deal with it later.

[00:11:44] No, I do like, I, it does makes me sound like a killer.

[00:11:46] I do like reptiles.

[00:11:47] We've had turtles.

[00:11:47] I do like snakes.

[00:11:48] I'm not actually, I, I'm a big fan of all of them, but, but if they're in my house and

[00:11:53] I can't tell what they are and it's night, you're going down and I will drop a, I would

[00:11:57] drop a theology book on your head straight up.

[00:11:59] So that's a pretty great story.

[00:12:01] That is a pretty good, uh, I'm not sure what the sermon illustration in there is, but

[00:12:04] there's something keep working.

[00:12:06] I, you know, it's funny.

[00:12:07] I actually had forgotten that that happened until this conversation that I, that it was

[00:12:10] a book that took them down.

[00:12:11] Okay.

[00:12:12] Joel, we should probably get into the episode.

[00:12:14] It's 12 and a half minutes in, but I think all of this was good commentary that the listeners

[00:12:17] are whipples.

[00:12:18] Should we talk about whipples?

[00:12:20] Yeah.

[00:12:20] We should.

[00:12:20] I'll give one positive response.

[00:12:22] I had one, I, we usually get positive responses.

[00:12:24] I try to collect them.

[00:12:25] I was out of town, so I wasn't able to collect as many as normal, but this one came to us

[00:12:29] on the pod bean server and pod bean is like a podcasting host that no one ever uses.

[00:12:36] And I was surprised to have one come in on there.

[00:12:38] This is the first comment we've ever had come in from the pod bean server.

[00:12:41] So I just had to add it in, but it was on our John Wesley sermon.

[00:12:45] Interesting antidotes, antidotes, sorry, anecdotes about Wesley and what a great reader.

[00:12:50] So thank you for throwing that in there from pod bean.

[00:12:53] We appreciate it.

[00:12:53] It doesn't have a name or anything.

[00:12:54] I just know that little thing.

[00:12:56] All right.

[00:12:56] So give us, that was on our most recent episode.

[00:12:59] John Wesley, justification by faith, read to us by a great reader.

[00:13:03] We had multiple people who thank us for that reader.

[00:13:05] And the reason they thanked us for that reader is because he was actually from Britain.

[00:13:08] So he had the proper accent, which was really great.

[00:13:11] That doesn't happen very often.

[00:13:12] We're always excited.

[00:13:13] So if you live somewhere where you have a fun accent, please write in and tell us what

[00:13:17] your accent is.

[00:13:18] And we'll try to get a sermon to match the accent.

[00:13:20] But if we tried to match every accent to every sermon, we wouldn't have a show because most

[00:13:24] people don't have the accents.

[00:13:27] Uh, Henry Whipple is new to me.

[00:13:30] Troy, did you, was he on your radar before this episode?

[00:13:34] Oh, come on.

[00:13:34] Everyone's a big fan of Whipple, right?

[00:13:36] We got the Whippleites out there that everyone's always, no, I had never heard of this guy.

[00:13:40] In fact, I actually, I found him by accident.

[00:13:42] I wasn't looking for him.

[00:13:44] I was looking for preachers that lived during the civil war because I was kind of like,

[00:13:47] are there any great sermons on the civil war?

[00:13:49] And I found a few here and there.

[00:13:51] This guy lived during the civil war.

[00:13:53] He preached against it, but through that kind of connection, I found his life.

[00:13:58] And I was like, what an amazing life he lived that I had never heard of.

[00:14:02] Yeah.

[00:14:03] One of, it's an old school Episcopalian preacher.

[00:14:07] Have we had any other Episcopalians on the show?

[00:14:10] If we have, it's only been like one.

[00:14:11] So Episcopalians, today they're not, they're not solid.

[00:14:16] Episcopalians are not known today as being solid biblical churches.

[00:14:18] I'm sorry if you're the one Episcopalian church that's going to write in and be like,

[00:14:21] hello, but no, like today they're not.

[00:14:23] At the time though, Episcopalians are just the American version of the Anglican church.

[00:14:27] And in the late 1800s, the Anglican and Episcopalian church hadn't gone as far down the road of

[00:14:32] liberalism and drift as they are obviously at today.

[00:14:35] And so there, you know, J.C. Ryle is an Anglican.

[00:14:38] C.S. Lewis is an Anglican.

[00:14:40] So there are some people that are really well respected that are in that tradition that today

[00:14:44] it's kind of in a very different place than it was then.

[00:14:46] So when you hear us talking about the Episcopalian church,

[00:14:48] we're not saying go out to your local Episcopalian church.

[00:14:51] It's a very different church today than it was then.

[00:14:53] Indeed. Indeed it was.

[00:14:56] Henry Whipple's born in the year 1822 in Adams, New York,

[00:15:02] and he was raised Presbyterian.

[00:15:04] But like we just mentioned at the age of 20 in 1842,

[00:15:09] influenced by his wife and his grandparents,

[00:15:11] he switched over to the Episcopalian church.

[00:15:15] He pursued ministry there.

[00:15:18] He was ordained and eventually became the leader of a church in Chicago.

[00:15:21] He was especially attentive to the immigrants of Chicago,

[00:15:26] people that weren't native there but were coming through.

[00:15:30] He seems to have a real big heart for people that are looked down on by society

[00:15:37] or not accepted by society as maybe a better...

[00:15:40] He really had a true burden and heart for these people.

[00:15:43] As his ministry grew and his position grew,

[00:15:47] he was eventually elected as bishop over the newly formed Minnesota region.

[00:15:53] And I don't know if you guys remember geography class in middle school.

[00:15:58] Minnesota in the mid-1800s was a very large space at this time.

[00:16:03] It included parts of Wisconsin and the Dakotas and Iowa.

[00:16:08] It wasn't what we think of now when we think of Minnesota,

[00:16:11] but that was his region that he was bishop over.

[00:16:14] And not long after arriving there,

[00:16:17] he found out that the group that needed ministering to the most,

[00:16:21] in his opinion, wasn't the Minnesotians,

[00:16:24] but it was the Native Americans that lived there.

[00:16:27] So the Dakota tribe specifically was one he worked with.

[00:16:30] It had been promised for years to...

[00:16:32] If they gave up their land that the U.S. government would pay them money on a regular basis,

[00:16:36] the Dakota tribe gave up their land and the payments never came.

[00:16:41] Whipple was alarmed that the people in these tribes had almost no real ways of making money.

[00:16:45] Like their entire life was basically farming, hunting, and a few other things they could do,

[00:16:49] but they couldn't work in society to make money and, you know, make a better way for themselves.

[00:16:55] Many of the tribes people were addicted deeply to alcohol.

[00:16:58] And because of all these problems they had had with the U.S. government,

[00:17:02] they were just completely shut off to the gospel.

[00:17:04] They were completely disinterested in anything that anybody had to say to them.

[00:17:07] So he mainly went to work forming relationships with them.

[00:17:11] He eventually got the nickname as Honest Tongue because they said, you know,

[00:17:14] you can't trust a lot of the white settlers, but you can trust Whipple.

[00:17:18] Which I think is...

[00:17:19] I mean, that once, if I knew nothing else about him,

[00:17:21] that one statement that he was known as an honest guy when no one else was,

[00:17:25] says a lot about his integrity and about his character.

[00:17:28] May we all be known that way, right?

[00:17:30] Like that would be good.

[00:17:31] He immediately went to try working and building relationships with them,

[00:17:35] but the ministry was very difficult.

[00:17:37] The Indians just did not trust Americans for understandable reasons.

[00:17:40] And he saw the government at the time as highly, highly incompetent.

[00:17:43] They would place tribes that were not allies with each other,

[00:17:46] basically into the same regions next to each other.

[00:17:48] They would give them cash payments when they really needed supplies like food,

[00:17:53] because yes, if you give...

