The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-10-14
AT THE TABERNACLE.
DR.. TALMAGE CALLS ON CHRISTIANS
TO SAVE THE WORLD.

Men of God Should Take the Platform
and Study Science and Philosophy and
Geology, SO They May Combat InfdeI-
ity With Its Own weapons.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, Oct. 1o.-At the Taber-
nacle this morning the Rev. T. De Witt Tai
mage, d. D., after expoundiug passages of
Scripture, gave out the hymn beginning:
How firm foundation, We saints Of the Lord,
Hath He laid for your faith in Hisexcellent wordl
The text of the sermon was 1 Samuel xiii,
1921: 'Now there was no smith found
throughout all the land of Israel: for the
Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them
swords or spears: But all the Israelites went
down to the Philistines, TO sharpen every man
his share, and his coulter, and his AK, and his
mattock. Yet they had file for the mat
tocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks,
and for the axes. and to sharpen the goads."
DIR. Talmase spoke as follows:
What CALLING subjugation for the Israel
ties! The Philistines had carried off all the
blacksmiths and torn down all the black
smiths shops and abolished the blacllsmiths'
trade in the land of Israel. The Philistines
would not even allow these parties to work
their valuable mines of brass and iron, nor
might they make any swords or spears. There
were only two swords left in all the land.
Yea, these Phiiistines went on until they had
taken all the grindstones from the land of
Israel, so that if an Israelite farmer wanted
to sharpen his plow or his axe he had to go
over to the garrison Of the Philistines to get
it done. There was only one sharpening in
strument left in the land, and that was
file. The farmers and the mechanics
having nothing to whet up the coulter,
and the goad, and the pick ak, save a simple
cally disgraced. The great idea of these
Philistines was to keep the Israeltes disarmed.
They might get iron out of the hills to make
swords of, but they would not have any
blacksmiths to weld this iron If they got
the iron welded they would have no grind
stones on which to bring the instruments of
agriculture or the military weapons up to an
edge. o, you poor, weaponless ISraelites, re-
duced to file, how pity you'll But these
PhiliStines were not forever to keep their heel
on the neck of Gods children. Jonathan, on
his hands and knees, climbs up great rock
beyond which were the Philistines; and his
arnor bearer, on his hands and knees, climbs
up the same rock, and these two men with
their two swords hew to pieces the Philis-
tines, the Lord throwing great terror upon
them, So it was then, so it is now. Two
men of God on their knees, mightier than
PhilistiDe host On their feetl
1. learn first from this subject how dan
gerous it is for the church of God to allow
its weapons to stay in the hands of its enc
mics. These Israelites might again and again
have obtained a supply of swords and
weapons, as for instance when they took the
spoils of the Ammonites; but these Israelites
seemed content to haYe no swords, no spears,
no blacksmithS, no grindstones, no active
iron mines, until it was too lete for them to
make any resistance. I see the farmers tug
ging along with their piekaxes and plow, and
l say: "Where are you going with those
things!' They say: "Oh, we are going over
to the garrison of the Philistines TO get these
things sharpened." 1 say: "You foolish
men, why don't you sharpen them at homer
@Oh," they say, "the blacksmith shops are all
torn down, and we have nothing left US but
a file,"
So it is In the church of Jesus Christ to-
day. We are too willing to give up our weap-
ons to the enemy. The world beasts that it
has gobbled up the schools, and the colleges,
and the arts, and the sciences, and the litera-
ture, and the printing press. Infdelity is
making mighty attempt TO get all our weap-
oEs in its hand, and then to keep thenl You
know it is making this boast all the time, and
after a while, when the great battle between
sin and righteousness has opened, if we do not
look out we viii be as badly off as these Israel
without any sharpening Instruments call
upon the superintendents of literary institu-
tions to see to it that the men who go into the
class rooms to stand beside the Leyden jars,
and the electric batteries, aild the microscopes,
and telescopes, be children of God, nst Phil
istines, The Carlylean, Emersonian and
TyndaIIean thinkers of this day are trying to
get all the intellectual weapons of this cen
tury in their own grasp, What we want is
scientific Christians to captaFe the science,
and scholastic Christians to capture the
scholarship, and philosophic Christians to
capture the philosophy, and lectgring Chris
tians to take back the lecturing platform.
We want to send out against Schenckel and
Strauss ard Renan Theodore Christlieb, of
Bonn; and against the infidel scientists of
the day, a God-worshiping Silliman and
Hitchcock and Agassiz. We want to capture
all the philosophical apparatus, and swing
around the telescopes on the swivel, until
through them we can ses the morning star of
the Redeemer, and with meteorological ham,
mer discover the Rock of Ages, and amid the
fora of all realms find the Rose of Sharon
and the Lily of the Valley,
We want clergy learned enough to dis
course the human eye, showing it to be mi
and telescope in one instrument with
eight wonderful contrivances, and lids clos
ing thirty thousand or forty thousand times
a day; all its muscles, and nerves, and bones
showing the infinite skill of an infinite God,
and then winding up with the perQration:
"He that formed the eye, shall he not seef'
And then we want to discourse about the
human ear; its wonderful integuments, mem |
branes, and vibration, and its chain of small |
bones, and its auditory nerve, closing with |
the question: "He that planted the ear, shall
he not hearP And We want some one able !
to expound the first chapter of Genesis, bring |
to it the geology and the astronomy Of the !
world, until, as Job suggested: "The stones
of the field shall be in league" with the truth,
and the stars in their course shall fight against
Sisera. o, church of God, go out and recap
ture these weeponsl
Let men of God go out and take possession
of tic platform. Let any printing presses
captured for God. and the reporters, and the
typesetters, and the editors and the publishers
swear allegiance to the Lord God of truth.
Ah, my friend, that day must come, and if |
the great body of Christian men have not the
faith, or the courage, or the conservation to
do it, then let some Jonathan, on his busy
hands and ON his praying knees, climb up on
the Rock of Hipdrauce, and in the name Of
the Lord God of Israel slash to pieces those
literary Philistines. If these men viii not be
to God then they must be over
thrown.
IL Again, l learn from this subject what
q large amount of the church's resources is
actually hidden and buried and updeyeloPed.
The Bible intimates that there was very
rich land, bbis land of Israel. 1t says; "The
stones are iron, and out of the hills thou
shalt dig braSs;n and yet hundreds and thou |
sands of dollars worth of this metal was kept
under the hills. We'll, that is the difficulty
with the church of God at this dav. Its talent
is not developed. II one-half of its energy
could be brought outit might take the pub