The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1886-10-14

Men of God Should Take the Platform
and Study Science and Philosophy and
Geology, They May Combat InfideI-
fty With Its Own Weapons.
BROOKLYN, n. Y, Oct. 10.-At the Taber-
nacle this morning the Rev. T. De Witt Tai
mage, D. D., after expoulding passages of
Scripture, gave out the hymn beginning
How firm foundation We saints of the Lord,
Hath He laid for your faith in Hisexcellent world
The text of the sermon was | 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 spears: But all the Israelites went
down TO the PhllistineS to sharpen every man
| his share, and his coulter, and his ak, and his
! matto"~. Yet they had file for the mat
toc.1s, and for the coulters, and for the forks,
and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads"
DR.. Talmage spoke as follows:
What CALLING subjugation for the Israel
ties, The Philistines had carried off all the
blacksnliths and torn down all the black
smiths shops and abolished the blacksmiths'
| trade i'll 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
We're only two swords left in all the land.
Yea, these Philistines went on until they had
taken all the grindstones from the land Of
Israel, SO that if Israelite farmer wanted
to sharpen his pillow 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 i'll the land, and that was a
file. The farmers and the mechanics
having nothing to whet up the coulter
and the goad, and the pick ak, save a simple
file, industry was hindered and work practi-
cally disgraced. The great idea of these
Philistines was to keep the Israelites dsarmed
nv
| swords of, but they would not have any
blacks1niths to weld this iron If they got
the iron welded they would have no grind
| stones which to bring the instruments of
agriculture or the military weapons up to an
edge. o, you poor, weaponless Israelites, re-
duced to a file, how l 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
| armor 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 a great terror upon
them. So it was then, so it rs now. Two
men of God on their knees, mightier than a
Philistine host on their feet.
l. | 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
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 have no swords, no spears,
no blacksmiths, no grindstones, active
iron mines, until it was too late for them to
make any resistance. / see the farmers tug
ging along with their pickaxes 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 homez"
"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 boasts that it
has gobbled up the schools, and the colleges,
| and the arts, and the sciences, and the litera-
ture, and the printing press. Infidelity is
making mighty attempt to get all our weap-
ons in its hand, and then to keep them You
know it is making this boast all the time, and
| after while. when the great battle between
sin and Righteousness has opened. il we do not
look out we will be badly off as these Israel
ties without any swords to fight with and
without any sharpening Instruments call
upon the superintendent 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, and the microscopes,
| and telescopes, be children of God, not Phil
| istines. The Carlylean, Emersonian and
| Tyndallean thinkers of this day are trying to
| get all the intellectual weapons of this CEN
| tury IL their own grasp. What we want is
| scientific Christians to capture the science,
j and scholastic Christians to capture the
scholarship, and philosophic Christians to
| capture the philosophy, and lecturing Chris
| tians to take back the lecturing platform.
| We want to send out against Schenckel and
Strauss ard Renan a Theodore Chris lieb, of
Bonn; and against the infidel scientists of
the day, God-worshiping Silliman and
Hitchcock and AgassiA We want to capture
all the philosophical apparatus, and swing
| around the telescopes on the swivel, until
through them we can see the morning star of
the Redeemer, and with meteorological ham
mer discover the Rock of Ages, and amid the
| flora 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 a mi
croscope and telescope in one instrument, with
eight wonderful contrivances, and lids clos
ing thirty thousand forty thousand times
| a day; all its muscles, and nerves, and bones
| showing the infinite skill of an infinite God,
4 and then winding up with the peroration:
! HE that formed the eye, shall he not see!D
| 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 hearf' 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 weapons!
Let men of God go out and take possession
of the platform. Let any printing presses
that have been captured by the enemy be re-
captured for God; and the reporters, and the
typesetters, and the editors and the publishers
| swear allegiance to the Lord God of truth