[00:17:54] If the money does eventually make it and you give this tribe $100,

[00:17:57] what good does that do them if there's no stores and nothing to buy with

[00:18:00] and they're way out ostracized from society?

[00:18:03] They can't really...

[00:18:04] It's just very difficult situation they were in.

[00:18:07] In 1862, a war I had never heard of,

[00:18:10] the Dakota War erupted out there on the frontier,

[00:18:14] right in the middle of the American Civil War.

[00:18:16] And Indians then attacked these white settlements,

[00:18:19] which led to an all-out war for about five weeks.

[00:18:22] Hundreds of people were killed.

[00:18:23] The Dakota took a bunch of hostages.

[00:18:25] It was a big situation.

[00:18:27] And the result was that the tribes were exiled even further out.

[00:18:31] And the greatest, the highest execution,

[00:18:35] the largest number of people executed once by the U.S. government happened

[00:18:38] because of this war,

[00:18:40] where 38 people were executed at the same time.

[00:18:43] And it was a very unfair trial, basically,

[00:18:45] within minutes of capturing, of getting them in there.

[00:18:49] They had their trial guilty as soon as they saw them.

[00:18:52] And 38 of them were pretty much executed on the spot.

[00:18:56] Yeah, 38 is a lot.

[00:18:58] It was...

[00:18:59] They originally were trying to execute 300, though, originally planned.

[00:19:03] But it was because of Whipple's advocating

[00:19:08] that those other sentences were commuted.

[00:19:12] And this was due to Lincoln and, again,

[00:19:16] Whipple working with Lincoln to get the other 265 people commuted.

[00:19:23] And they were not popular because of it.

[00:19:25] Both Whipple and Lincoln got a lot of blowback for it.

[00:19:30] Whipple's peers treated him like crazy for sticking up with the...

[00:19:34] For the Dakotas because they were at war.

[00:19:36] But Whipple, you know, he saw the sad condition that they were in.

[00:19:40] And he recognized that it...

[00:19:43] He's, in his view, the fault of the American government, right?

[00:19:46] He's saying that these people didn't choose to be in this situation.

[00:19:51] He, throughout his life,

[00:19:52] and that's, I feel like, a pretty main line thread through his life

[00:19:55] is that he doesn't like war

[00:19:57] and he doesn't like how it divides people and tears people apart,

[00:20:01] regardless of the war.

[00:20:02] This is...

[00:20:03] Also plays into how we see him interact throughout the American Civil War,

[00:20:08] which would pop off here pretty soon as well.

[00:20:11] And he was a huge advocate against that war happening.

[00:20:15] He did visit the front lines on many times...

[00:20:18] He did visit the front lines on a few occasions

[00:20:20] to preach to soldiers on the Union side.

[00:20:23] But, again, in general, he found it hard to reckon

[00:20:29] and be a part of what's going on there.

[00:20:31] He has a quote where he says,

[00:20:58] He says,

[00:21:01] He's looking back on his consecration, his ordination,

[00:21:04] being with lots of people from the North and the South.

[00:21:07] And they were all on the same team then,

[00:21:09] but now they're at each other's throats.

[00:21:12] And it's not what God wants for us.

[00:21:15] Day-to-day, Whipple had a pretty difficult job.

[00:21:18] He often was visiting and traveling across the Dakotas and Minnesota

[00:21:21] in the middle of winter.

[00:21:23] Here is a description he had of one day.

[00:21:25] This is just a story from that time.

[00:21:27] The bishop was once lost in a snowstorm between New Ulm and Fort Ridgely.

[00:21:31] He said his prayers, got under his buffalo robes,

[00:21:34] and let his horse take the course.

[00:21:35] After traveling for some time, there was a halt.

[00:21:38] The horses had found a trail.

[00:21:39] Then the bishop saw a light in the distance

[00:21:41] in the house of the missionary who was expecting him to be there."

[00:21:44] I mean, I am personally from Florida,

[00:21:47] and I live in a hot country.

[00:21:48] I don't like the heat, but I also don't like snowstorms

[00:21:51] and can't imagine what it would be like to just go from home to home,

[00:21:53] house to house in the middle of these rural countries

[00:21:55] where the roads are barely even present through these snowstorms

[00:21:59] and spending that kind of day.

[00:22:00] That was the work he regularly did.

[00:22:02] In those days, when you visited someone like that,

[00:22:05] they didn't have a spare room.

[00:22:06] You all kind of piled in the same bed,

[00:22:07] so you'd be dirty and sweaty, gross from traveling.

[00:22:10] You're doing that house after house,

[00:22:11] and you're all crashing in the same place.

[00:22:13] Awkward, unfun, and yet that was his work,

[00:22:17] and he would do it all the time, year after year,

[00:22:19] until the age of 79.

[00:22:20] I just look at that and I go,

[00:22:21] man, that is a very respectable thing.

[00:22:24] I think there's going to be a crown in heaven for men

[00:22:26] that do work like that

[00:22:27] that I am not strong enough yet to do.

[00:22:30] I'll put it that way.

[00:22:31] He considered himself and his workers as missionaries.

[00:22:34] They were missionaries to the pioneers

[00:22:35] way out there on the rural frontier.

[00:22:37] They weren't usually Christians that were living out there.

[00:22:39] They were men who were trying to make their money,

[00:22:42] outcasts,

[00:22:42] the kind of people who move way out into the woods

[00:22:45] to make their way are usually not your most solid people,

[00:22:47] or a lot of them were not.

[00:22:49] They were tough men,

[00:22:49] but the kind of tough men that were not usually firm Christians.

[00:22:54] And then the other side of it is they were actual missionaries

[00:22:56] also directly to the Indians and the people,

[00:22:59] the tribes that had been so rejected.

[00:23:01] So you're going that he was trying to encourage these other Christians.

[00:23:05] And so he would spend a lot of time going and visiting the other Christians

[00:23:08] to encourage them to stay strong in the faith.

[00:23:10] There's a fun vignette about his life.

[00:23:14] Towards the end of his life,

[00:23:15] he was called back to visit with England,

[00:23:19] called by the Anglican Church there.

[00:23:20] And while he was there,

[00:23:22] he got honorary degrees from Cambridge and Oxford and Durham.

[00:23:26] And everyone in England really loved him.

[00:23:30] His reputation preceded him.

[00:23:32] There was an instance where the Archbishop of Canterbury

[00:23:35] asked a woman who was with him there at the time,

[00:23:38] who was the most beloved bishop in England?

[00:23:40] And she said,

[00:23:41] well, it's you, of course.

[00:23:42] And the Archbishop of Canterbury said,

[00:23:44] no, no, not at all.

[00:23:46] The most loved bishop in England is the bishop from Minnesota.

[00:23:50] On that same trip,

[00:23:52] Queen Victoria had a private audience with him.

[00:23:55] Queen Victoria was also very old at this time.

[00:23:57] They were both very old.

[00:23:58] In fact, both of these individuals would die within months of this meeting.

[00:24:02] No one knows what happened in this meeting,

[00:24:05] but we do know that Queen Victoria was a big fan of Whipple

[00:24:10] and hopefully had some great compliments for him.

[00:24:14] Whipple held his seat over Minnesota for 42 years

[00:24:18] and several times was elected as the governor over Indian Affairs.

[00:24:22] And he helped write and fix many treaties over his lifetime.

[00:24:35] Whipple is one of those men we'll need to cover on future episodes.

[00:24:38] He actually had several great sermons,

[00:24:40] and I had a hard time narrowing down which one to do.

[00:24:43] And there were some things in his life

[00:24:45] that I just couldn't figure out where to put them in this biography.

[00:24:47] For example, the Florida Conservationist Society for environmental stuff.

[00:24:51] It's called the Florida Audubon Society.

