Transcribed from the 1888 “Joyful News” edition byDavid Price,
by
THOMAS CHAMPNESS.
“joyfulnews” book depôt,rochdale.
MDCCCLXXXVIII.
p. iB. Wrigley& Sons, Limited, Printers, Acker Street, Rochdale.
ELIZA M. CHAMPNESS,
MY WIFE AND TRUEST FRIEND,
this
COLLECTION OF FRAGMENTS
isoffered
BY HER YOKE-FELLOW IN THEGOSPEL.
Rochdale,
September, 1888.
This is a book made up of fragments. The Master oncesaid “Gather up the fragments that nothing belost.” It may be that victuals will be found herethat may feed those who cannot sit down to a meal. Many ofthe articles have appeared in Joyful News already, but,perhaps, are none the worse for that. We send out thislittle book in the hope that both crust and crumb will beeaten!
If the men who farmed England in the olden time could return,few things would surprise them more than the condition of theland. Many a field now bearing good crops each year, was in“the good old times” moorland or fen. Sheep andcattle graze where once only wild birds could live. Drainage has made the change. The land, once too cold andwet to allow anything valuable to grow, has been by grips anddrain pipes, made to produce food for man and beast.
Is it not so on God’s farm? “Ye are Hishusbandry,” and just as the farmer knows that if he cannothave his wet land drained, his seed will be starved, or the youngcorn perish with the cold, so we who toil in the Lord’sfields need to learn that in many places the first thing to bedone is to
Drain theLand.
Do any of our readers complain that they cannot get an answerto their prayers for a revival, and that all the preaching andteaching seem to be wasted? Let us advise them to lookunder the surface. Are there not
Causes for theFailure?
Would it not be well to try what draining the land woulddo? Are the most influential men cold and unresponsive tothe call of the Spirit? What sort of people take the leadin the prayer meetings? Are they left to the zealouspoor? p. 2Does every man of wealth and culturehurry home and leave the preacher to shift for himself? Whoare the stewards? Are they men who will do their utmost towelcome strangers, or does their example tell on others so muchthat a visitor never has a word of welcome or a grip of thehand? What is the singing like? Is it of thecolourless, tame style, whose only sign of life is the rapidgallop which kills devotion in so many places?
How is the Bible read by the preacher? Does he confinehimself to the narrow round which he has read so often in theears of the people that it has lost its charm—or does heseek out that