The New York herald., 1875-12-06
FIFTH AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH.

DR. ARMITAGE ON "a HANDFUL OF ARRows''-
EFFORT.
The Fifth avenue Baptist church attended ycster-
day morning by unusually large and fashionable
congregation. The pastor, Rev. Or. Armitagc
pied tho pulpit preaching on "a Handful OF Arrows y
The text Of the discourse was taken from H. Kings
Kill. 1419-'Now Elisha WAS fallen sick of his sickness
whereof he died. And Joash tho King gof Israel came
down unto him, and wept over his face and said, my
father my father tho chariot Of Israel and the horse
men thereof And Elisha said unto him, Take bow
and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows
And he said TO the King OF Israel Put thine hand
upon tho bow And he put his hand upon It, and
Elisha put his hands upon the Kings hands And he
said, Open the window eastward And he
opened It, Then Elisha said, Shoot And no
shot. Aud he said The arrow of the Lords de-
liverance and the of deiiveranco from Syria
for thou shalt smlte the Syrians in ApheK till thou have
consumed them And he said Take the arrows. And hc
took them. And he said the King OF Israel Smte
upon tho ground And he smo'c thrice and stayed. And
sh0udst have smittcn five or six times; then haist thou
smittcn Syria ill thou hadst consumed IL: whereas
now thou shalt smitc Syria but thricen
The preacher then made the following points ap-
pliCation Of the text
F,yst-As Christians we are TO aim high Our aspira-
tons should be noble lives void OF offence toward
God and man, hearts pure and Tree from guile We
should not be satisfied with little grace We should
concentrate efforts and endoav0rs achieve
pctc conquest the world the flesh and the devil
remembering that exertion Is the Of gucccss
Second-Wc are net only to have aim in life,
thing TO live for but to follow up the aim With
commensurate efforts The King put his hand upon
the bowthat symbolical OF the part he had per-
form. In other words, the toll is
7Hird-Wbilc 1t IL absolutely indispensable that do
part, both the aim and the effort must upon
God for His blessing Without His help all human
effort is futile The that shoot the arrow Of
the Lords deiyerancc. Tho strong hand OF the King
must rest upon the bow the Prophets hand must
upon tho Kings. The PROPHETS hand, added to the
effort OF the Kings, brings the blessing while ours is
the toll Of God only. Blessing and effort
spiritual, we'll temporal affairs, weddod in
separately.
E0mti-The handful OF arrows and tho wrath of
the Prophet al the Kings staying hts hand after having
smitten the earth hut thrice that will win
only often strike. The King but thrice,
and but thrice he won. Eshs's zeal greater than
his strength His spirit was willing, bnt the flesh
weak but what it that restrained the King Most
likely his doubt-that invctcratc enemy Of great
achevemcnt-of success in any. undertaking. He
lacked that trcless zeal which wins by perseverance.
To you, my friends, | say Strike seven times
yea seventy times Seek many victories Let
your arrows fly thick your foes. Smitc often and
With the whole handful and rest assured that you will
win many victories; that God will smile upon your
Efforts and you will reap glorious reward
Dr. Armitage spoke with all the vehcmcncc Of his
earnest, ardent nature, and With visible effect upon
1is hearers At tho conclusion OF the tho
Of the Lords Supper administered, a very
largo number psrtaking oft In the evening the sub
jcct Of tho discourse was "a Hard Heart"