[00:24:53] I elected him as a president one year,

[00:24:55] and I'm like, how did Florida and this guy in Minnesota connect on that issue?

[00:24:59] He helped encourage the church at the time to send missionaries to Cuba.

[00:25:03] Florida, his son was murdered by a man who wrote into a newspaper after he did it.

[00:25:08] I murdered him to fix a wrong done to me.

[00:25:11] And like, I want to know more about that story, but I just hadn't, again, not the time to research.

[00:25:15] It didn't really fit with the flow.

[00:25:17] But the point is there's a lot more to his life that I'd be interested in learning about.

[00:25:21] But for me, I chose this sermon because he was speaking to a group of leaders in Minnesota's churches.

[00:25:27] These are the men that are running these frontier missionary churches together.

[00:25:31] They had to be tough, and they were in a tough ministry field.

[00:25:34] Brutal winners.

[00:25:36] You know, all these different people that weren't interested in hearing the gospel.

[00:25:39] Alcoholism everywhere.

[00:25:40] And he describes the work they had to do and what kind of ministers they needed to be to do it.

[00:25:45] And although we are probably not teaching on rural wagons and snow-covered Dakotas, most of us,

[00:25:51] like they were in the late 19th century,

[00:25:53] I think the principles of what the missionary churches needed to get along in these really tough frontier environments,

[00:25:59] I think a lot of what he's saying to those leaders in Minnesota then,

[00:26:02] apply to a lot of us today as well.

[00:26:19] Brothers in the Lord,

[00:26:20] My goal, which I desire to reach,

[00:26:23] is that you may thoroughly understand the work of a missionary church.

[00:26:27] No subject could be more suitable for this holy day to teach us, like St. Barnabas of blessed memory,

[00:26:34] to be sons of comfort.

[00:26:36] The Lord Jesus Christ made his church a missionary church when he appointed its ministry

[00:26:42] and gave to them the pledge of his presence to the end of the world.

[00:26:47] The work of a missionary church is the salvation of souls for whom Christ died.

[00:26:52] Nothing less can be its aim.

[00:26:55] It's work today, but the results are for eternity.

[00:27:00] Wherever there are sinful men, the Lord has sent the missionary church to it.

[00:27:04] To all the Spirit and the Bride say come.

[00:27:08] No age, nor sex, nor rank, nor color, nor race is accepted.

[00:27:15] To turn aside from any suffering sinful man is to substitute man's selfishness in place of the overflowing love of God.

[00:27:26] It is to give up grace for nature, to make the church of Christ a human sect,

[00:27:32] to shelter pride and so dare to limit the redemption on the cross.

[00:27:38] In the relations of this work to our small denomination,

[00:27:42] the subject naturally divides itself into three topics.

[00:27:46] One, the nature of the field which God has entrusted to our care.

[00:27:51] Two, the means provided of God to carry on his work.

[00:27:55] And three, the way in which his stewards must use his means.

[00:28:01] The field is the work.

[00:28:04] Every department of missionary work has a justified claim upon the love and sympathy of Christian hearts.

[00:28:11] The man who loves the Lord Jesus must love all who work for him and rejoice with them over every trophy of his grace.

[00:28:19] There must be for stewards a special stewardship for which they will give an account on the day of judgment.

[00:28:27] For us, our field is Minnesota where God has sent us as pioneers for his church.

[00:28:34] Even here, we have entered into the labors of others.

[00:28:38] With gratitude, we remember the reliability of the first missionary who came here 25 years ago as the chaplain of a border post,

[00:28:47] and who still lingers with us, like old Jacob, worshiping from the top of his staff.

[00:28:54] I remember the little company who 12 years ago pitched their tent by St. Paul and many others who followed them,

[00:29:02] some of whom have now entered into rest.

[00:29:06] The field is still new, for our work is not only to eradicate errors, but also to occupy the vineyard of the Lord,

[00:29:14] and win the first pioneers and their children, that we may mold for Christ the men who are to eventually mold the state itself.

[00:29:24] The work is difficult in its physical aspects.

[00:29:28] The vast area of scattered hamlets, the distances to be traversed, the prairies to be crossed, the wilderness to be explored,

[00:29:37] the heathen Indian to be won, and the hardships and poverty of pioneer life make the work ahead very difficult.

[00:29:44] It requires no ordinary amount of energy for 20 men here to care for a country larger than all of England,

[00:29:53] and unless prepared to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ,

[00:29:59] we will never in any respect leave our mark upon the state.

[00:30:05] The work is difficult for the worldliness of Western life.

[00:30:09] The love of gold has tempted thousands to adventure in the restlessness of this Western life.

[00:30:15] That daring energy which makes the manliest type of manhood admirable when guided by holy principle,

[00:30:22] becomes the meanest kind of selfishness when it is not.

[00:30:25] If gold is the only end, it will be found here by trickery, by falsehood, by extortion,

[00:30:33] by worldly work without a day of rest, and by a life without faith in God or a hope of heaven.

[00:30:41] The work is difficult by apathy.

[00:30:44] There are thousands of men among us who believe all truths of religion are merely questions about words and names.

[00:30:53] They have been bewildered by the constant division, or grew up untaught in holy truth,

[00:31:00] or having cast off God, were permitted to fall into brutish indifference.

[00:31:05] It is sad that an American citizen is almost the only man who lives without religion.

[00:31:13] This complete apathy is often harder to combat than open-ear religion and sin.

[00:31:19] It stands unmoved from every influence which could mold the heart.

[00:31:24] It lives without God and might write on the portals of its door the old Corinthian motto,

[00:31:29] Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

[00:31:33] There is no poetry in this work among indifferent men.

[00:31:37] There are no outstretched arms of Macedonians pleading for help.

[00:31:42] You might even question whether these men knew they had souls to be saved or not.

[00:31:48] The heart is dead and cold.

[00:31:51] They have cast off God, and sin holds them in its unchallenged possession.

[00:31:56] To reach such men, to break up this ice-bound sea, to lead them out of their numb stupor, is a work of difficulty.

[00:32:04] The only message which can reach such hearts is in the love of Jesus Christ.

[00:32:13] The work is difficult by irreligion.

[00:32:16] The border is always Satan's battleground.

[00:32:19] The man who is far removed from home ties and the restraints of religion becomes neglectful.

[00:32:26] He reads no Bible.

[00:32:28] He makes no prayer.

[00:32:29] He acknowledges no Lord's Day.

[00:32:32] He has no church, and so lives without God.

[00:32:36] Infidelity seeks a shelter here.

[00:32:39] The unclean infidelity of filthy lies and scoffs and unmanly sneers.

[00:32:44] The brazen infidelity, which repeats criticism answered a thousand times before, and states

[00:32:50] fresh lies, which worships Voltaire or pain, and denies the Son of God, Jesus.

[00:32:57] Or the infidelity of doubts, created by divisions within denominations, which denies every doctrine

[00:33:04] of the revelation of God, denying the Christian covenant to little children, denying the existence

[00:33:10] of the Church of Christ, denying the Bible and the atonement, and even daring to call the

[00:33:17] Lord of Glory a mere man.

[00:33:20] Much of this awful record is the fruit of false preachers who never believed in or lived for

[00:33:27] Christ.

[00:33:28] I have met men upon the border, an unbaptized man, in almost heathenish darkness, who knew

[00:33:36] no Bible, Sunday church, or Savior.

[00:33:39] And yet this man came here claiming to be a minister of Christ.

[00:33:45] There have been others among us who are now leaders of infidelity, who came here professing

[00:33:52] to be heralds of the cross.

[00:33:55] The work is difficult to win the heathen Indian of our state to Christ.

[00:34:01] Wherever heathenism and civilization meet in conflict, either the civilization will become

[00:34:07] heathenish, or the heathenism must become civilization.

