St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-07-20
Every Man Who in This Life Takes His
Case Out of the Hands of the
Almighty.
Many Wise People Acting Very Silly in
Regard to the Technicalities of
Religion.
Where Will You Go After Leaving
the Offices and Work of This
World.
Do Not Waste Time in Critfcising and
Wondering in the Presence of
Heaven.
DIR. TaIm ages Sermon.

mad in their hands and scrabbled upon the
doors of the gate and let his spittle fall
down upon his beard"
There is one scene in the life of David
that you may not have pOndered. You
have seen him with harp playing the
devil out OF Saul; with sling smashing the
skull of Goliath; with sword hacking to
pieces the PhiliStines; with scepter ruling
vast realm; with psalm gathering all ma
tiOns into doXOlOgy, but in my text you
have David playing the fool. He has been
anOinted king, yet he is in exile and pass
ing incOgnitO among the Gathites. They
begin to suspect who he is and say: Il
wonder if this is not the warrior, King
David? 1t looks like him. Is not this the
man about whom they used to make
poetry and about whom they composed
dance so that the maidenS of the land, reel
ing now on one foot and now on the other,
used to sing: Saul has slain his thou
sands but David has slain his tens of thou
sands" Yes, it is very much like David.
1t must be David. 1t is David" David,
to escape their hands, pretendS to be de-
mented. He said within himself: ''If
act crafty, then of course these people will
not injure me. No one would be so much
of 4 coward as to
ASSAULT A MADMAN.
So one day while these Gathites are
watching David with increased suspicion
they see him standing by the door and run
ming his hands meaninglessly up and down
the panels, scrabbling on the door as though
he would climb up, his mouth wide open,
drOOling like an infant. l suppose the
boys of the streets threw missiles at him,
but the sober people of the town said:
''ThiS is not fair. Do you not see that he
has lost his reason? Do not touch this
mailman. Hands off! Hands OFF, TAX
| ing the behavior of David as suggestion,
l wish to tell you how many of the wise
and the brave and the royal sometimes
play the fool. And in the first place re-
mark that those men as badly play the fool
as this man of the text, who i'll any
| crisis of life take their case out of the hands
of God. David in this case acted as though
there were no God to lift him out of the pre-
dicament. What contrast between his
behavior when this brave little man stood
up in front of the giant, ten feet in height
and looking into his face said: ''ThOu
| contest to me with sword and with a
spear and with shield; but / come to thee
| i'll the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God
of the armies of Israel whom thou has de-
fed. This day will the Lord deliver thee
into my hand and | will smite thee and take
thine head from thee and will give the
carcasSes of the host of Philistines this day
unto the fowls of the air and to the wild
beasts of the earth, that all the earth may
know that there is God in Israel" Be
tween that time and this time he
DEBAsED HIMSELF,
bedraggled his manhood and affected in
sanity in order that he might escape from
the grip of the Gathites. In the one case
he played the hero. In the other case he
| played the fool. So does every man who,
in the great crises of life, takes his case out
of the hand of God. The life of the most
Insignificant man is too vast for any human
management. Once while returning from
the West, 1 very easily got on the lOcomO-
| tive while passing over the plains, and
talked with the engineer; but coming on
toward the Allegheny mountains, thought
l would like to sit OH the locomotive as it
came down from the mountains amidst that
most wonderful scenery on this continent.
l asked the engineer if L might ride, but he
cOurteOusly denied me, for there the grade
| is so steep and so winding and so perilOus
| that he must not have any one on the loco
motive who may divert hiSattention, when
| eye and hand and foot and brain must be
! concentered, ready for the most sudden
| emergency. Well, my friends life is so
steep and so perilouS and SO exposed to
sudden surprises that none but the Lord
Almighty can guide and engineer it,
| and our disasters come from the
| fact that we want to get up and help the
Lord to manage the train. Keep off the
engine! Be willing to let God pull you
where He wants to pull you. You have no
| right for an instant to surrender your san
| ity and manhood as David surrendered his.
| Put your trust in God and He will take you
through and over the mountains. 1 very
much suspect that all the successful enter
priseS that were ever carried OH, and all
the
| SUCCESSFUL LIVES
that have ever been lived, have been fully
surrendered to God. Again, 1 remark
that all those persons play the
fool, as certainly as did this man
| of the text, who allow the technicalities of
religion to stop their salvation. David was
wise about a great many things, but his
cuttings up in the text for a little while
eclipsed his character. And 1 know wise
men and great men, competent for all other
stations, who are acting a silly and fool
ish part in regard to the technicalities
which we cannot answer categorI-
cally and so they burst into a
broad guffaw, as though it is of any more
interest to us than it ought to be to them.
About the atonement, about Gods DEGREES,
about mans destiny, they ask great many
questions which we cannot answer, and so
they deride us, as though we could not ask
them a thousand questions that they cannot
answer, about their eyes, about their ears,
about their finger-nails, about everything
A fool can ask question wise man can
not answer. O., you caviling men! o, you
profound menl o, you learned men, do
please admit something. You have a soul?
| Yes. Will it live forever? Yes. Where?
You say that Jesus Christ is not divine
savior. Who is He? Where will you go
after you leave your law books and your
medical prescriptions and your club room
and your newspaper ofiice-where will you
go to? Your body will be six feet under
ground. Where will your soul be? The
black coat will be off, the shrOud ON. Those
spectacles will be removed from your vision,
for the sod will press your eyelids. Have
you any idea that an
EARTHLY ALMANAC
describes the years of your lifetime? OF
what stuff shall 1 gather the material fol
the letters of that word which describes
your eternal home? Shall it be iron chain
or amaranthine garland? The air that stirs
the besweated locks of your dying pillow,
will it come off garden or desert? Oh,
quit the puZZlng question and try these
mOmentouS questions. Quit the small
questions and try these great questions
Instead of discussing whether the serpent
in Eden was figurative or literal, whether
the Mediterranean fish did or did not swal
low the recreant prophet, whether this an(
that and the other thing is right or wrong
come and discuss one question, 'sHow shal
/ get rid of my sins and win heayen?'
That is the question for you. Yea, Their
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