Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-07-20
A Scathing Sermon Against Those Who
Refuse to See the Truth in
Religion.
GREAT VALUE OF THE WORD aNow."


into doxology; but in my text you have
David playing the fool He has been an
nointed king, yet he is in exile and passing
incognito among the Gathites. They begin
to suspect who he is and say: II wonder if
this is not the warrior King Dayid' 1t
looks like him. Is not this man about
whom they used to make poetry, and about
whom they composed dance, 80 that the
maidens of the lane, reeling now on one
foot and now on the other, used to sing;
Saul has slain his thousands but David has
slain his tens of thousands" Yes. 1t is
very much
Like David.
II must be David 1t must be David.
David to escape their hands pretended to be
demented. He said within himself "If /
act crafty then of course these people will
not lpiute me. No one would be so much
of a coward as to assault a madman. So
cne day while these Gentiles are watching
David with increased suspicion, they see
him standing by the door and running
his hands meaninglessly up and dows'tbe
misunderstanding on the door as though
he would climb up hislmouth wide open,
droolipg like an infant. suppose the boys
of the streets threw missiles at him, but tee
sober people OF the town said: This is not
fair. Do you not see that he has lost his
reason2 Do not touch this madmau
Hands off! Hands off! So David escaped
but what an exhibition he made Of himself
before all ages There was majesty in
in King Lear's madness after Regan and
Goneril, his daughters, had persuaded him
to Danish their sister Cordelia, and all the
friends of the drama have bean thrilled with
that spectacular. The craziness OF Meg
Merilies was weird and imposing and the
most telling passage in Walter Scotfs Guy
Mannering. There was fascination about
the insanity Of Alexander Cruden who made
the best concordance of the Bible that The
world ever saw-made it between the mad
houses. Some time ago while | was visit.
ing the insane asylum on BLACKWELL Island
q demented woman came up to me and said
in most tragic style:
"God moves in Q mysterious way,
His wonders TO perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm"
But there was
Nothing Grand,
nothing weird, nothing majestic, nothing
sublime about this stimulation on the part
of David. Instead of trusting in the Lord
as he had on other occasions, he gathered
before him vast audience Of all genera
lions that were to come and standing on
that conspicuous stage Of history In the
presence of all the ages he impersonstes the
slaverinp idiot And he changed his be-
hsyior before them and figured himself
mad in their hands and scrabbled at the
door OF the gate and let his spitde fall upon
his beard
Taking
The Behavior OF David
ss suggestion wish to tell you how many
of the wise and the brave and the regal
sometimes play the fool And in the first
place remark that those men as badly
played the fool as this man Of the text, who
in any crisis of life take their case out OF the
hand of God, David in this case acted as
though there were no God to left him out ofthe
uredicament. What contrast between his
behavior when this brave little man stood
ND in front of the giant, ten feet in height
and looking into his face said: Thou
comest 10 me with o sword and With spear
and with q shield; but come to thee in the
rame of the Lord Of Hosts, the God OF the
armies of Israel whom thou hast defed.
This day will the Loed deliver the into my
hand and will smite the and take thine
head from thee and viii give the carcass
of the host OF the 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 a God in Israel between that time
and this time, when he debssed himself aud
bedraepled his manhood and affected in
sanity in order that he might escape from
the grin of the Gothites. 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. / very easily
gUt on the locomotive while passing over
the plains, and talked With the engineer;
but coming on toward the Allegheny noun
tains, / thought would ike to sit on the
locomotive as it came down from the noun
tains amidst that most wonderful scenery
on this continent. asked the engineer II
might ride, but be eourteously denied me
for there the grade Is 90 steep and % WIND
ing and so perilous that he must not have
any one on the locomotive who may divert
his attention when eye and hand, and foot
and brain, must be concentrated, ready tor
The most sudden emergency. Well, my
friends. life Is 90 steep and 90 PerilouA and
so exposed TO sudden eurprises, that none
but the Lord Almighty can guide ana en-
gineef is p
Our Disasters
come from the fact that We want to get up
and help the Lord to manage the train.
Keep of the enginel Be Wiling to let God
pull you where be wants to pull you. Yoa
have no risht for an instant to surrender
your sanity and manhood as David surren-
dsfed his. Put your trust IN God and be
will take you through and over the moan
taina very much suspect that sll the
successful enterprises that were ever car
ried on and all the successful lives thss have
ever been lived have been fully surrendered
to God. When the girl Victoria was awak-
ened in the night and told that the throne
Of Great Britain was hers. she said to the
prtlate informing her: Il ask your pray
ers." and then and there they knsh dom
and prayed Do you wonder thst though
since that time al the thrones Of Earops
haze fallen or been fearfally shaken. hers
stsnds a. firm as the day she ascended It,
and in every country under the sun, vher-
ever an EngfshmAn hears that name pro.
noanced, be feels ike waving his hat and
crying: God save the Qaeenf That man,
thar Souan. who put that trust IN God. will
go through in triumph; while those Who at
tempt TO gather under their osn slpsrvision
the iDtrica.e and slsborsie affairs OF tas'r