[00:34:12] You know how sad the record of our border is.

[00:34:16] The work for these poor heathen wards is made more difficult by the shameless wickedness

[00:34:22] of our own white race and by the robbery and wrongs of our Christian nation, whose broken

[00:34:28] faith calls for the vengeance of Almighty God.

[00:34:32] It is hard, very hard, by the unkind opposition and covert evil of the sworn workers of the cross.

[00:34:41] It is God's work.

[00:34:44] They are men for whom Christ died.

[00:34:47] There is no precedence at the cross.

[00:34:50] They are dying men, and though the whole world opposes us, we must preach to them the everlasting

[00:34:57] gospel.

[00:35:00] The work is difficult by the anguish of these troublesome times.

[00:35:05] We are all of yesterday, and when these blows fall, we have nothing to fall back upon.

[00:35:12] With us, everything is to be done.

[00:35:16] Churches to build, schools to found, Bibles to scatter, prayer books to distribute, Sunday

[00:35:22] schools to plant.

[00:35:23] All this work to be done in our poverty, where often the missionary is at his wits' end to

[00:35:29] know how he can secure his daily bread.

[00:35:32] His bread is always like God's manna, of which he saves nothing for tomorrow.

[00:35:38] To do such work well, where we have neither men nor means to help us, needs the largest faith

[00:35:47] in God.

[00:35:49] The greatest difficulty, the worldwide difficulty, is in sin, in hearts which are in rebellion

[00:35:57] against God, which hate whatever stands in their way to warn us of death and hell.

[00:36:04] The field, with all its difficulties, is a hopeful field.

[00:36:08] The pioneer is generally a man of warm and generous heart.

[00:36:12] His very isolation gives him longing for companionship.

[00:36:16] His sense of need and desire to have a teacher makes him give a hearty welcome to the minister

[00:36:22] of Christ, who seeks him in his home.

[00:36:26] The rough contact of Western life opens avenues which lead straight to the heart.

[00:36:33] The pioneer is himself a powerful motivator, and if one to Christ, he will mold other hearts.

[00:36:40] There is a self-reliance nurtured in the hardships of a border life which makes a manly race of

[00:36:48] men.

[00:36:50] You know what others have dared to do at other calls of duty, and will they not be braver soldiers

[00:36:56] for Jesus Christ and have the manliness which is godliness?

[00:37:01] The danger is in superficial work.

[00:37:05] There are so many cares to choke the seed, so many temptations of Satan to steal it, so

[00:37:12] much to force it into an unnatural growth, that we must dig deep.

[00:37:17] We must nourish it with prayer.

[00:37:20] We must rely alone upon the work of the Holy Spirit on the hearts of our work, or all will

[00:37:26] be useless.

[00:37:27] The means provided of God to carry on his work are first, the ministry of Christ.

[00:37:37] There must be a clear idea of the authority and responsibility of the Holy Office, or our

[00:37:43] defective view will surely mar all our work.

[00:37:47] It is the will of God, that by the foolishness of preaching they will be saved who believe.

[00:37:53] How will they believe in him who they have not heard?

[00:37:56] How will they hear without a preacher?

[00:37:58] How will they preach except when they are sent?

[00:38:02] The ministry is sent by the Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:38:05] It is the Lord's.

[00:38:08] He bought it with his blood.

[00:38:10] He sent it to be his.

[00:38:12] Wünschst du dir jemanden, der dich versteht wie kein anderer?

[00:38:16] Jemand, der deine Wünsche wahr werden lässt und mit dir das schönste Abenteuer deines

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[00:39:07] Ambassador, the minister of the church must believe this with all his heart or he has no

[00:39:14] right to stand beside her altars.

[00:39:17] If he doubts it, it is mockery for him to claim to be God's ambassador.

[00:39:23] How can he preach?

[00:39:25] How can he treat dying men?

[00:39:27] How can he pledge to them forgiveness?

[00:39:29] How dare he claim to admit men to God's covenant if he is not sure that he has the authority from

[00:39:36] God?

[00:39:37] This authority must come from Christ or it is nothing.

[00:39:42] It is not enough to claim the necessity of Christian teachers.

[00:39:47] It is no question of expediency or fitness.

[00:39:51] The minister's authority must come from God or he is not God's ambassador.

[00:39:56] The ministry must preach God's message in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[00:40:04] There is something very dreadful in the responsibility of a commissioned servant of the Most High God.

[00:40:10] There will come the temptation to turn aside for worldly themes.

[00:40:15] These have no right to enter the church of Christ.

[00:40:20] We have only one message for dying sinful men.

[00:40:23] It is salvation alone by Jesus Christ.

[00:40:27] We must preach Christ.

[00:40:30] Christ crucified, Christ risen, Christ ascended, Christ the mediator, and Christ the judge.

[00:40:38] There must be no daubing with untempered mortar.

[00:40:41] No crying peace where the Son of Peace has not created the heart anew.

[00:40:46] For the name of Jesus is the only name given under heaven by which we can be saved.

[00:40:53] We must proclaim man's lost estate by nature and the impossibility of all our own merit.

[00:41:01] We must preach the need of grace and pardon, the gift of Christ the eternal Son,

[00:41:08] and the redemption on the cross.

[00:41:11] The way to come in the living faith which makes us just in Christ,

[00:41:16] and the life to live in the source of strength.

[00:41:19] And we must preach the church our home.

[00:41:22] All these great doctrines of the cross will always be upon our lips and fill our hearts.

[00:41:28] In preaching these we must be earnest.

[00:41:32] There must be no wandering at the outposts of the heart,

[00:41:36] no trifling, no trying to make the gospel better by our own personal decorations.

[00:41:42] We must speak as dying men to dying men,

[00:41:45] and tell other weary men of Christ, who has been to us a refuge and a savior.

[00:41:52] There will be, in such a preacher, loyalty and love for the church of Christ.

[00:41:58] He will lead the wandering sheep to his Savior's fold.

[00:42:02] He will make them the saviors by adoption in his family,

[00:42:05] through that Savior's covenant in holy baptism.

[00:42:09] He will teach them to confess Christ's name,

[00:42:12] and seek for grace in the laying on of hands.

[00:42:15] He will teach them to draw near to the table of the Lord,

[00:42:18] to feed by faith upon his body and his blood.

[00:42:23] The sacraments in the church can never be to a loyal man mere idle forms.

[00:42:30] They were clothed upon with life when they were appointed by the Son of God.

[00:42:34] And so loving faith will look within, and worship and adore Christ its Lord.

[00:42:41] In maintaining as you must maintain the necessity and grace of Christ's sacraments,

[00:42:47] and the obligation of men to enter the fold of Christ, his church,

[00:42:53] these holy doctrines must not be presented to dying men as mere forms for their value,

[00:42:59] that by faith, which looks only for safety of the cross.

[00:43:06] One reason for the unhappy controversies which disturb our peace,

[00:43:10] is the attempt to define what God has not defined,

[00:43:14] to place limits upon the grace of God,

[00:43:17] or establish boundaries which tell the time, the means,

[00:43:20] and the precise way which the Holy Spirit molds the heart anew.

[00:43:25] There is in this carping of this time something of the spirit of the Pharisees,

[00:43:33] who troubled the blind man that had been healed by our Lord.

[00:43:38] Say, how did he open your eyes?

[00:43:42] For like that poor blind man, we can only say,

[00:43:45] I don't know, I only know, I was blind, but now I see.

[00:43:53] Men are seldom bewildered by the plain commands of their Savior.

[00:43:57] They are not all like the Syrian commander Naaman,

[00:44:01] who doubted the appointment of God.

[00:44:03] If they have faith to ask from the heart, what must I do to be saved?

[00:44:07] If they have faith to look alone to Christ for safety,

[00:44:10] they will have faith to obey Christ's words.

