Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-10-11

| wen, IudI - tue ululCulIy Win IuC ShuA w
of God at this day Its talent Is not de
yeloped. If one-half of its energy coult
be brought out it might take the public
iniquities of the day by the throat anC
make them bite the dust. If human elo
auence were consecrated to the Lord Jesu!
Christ, it would in few years persuade
this whole earth to surrender to God
There is enough undeveloped energy II
this one church to bring all Brooklyn t.
Christ-enough undeveloped Christian en-
ergy in the city of Brooklyn to bring al
| the United States to Christ-enough of un
developed Christian energy in the United
States to bring the whole world to Christ
but it is buried under strata of indiffer
ence, and under whole mountains OF
sloth.
NOW IS 1T NOT TINE
for the mining to begin, and the pickaxeS
| to plunge, and for this buaried metal to
be brought out and putintO the furnaces
and be truned into howitzers and car
bines sor the Lords host? The vast ma
iority of Christians in this day are useless.
The most of the Lords battalion belong tC
the reserve corps. The most of the crew
are asleep in the hammocks. The most Ol
the metal is under the hills. Oh, is it not
| time for the church of God to rouse up
and understand that we want all the ener
gies all the talent, and all the wealth en-
| listed for Christ's sake? / like the nick
name that the English soldiers gave tC
Blucher, the commander. They called
him "Old Towards" We had enough re-
treats in the church of Christ; let us have
glorious advance. And l say to you
as the General said when his troops were
affrighted; rising up in his stirrups, his
hair tlying in the wind, he lifted up his
voice until twenty thousand troops heard
him, crying out: Forward the whole
lineW
III. Again | learn from this subject
that we sometimes do well to take advant-
age of the worlds sharpening instruments.
These Israelites were reduced to file, and
80 they went over to the garrison of the
Philistines to get their axes, and their
goads, and their ploughs sharpened. The
Bible distinctly states 1.-THE text which
| read ut the beginning Of the service
that they had no other instruments now
with which to do this work, and the Israel
ties did right when they went over to the
PhilistineS to use their grindstOnes. My
friends. is it not right for us to employ the
worlds grindstOne? If there be art, If
there be logic, if there be business faculty
on the other side, let us go over and en-
ploy it for Christ's sake. The fact is, we
fight with too dullweaponS, and We work
with too dull implements. We hack and
we maui when we ought to make a keen
stroke Let us 90 over among sharp bust
ness men. and among sharp literary men,
and find out what their tact Is, and then
transfer it to the cause or Christ. If they
have science and art it will do us good to
rub against it,
In other words, let us
EMPLOY THE WORLDS GRINDSToNE.
We will listen to their music, and we
will watch their acumen, and we will use
their grindst0neS; and will borrow their
philosophical apparatus to make our eX-
periments, and we will borrow their print
ing presses to publish our Bibles, and we
will borrow their rail trains to carry our
Christian literature, and we will borrow
their ships to transport our missionaries.
That was what made Paul such master
in his day. lie not not only got all the
learning he could get of Dr.. GLmaliel,
but afterward, standing on Mars Hill,
and in crowded thoroughtare, quoted
their poetry, and graSped
their logic, and welded their
elOquence and employed their mythology,
until Dionysius, the ArcOpagite, learned
in the schools of Athens and HelipOlis,
went down under his tremendous power
That was what gave Thomas Chal-
mers the power in his day. He conquered
the worlds astronomy and compelled II
to ring out the wisdom and greatness OF
the Lord, until for the second time the
morning stars sang together and all the
sons of God shouted for JOY. That was
what gave to Jonathan Edwards the inilu-
ence in his day. He conquered the
worlds metaphysics, and forced it into the
service or God, until not only the old
Westinghouse at NOrthamtOn, Massachu.
sets, but all Christendom, feel thrilled
by his Christian power. Well, now, my
friends, we all have tools of Christian
power Do not let them lose their edges.
We want no rusty blades in this fight
We want no coulter that cannot rip up the
globe. We want no axe that cannot fell
the trees. We want no goad that cannot
start the lazy team. Let us get the very
best grindstOnes we can find though they
be in possession of the Philistines, COM
pclling them to turn the crank while We
bear down with all our might on the swift
revolving wheel, until our energies and
faculties shall be brought up to bright,
keen, sharp, glittering edge.
We want all laymen enlisted. Minis
ters are numerically too small. They do
the best they can. They are the most
overworked class on earth. Many of them
die of dyspepsia because they cannot get
the right kind of food to eat, or getting the
right kind are so worried that they take it
down in chunks. They die from consump.
ton coming from early and late exposure.
If novelist or historian publishes one
book year he is considered industrious.
But every faithful pastor
MUST ORIGINATE
enough thought for three or four volumes
year. Ministers receive enough calls in
year from men who have maps, and
medicines, and lightning rods, and picture
to sell, to exhaust their vitality. They
are bored with agents of all
sorts. They are set in draught>
as funerals, and poisoned by
the unventilated rooms of invalids. and
waited upon by committees who want ad.
dresses made, until life becomes a burden
to bear. 1t is not hard study that makes
ministers look pale. 1t is the infinity
interruption and deliberations to which
they are subjected. II l die before my
time, it will be at the hand of committees
that want an address or lecture. 4 man
called on me to give him lecture by
which he might pay the expenses of hi
wedding trip. If there were fifty hour
in each day the year, and l worked forty
of them, | could not do the work of this
one parish; and am not behind most cler-
gymen in disposition to toll. Numerically
too small. 1t is no more the work of the
pulpit to convert and save the world than
it is the work ofthe pew. If men go to ruin
there will be rs much blood
op your skirts as on mine. Let us quit
this grand farce of trying to save the
rnrld h,- a -four clarryu,en onI lat ol,