[00:44:14] The great difficulty is in overloading the simplicity of the cross

[00:44:19] with the abundance of cautionary reasoning.

[00:44:22] The safe way is to preach Christ,

[00:44:25] and work in the ways of His Holy Church.

[00:44:28] Loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ is loyalty to His Church,

[00:44:32] and there is no lack of clarity in maintaining the oneness of the Church of Christ.

[00:44:37] I know of only one Church in the New Testament,

[00:44:41] and it was visibly planted by the apostles,

[00:44:44] and against it the gates of hell have not prevailed.

[00:44:48] I only know of one Christian faith proclaimed by that one ministry,

[00:44:54] in that one Catholic and apostolic Church.

[00:44:57] I know of only one Lord, one faith and one baptism,

[00:45:02] set forth in the revelation of God.

[00:45:04] The way to use this ministry, faith, and worship of the Church,

[00:45:12] demands the most serious thought.

[00:45:16] Into whatever field you enter,

[00:45:18] you are sent from God to all within your care.

[00:45:23] Unless impossible by reason of obligations already made,

[00:45:27] the Church must always be free.

[00:45:31] The open door, the ready welcome, and the brotherhood of a free Church,

[00:45:36] proclaim as no other Church can proclaim,

[00:45:39] a Gospel for all who need a Gospel.

[00:45:43] The free Church is built upon that broad truth,

[00:45:46] that the hearing of the Gospel must be as free as the invitation is free.

[00:45:52] If this is true,

[00:45:54] if we cannot sell so much Gospel for so much money,

[00:45:58] if the poor, the neglectful, and the wandering

[00:46:01] must be constrained to make the Church their home,

[00:46:04] then it is right, and if it is right, it is expedient.

[00:46:08] It will cost trials, hardships, and self-denials,

[00:46:13] but the duty once settled must not be questioned.

[00:46:18] If God says, go forward,

[00:46:21] the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud

[00:46:24] will lead us to perfect safety.

[00:46:26] The larger part of our population

[00:46:30] are men who have been reared in other communions,

[00:46:33] and every custom of the Church will be strange to them.

[00:46:37] You go among them,

[00:46:39] not to be a warring son of Ishmael

[00:46:41] with your hand against every man,

[00:46:43] and every man's hand against you.

[00:46:45] You do not go to them to try and teach them

[00:46:48] your particulars of theology,

[00:46:49] which unbelieving lips cannot speak or understand.

[00:46:54] You go to be the shepherd of these souls,

[00:46:58] and must win them to Christ their Savior.

[00:47:02] As far as in you it is possible,

[00:47:05] you must be all things to all men,

[00:47:08] not by flattering pride,

[00:47:11] nor apologizing for error,

[00:47:13] nor by compromising on sin,

[00:47:16] but as a man among men,

[00:47:18] sharing their weaknesses,

[00:47:20] bearing their trials,

[00:47:22] and seeking to win them to the truth.

[00:47:26] Opposition will create opposition,

[00:47:28] and though you may silence the critic,

[00:47:31] he will not be won.

[00:47:32] He still lurks behind his wall of prejudice.

[00:47:35] But when you have won his heart,

[00:47:38] he becomes your pupil,

[00:47:39] and you may lead him wherever you will.

[00:47:43] To remove unjust prejudices,

[00:47:46] care should be taken to explain the meaning of every custom of the church.

[00:47:51] It should be done as a friend speaking to friends,

[00:47:54] and the people urged to unite with you in worship.

[00:47:58] And this will help avoid that worse-than-heathen irreverence,

[00:48:01] which sits idly gazing around the room in the hour of prayer.

[00:48:05] The service is wondrous and beautiful,

[00:48:08] but no man ever knew its beauty until,

[00:48:10] on his bent knees,

[00:48:12] it became the language of his heart.

[00:48:15] The preacher must be the pastor.

[00:48:18] The shepherd must know his sheep and call them all by name.

[00:48:22] It is the only way to give to your preaching,

[00:48:26] that directness which will go straight to the people's hearts.

[00:48:30] In pastoral visits,

[00:48:32] there must be that heartfelt interest in all that concerns the home,

[00:48:37] which makes the feel that the pastor is their truest friend,

[00:48:40] and there will always be waiting on the lips of those higher Christian truths,

[00:48:45] a word of counsel,

[00:48:48] a pointing to the cross,

[00:48:50] an invitation to the church,

[00:48:53] and wherever it can be,

[00:48:55] a gathering of the household for prayer.

[00:48:59] There are homes where none but the pastor will ever pray,

[00:49:02] and nothing so goes to the heart as Christian counsel consecrated by prayer.

[00:49:13] In pastoral visits,

[00:49:15] the wanderer and neglectful must never be skipped.

[00:49:18] They never pray.

[00:49:20] They never read God's word.

[00:49:22] They never enter his church.

[00:49:23] Their hearts are dead.

[00:49:25] But for all this, we are called to save them.

[00:49:29] They must be constrained to come.

[00:49:32] At first, your invitation will be unheeded.

[00:49:35] The tongue long used to scoff may answer with a sneer.

[00:49:41] There will come a time when God will speak to them.

[00:49:45] A wife or child will die.

[00:49:48] They will stop and think how insane their life has been.

[00:49:52] And then your words will all come back again.

[00:49:55] The open door of your free church will look like a blessed home and they will come.

[00:50:00] They could not stay away,

[00:50:02] for they have at last found that they need a Christ and Savior.

[00:50:08] Brothers,

[00:50:09] the day has come when we are called to fulfill the Lord's command,

[00:50:14] to go into the highways and hedges,

[00:50:16] and compel men to come to the feast of the gospel.

[00:50:20] In all your visits, seek to awaken a love for God's holy word.

[00:50:24] We would all be startled if we knew how little it is read.

[00:50:28] It is scattered everywhere.

[00:50:31] It is on every shelf.

[00:50:33] It is in every home.

[00:50:35] But men no longer treasure it,

[00:50:37] as the voice of God speaking to themselves.

[00:50:40] We must help men who have lost their household altar to build it anew.

[00:50:46] There are too many godless homes,

[00:50:49] and it is something to have helped men to make their home a Bethel.

[00:50:54] There must be tracts, and Bibles, and books of common prayer,

[00:50:58] and Sunday school books scattered throughout the land.

[00:51:01] The door which now lets in so much evil by a depraved literature

[00:51:06] must be the door of good to reach men's hearts.

[00:51:09] The missionary and the church are too poor to provide for these needs.

[00:51:15] But there are in Eastern homes thousands who love Christ's work,

[00:51:20] and who will aid you when they know what a messenger of mercy

[00:51:25] one good book is in a pioneer's home.

[00:51:30] There must be catechetical teaching.

[00:51:33] The positive law of the church is broken by many of the clergy and people

[00:51:38] to the peril of children's souls.

[00:51:41] The law of the church is that the ministers of every parish

[00:51:45] will diligently, upon Sundays and holidays,

[00:51:49] or on some other convenient occasions,

[00:51:52] openly, in the church, instruct or examine

[00:51:57] so many children of his parish sent to him

[00:52:00] as he will think convenient in some part of the catechism.

[00:52:05] And all fathers and mothers, masters and mistresses,

[00:52:10] will cause their children, servants, and apprentices

[00:52:13] who have not learned their catechism

[00:52:15] to come to the church at the time appointed,

[00:52:19] and obediently to hear and to be ordered by the minister

[00:52:23] until such time as they have learned

[00:52:26] all that is here appointed to learn.

[00:52:30] The curse of your religion, irreverence and infidelity,

[00:52:34] which is the desolation of our land,

[00:52:37] comes from the lack of Christian training for children.

[00:52:41] There is a whole library of sound theology

[00:52:45] in that old church catechism,

[00:52:47] which for 300 years has given the sturdy strength

[00:52:51] to English character.

[00:52:53] Its plain words of duty to God and duty to our neighbor

[00:52:57] cover all of a Christian life.

[00:53:00] These truths, planted in a child's heart,

[00:53:03] are never lost.

[00:53:05] It would be a blessing if the catechism of the children

[00:53:08] was a regular service, at least once each month,

[00:53:13] for many of the people would learn out of the mouths of babes

[00:53:16] and the children would learn out of the church.

[00:53:20] The Sunday school, blessed though it is,

[00:53:24] cannot supply the catechizing of the pastor.

[00:53:28] Without it, the child will be very apt

[00:53:31] to regard the Sunday school as an institution outside of the church,

[00:53:36] the one for grown men and the other for children.

[00:53:39] This must not be.

[00:53:42] The child should hear his mother's voice

[00:53:44] and feel her fostering care from the day he becomes God's child

[00:53:49] in holy baptism.

[00:53:51] His life should be incorporated within the church

[00:53:54] and it made his home

[00:53:56] and he feel himself from childhood

[00:53:58] a candidate for confirmation and holy communion.

[00:54:02] Then there would be fewer Eli's

[00:54:05] weeping over apostate sons.

[00:54:08] These children are lambs of Christ.

[00:54:14] If I am right in these truths,

[00:54:16] it is a great mistake to attempt to mold these children

[00:54:19] to be earnest Christians in any school

[00:54:22] which does not recognize the Christian faith.

[00:54:25] We have no right to separate what God has joined.

[00:54:28] The spiritual and the intellectual culture must go hand in hand.

[00:54:33] It is beyond foolish to trust the work of half an hour on Sunday

[00:54:38] to undo the neglect of six days irreligion.

[00:54:42] The child enters the school at that age

[00:54:45] when impressions are powerful

[00:54:47] and you have saved him from a thousand pitfalls of Satan

[00:54:51] if he is trained in a Christian school.

[00:54:54] I need not speak of those insidious falsehoods

[00:54:58] which have crept into every walk of academia

[00:55:00] which distorts the plainest facts of history

[00:55:04] which pervert the truths of natural science

[00:55:06] and teach a scholarship that does not know God.

[00:55:12] One remedy for much of this widespread evil

[00:55:15] is in the Christian school

[00:55:17] where a pastor's watchful eye guards his Savior's lambs.

[00:55:22] It is a work of great difficulty

[00:55:24] but one which pays back all its toil.

[00:55:28] There are many who mourn in secret

[00:55:31] over years spent in irreligion and sin

[00:55:34] wasted in school.

[00:55:39] The greatest of all pastoral work

[00:55:41] is to teach the people how to work.

[00:55:46] It is a misfortune to the church

[00:55:48] that we have not among us more

[00:55:50] of those holy guilds of other times

[00:55:52] which enabled many holy men and women

[00:55:55] to devote their lives to works of love and mercy

[00:55:58] and until there is a way opened for us

[00:56:01] to restore such institutions for work

[00:56:03] which were once a glory to the church.

[00:56:07] Until we have a real order of deacons

[00:56:10] serving Christ's flock

[00:56:11] and caring for his poor.

[00:56:13] Until we have Christian deaconesses

[00:56:15] who may be ministers of mercy to the young

[00:56:18] the sick and the poor.

[00:56:20] until the land can point to its wayside homes

[00:56:23] which may God hurry in his time

[00:56:27] the people must be taught how to work.

[00:56:31] As it is

[00:56:32] while nearly all of work for God

[00:56:35] is thrown on a pastor's weary shoulders

[00:56:37] while the laity feel too often

[00:56:40] that every duty has been done

[00:56:42] if they provide their pastors bread.

[00:56:45] A strong individuality has crept into the church

[00:56:48] of these latter days.

[00:56:50] Not individuality of work

[00:56:52] but of dreams and speculations

[00:56:55] until even Christian men

[00:56:57] seem to feel that their only work

[00:56:59] is to have a comfortable assurance

[00:57:01] of a heaven beyond the grave.

[00:57:04] Every baptized man is Christ's soldier

[00:57:07] and has a post of duty.

[00:57:10] The surest way heavenward

[00:57:12] is to help someone else to go there.

[00:57:15] The man who has grasped the hand of Christ

[00:57:17] must reach out his other hand

[00:57:19] to help someone else.

[00:57:21] There is no such thing as a selfish Christian.

[00:57:25] If the love of Christ is in the heart

[00:57:28] it will glow with love.

[00:57:30] It will long to do it

[00:57:32] and will find ways to do it.

[00:57:34] Work brings work

[00:57:37] and brings gladness.

[00:57:40] The Christian laity of the church

[00:57:42] both sons and daughters

[00:57:44] must long to testify of their love for Christ.

[00:57:48] There must be a plan

[00:57:50] and the church must look to the plan

[00:57:53] and God will bless the work

[00:57:55] and it will widen and deepen

[00:57:57] to lead other souls to Christ.

[00:58:00] In the church

[00:58:01] there are teachers to be provided

[00:58:03] for the Sunday school

[00:58:05] visitors to care for the sick and poor

[00:58:07] lay readers to hold missionary services

[00:58:10] in the adjoining neighborhoods

[00:58:12] and faithful committees to see

[00:58:14] that their pastor has his daily bread.

[00:58:17] Anyone who desires can find work to do.

[00:58:21] It is blessed work.

[00:58:23] There may be among these lambs of Christ

[00:58:26] a boy whom you can train

[00:58:28] to be another future leader

[00:58:29] and a life is well spent

[00:58:32] who could do such a work for God.

[00:58:34] In your cottage

[00:58:36] it may be a hovel

[00:58:38] your lord and master lies

[00:58:40] a sick helpless sufferer

[00:58:42] and though you see not

[00:58:44] in that weak face

[00:58:46] anyone besides a poor pauper

[00:58:48] the day will come

[00:58:49] that Jesus will say

[00:58:51] in as much as you did it

[00:58:53] for one of the least of these my children

[00:58:56] you did it for me.

[00:59:00] There is a lack of pastors.

[00:59:03] The heart of every bishop is faint

[00:59:05] with hearing men pleading

[00:59:07] for the bread of life.

[00:59:09] It makes one's heart ache

[00:59:10] to see these opening fields

[00:59:12] and none descend.

[00:59:15] One would say would God

[00:59:17] all the people were among the prophets.

[00:59:19] If our laymen knew the power of Christian laymen

[00:59:22] if they would only feel

[00:59:24] that they were called to be fellow laborers

[00:59:26] if they would go out to plan mission Sunday schools

[00:59:29] to hold where their pastor required help

[00:59:32] occasional lay services

[00:59:34] to drop a word of loving invitation

[00:59:37] to gently try to lead the wanderer to Christ

[00:59:40] we should no longer lament

[00:59:43] over fields ripe for the harvest

[00:59:45] and no laborers to send.

[00:59:47] This work would all be done under a pastor's eye.

[00:59:51] Every church has now some such worker

[00:59:55] most often a frail woman

[00:59:57] made strong by the grace of God

[01:00:00] whose work is worth to the pastor's heart

[01:00:02] more than all the flock beside.

[01:00:06] Why should we not all be workers?

[01:00:09] It is the only way to vindicate the honor

[01:00:12] of the bride of Christ.

[01:00:13] Too long has a sleepy church been crying

[01:00:17] The temple of God, the temple of God are we.

[01:00:21] The glory of the church is to be a working church.

[01:00:26] In leadership there are always new fields to be occupied.

[01:00:31] Our own leadership has many such who plead for help.

[01:00:35] It is all missionary ground.

[01:00:38] I could name a score of villages

[01:00:40] which need to have a clergyman of the church

[01:00:43] where now is the golden hour of opportunity

[01:00:46] and if lost the work is marred for a score of years.

[01:00:51] There is here everything to move the heart to venture for God.

[01:00:56] The seed scattered here will bear fruit a hundredfold.

[01:01:01] There are here heathen tribes at our door

[01:01:04] going down to death without a savior.

[01:01:07] None know what sorrow it has cost my heart to see the church

[01:01:11] turn its back on work like this.

[01:01:15] None know what anguish it causes me

[01:01:18] to meet the coldness and often sneers of men

[01:01:21] in work for heathen at our door.

[01:01:25] But none of these things move me.

[01:01:27] There is love enough in the cross for them as well as me.

[01:01:32] And I have today single lambs of that poor race

[01:01:36] that would overpay me a hundredfold for every thorn on which I have stepped.

[01:01:43] Whatever may be your views of the prospect of Indian missions

[01:01:46] there are not two sides as to our duty

[01:01:49] to address the shameless wrongs

[01:01:52] these hapless Indians have suffered at our hands.

[01:01:56] Unless faith in God is dead

[01:01:58] and so we have no fear of his avenging wrath

[01:02:01] unless all sense of shame has fled

[01:02:04] unless our hearts have lost all manliness

[01:02:06] and we refuse to hear the plea

[01:02:08] that a Christian nation must keep its honor to its words

[01:02:13] we all have something to do

[01:02:16] to undo the wicked past

[01:02:18] which makes the blackest page of our nation's history.

[01:02:23] There must be missionary interest

[01:02:26] in missionary work.

[01:02:28] Each church needs to have its missionary meetings

[01:02:32] so that the people might know what brave hearts are daring to do for Christ.

[01:02:37] The stories of such work in East and West

[01:02:40] and North and South

[01:02:42] would make our hearts burn with love

[01:02:44] and we should long to take something we called our own

[01:02:48] and offer it for Christ.

[01:02:51] The day has come

[01:02:53] when we must learn to sacrifice

[01:02:55] and to give.

[01:02:57] We did not give largely in days of prosperity

[01:03:00] and for this our wealth has been put into a bag of holes.

[01:03:05] America has spent every week of this year

[01:03:08] more money in war

[01:03:10] than all which has been spent on missions

[01:03:13] since America was discovered.

[01:03:16] It was a mistake to rob God.

[01:03:20] Christians must learn to give as a privilege.

[01:03:24] They must learn that alms and prayers are always to be blended.

[01:03:28] The more the people give, the more they will long to give.

[01:03:32] They will give as to God

[01:03:34] and according to the measure of God's law.

[01:03:36] The tenth of everything was offered as a free will offering by the patriarchs.

[01:03:41] It was made a part of God's law for the support of his priesthood

[01:03:45] under the Elder Covenant

[01:03:47] and no Christian dared to say the gospel is here narrower than the law.

[01:03:53] The days when the church has lengthened her court

[01:03:55] and strengthened her stakes

[01:03:57] have always been days when the people have brought all the tithes into the storehouse

[01:04:02] and then God has opened the windows of heaven

[01:04:05] and poured out a blessing that there was no room to receive it.

[01:04:11] Brethren of the laity,

[01:04:13] I have the right to speak plainly to you

[01:04:15] concerning your duty to those who are over you in the Lord.

[01:04:20] The clergy tell me their sorrows

[01:04:22] and there are no words

[01:04:24] and where no word has been spoken

[01:04:26] I have seen it with my own eyes.

[01:04:29] I know of no class

[01:04:31] on whom these fearful times have fallen with such crushing weight

[01:04:35] as upon the clergy

[01:04:37] precluded from any other source for relief

[01:04:40] too sensitive to tell their trials

[01:04:43] they have borne them as only brave soldiers of Christ could do.

[01:04:48] Not one of my missionaries has abandoned his post.

[01:04:52] Of our four self-supporting churches only one is left

[01:04:56] and he at the call to serve his country.

[01:05:00] In patience the clergy have borne their trials

[01:05:03] and many a time from the depths of my heart

[01:05:06] I have thanked God that I was rich in such fellow laborers

[01:05:11] and I gave them all I had to give

[01:05:14] the love of a bishop's heart.

[01:05:16] But brethren of the laity,

[01:05:19] have you done all you can do?

[01:05:22] I know your poverty,

[01:05:24] how these times press heavily on pioneers' shoulders.

[01:05:27] I have seen on the border poverty equal to any I have ever met

[01:05:31] in the lanes of a city.

[01:05:34] But have you given gladly of the little?

[01:05:37] Or have you taken it for granted

[01:05:39] that because your pastor lived last week some way

[01:05:42] he will get on somehow the next?

[01:05:45] If you have no money to give

[01:05:48] you can give some offering in kind

[01:05:50] and it will often be of double value

[01:05:52] because it tells his aching heart

[01:05:54] that you love and remember him

[01:05:56] who is over you in the Lord

[01:05:57] and that you have not neglected your Lord's injunction

[01:06:01] to esteem him very highly for his work's sake.

[01:06:05] And when you give,

[01:06:06] remember, it is no alms to a religious beggar,

[01:06:10] it is simply fulfilling the law of Christ.

[01:06:14] I trust that none of you ever have or will be guilty

[01:06:17] of that shameless sin

[01:06:19] which withholds its bounden duty to God

[01:06:21] because it could not control the pastor

[01:06:24] or because you differed in some matter of doctrine

[01:06:27] or opinion or discipline.

[01:06:29] There is something so utterly unmanly

[01:06:33] in such an attempt to starve out a servant of the Most High God.

[01:06:38] I pray this meanness and this sin

[01:06:41] may never lie at any of your doors on the Day of Judgment.

[01:06:45] The real practical difficulty is in careless indifference.

[01:06:53] One thoroughly earnest man can remedy this evil in any church.

[01:06:58] He can talk about it.

[01:06:59] He can devise ways and means to reach other hearts.

[01:07:02] He can call out the gifts of others.

[01:07:05] He can plant his feet on simple justice.

[01:07:07] He can see that whatever his church does,

[01:07:10] it does regularly, promptly and cheerfully.

[01:07:13] And brethren, I wish no richer reward

[01:07:17] for such a noble-hearted man than the blessing of God

[01:07:21] which will surely come.

[01:07:24] There are men among us

[01:07:26] who would have been hopelessly bankrupt by these times

[01:07:29] if God had not rewarded them for work like this.

[01:07:34] There is no place where your stores are as safe

[01:07:39] as in the treasury of God.

[01:07:43] The clergy have no right to shrink from declaring

[01:07:45] the whole counsel of God.

[01:07:47] No delicacy of sentiment should keep them from declaring

[01:07:51] on the testimony of God

[01:07:52] that He has ordained that they who preach the Gospel

[01:07:56] shall live of the Gospel.

[01:07:58] And it was of this that it is written,

[01:08:01] Be not deceived, God is not mocked.

[01:08:05] Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.

[01:08:10] An apostolic church will never have apostolic fruit

[01:08:15] until it works in an apostolic way.

[01:08:19] When Christian men will take away this reproach

[01:08:22] and cease this robbery of God,

[01:08:25] we will no longer hear of vineyards unplanted

[01:08:27] and an impoverished treasury.

[01:08:29] In all our work, we need a livelier faith,

[01:08:34] a deeper love, and more perfect consecration

[01:08:37] of all we have and are to Christ.

[01:08:40] The pastor must be to the people

[01:08:42] none other than the ambassador for Christ

[01:08:45] to whom they look in all things as their shepherd

[01:08:49] to lead them to the green pastures of divine truth.

[01:08:53] The people must be to us as the Lord's dear family

[01:08:58] whom He has purchased with His own precious blood.

[01:09:03] We live too far apart.

[01:09:05] We do not feel each other's beating hearts.

[01:09:08] There are too many emotes to blind our eyes

[01:09:11] and keep us from seeing the image of Christ

[01:09:14] formed in each other's hearts.

[01:09:17] Our very isolation in missionary work

[01:09:21] tends to strong individuality of character

[01:09:23] and is apt to beget jealousy and impatience of control.

[01:09:28] We need most of all nearness to Christ.

[01:09:32] We must gain it by devout prayer,

[01:09:35] by diligent study of God's Word,

[01:09:37] by frequent communion,

[01:09:39] by daily ever renewed consecration to God.

[01:09:42] Whenever this will come to us in apostolic measure,

[01:09:46] we will vindicate the honor of an apostolic church

[01:09:49] by apostolic fruit.

[01:09:52] I sum up all of holy work for Christ in these few words.

[01:09:57] Take your stand, as men beside the dying men,

[01:10:02] and from the needs of your own souls

[01:10:05] proclaim man's lost estate by sin,

[01:10:07] his utter helplessness and need.

[01:10:09] And when you have caught their ear,

[01:10:12] point them out of themselves to an incarnate Savior.

[01:10:17] Tell them of his infinite love,

[01:10:19] that he became their brother,

[01:10:21] that he redeemed them on the cross,

[01:10:23] that he is their mediator and friend on the right hand of God.

[01:10:27] Tell them often of the stories of his love,

[01:10:30] as found in holy gospel,

[01:10:31] and bring these stories home with all the love of one

[01:10:35] who has found Christ as Savior.

[01:10:37] Then, when men's eyes are fastened on the cross,

[01:10:42] teach them to seek for the Holy Spirit

[01:10:45] to recreate and renew their fallen nature

[01:10:48] until they, poor sinful men,

[01:10:52] are transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

[01:10:57] And above all,

[01:10:59] teach them that religion has to do with this workday world,

[01:11:04] that it is not alone for sentimental people

[01:11:07] or for the sick, the aged and the dying.

[01:11:10] It is God's gift for that earnest man

[01:11:13] whose pulse beats with life at its full tide.

[01:11:16] It is for that man whose busy hand and head

[01:11:20] make him a motive power

[01:11:22] and who needs, above all other men,

[01:11:24] faith in God.

[01:11:27] Brethren,

[01:11:29] we need a higher life,

[01:11:31] a deeper life,

[01:11:32] a life of faith to do such work well.

[01:11:36] We are living in one of the most wonderful periods of history

[01:11:41] when the world seems to move with a quicker step.

[01:11:44] It is an age of workers,

[01:11:47] and the religion that can control such men

[01:11:50] must vindicate itself by its fruit

[01:11:52] as the gift of God.

[01:11:55] Brethren,

[01:11:56] the end we ought to seek

[01:11:58] is to win this whole state to Christ.

[01:12:01] We are not here to make a dignified sect

[01:12:05] for the worldly,

[01:12:06] the fashionable,

[01:12:07] and the wealthy.

[01:12:08] God sent us here

[01:12:10] to extend an apostolic church.

[01:12:13] We are all of yesterday,

[01:12:15] but the church was planted in Jerusalem.

[01:12:18] This denomination

[01:12:20] is a branch of the vine which the Lord planted.

[01:12:24] It must either grow and bud

[01:12:26] and bear abundant fruit

[01:12:28] or wither and die.

[01:12:31] Its growth depends alone

[01:12:33] on work and grace.

[01:12:36] Its life comes alone from Jesus Christ.

[01:12:40] Three years of our work have ended.

[01:12:43] My heart misgives me

[01:12:44] as I think how little has been done.

[01:12:48] I feel today as if our only place

[01:12:51] was at the foot of the cross.

[01:12:53] For all your love,

[01:12:55] which has been like music to my ear,

[01:12:57] for all your work, your faith,

[01:12:59] I thank you.

[01:13:01] You do not know how often

[01:13:03] a bishop's robes cover an aching heart.

[01:13:07] You know not what St. Paul meant

[01:13:09] by the care of all the churches.

[01:13:12] Some things have been gained.

[01:13:14] You love each other better.

[01:13:16] Your hearts are nearer than three years ago,

[01:13:19] and I trust the day will come

[01:13:21] when ours will be a union without a cloud,

[01:13:24] and our hearts be as the heart of one man

[01:13:28] in love for each other

[01:13:30] and love for Christ.

[01:13:45] There was one part in the sermon

[01:13:47] where he talks about how the Word of God

[01:13:48] is scattered everywhere.

[01:13:50] If we knew just how little the Word of God

[01:13:52] was actually being read in our homes,

[01:13:54] it might shock us.

[01:13:55] And I think that that is still very true today.

[01:13:58] We live, a lot of us are, you know,

[01:14:01] you might not be going to India

[01:14:02] and living in Indonesia like I am currently,

[01:14:04] but just a lot of us live in a society

[01:14:05] where the Word of God is kind of present,

[01:14:08] but it's off to the side.

[01:14:09] Like it might be in books,

[01:14:10] it might be around,

[01:14:11] you might even see it in public here and there,

[01:14:12] but it's just not being read.

[01:14:15] People are not treasuring it.

[01:14:17] And he very much points out

[01:14:18] that if you want to be men and women

[01:14:21] that have an impact on the world around you,

[01:14:24] you have to be people who treasure the Word of God.

[01:14:26] You have to be encountering it deeply.

[01:14:29] It has to be living deeply inside of you.

[01:14:31] And if you will be those people,

[01:14:33] you will have an amazing impact

[01:14:34] and your life will reflect it and show it.

[01:14:37] But if you're not,

[01:14:37] and if you are just living for the moment

[01:14:39] and doing it on your own strength,

[01:14:40] you're not going to the Lord in prayer,

[01:14:41] you're not living the life Whipple was talking about,

[01:14:44] then you're not going to have that impact

[01:14:45] that's going to make it in those tough situations.

[01:14:48] And I think for the average Christian

[01:14:50] who's trying to live for God today,

[01:14:52] that is something all of us can do.

[01:14:53] Treasuring that Word of God deeply,

[01:14:54] encountering it deeply,

[01:14:56] reading it and knowing it well,

[01:14:57] and letting it pour out of you

[01:14:59] will make all the difference.

[01:15:12] Thank you for listening to today's episode

[01:15:14] of Revived Thoughts.

[01:15:16] Today's sermon was narrated by Jason Stanley.

[01:15:19] Jason is a former United Methodist pastor

[01:15:21] who earned a bachelor's degree

[01:15:23] at Christian Ministries from Indiana Wesleyan University,

[01:15:27] and a Master's of Theology Studies

[01:15:29] from Duke Divinity School.

[01:15:31] If you enjoyed this episode of Revived Thoughts,

[01:15:33] we ask that you share it with others.

[01:15:34] I think it's very encouraging.

[01:15:35] If you have a pastor, a minister,

[01:15:37] someone in ministry,

[01:15:39] someone that you know that's maybe going through a hard time,

[01:15:41] share this sermon with them.

[01:15:42] I think they will be encouraged by the story

[01:15:44] of Henry Whipple and how his long, faithful service,

[01:15:47] the very end of his life he was recognized for it

[01:15:49] by the Queen of England,

[01:15:50] the famous Queen Victoria,

[01:15:51] and how much of an impact he made.

[01:15:54] But also just share it,

[01:15:55] I think it's good food for thought

[01:15:56] for everyone in ministry to think about.

[01:15:58] We live in hard times.

[01:15:59] We often are trying to think of new ways

[01:16:01] to reach the culture,

[01:16:01] but I think sometimes reading and listening

[01:16:04] to these old sermons of people

[01:16:05] who had to go to tough places before,

[01:16:07] often that is where we will learn the real way

[01:16:09] to reach people from hard places.

[01:16:12] This is Troy and Joel, and this is Revive Thoughts.