The Brookhaven leader., 1886-10-21
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
An Interesting Discourse on the
"The stolen Grindstone."
A Singular Instance Of Tyrannical OPpres
sIon-The Church should Use the
Worlds Sharpening Instru-
ments-A Call to Work.

H
subject Of q recent sermon In the Brook
iyn Tabernacle the Philistines' oppres-
sion of Israel and the Lords interpretation
IN their behalf, as illustrative OF the duty
Of the Church to seize the worlds weapons
With which to encounter Its foes. His
tsxt was:
Now, there was no smith round throughout
all the land OF Israel: tfor the Phillstines
said, lest the Hebrews make them swords or
spears) But all the Israeltles went down
to the Phlllstiues TO sharpen every man his
share, and his coulter and his axe, and his
msttock. Yet thew had file for the mat
tocks and for the couters. and for the forks,
and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads
L Samuel, kill. ~ 81.
What q CALLING subjugation for the
Israelitesf The Philistines had carried
of all the blacksmiths, and torn down all
the blacksmiths' trade in the land of Is
rael. The Philistines would not even all
low these parties to work their valuable
mines Of brass andiron, nor might they
make any swords or spears. There were
only two swords left in all the land. Yes,
these Philistines went on until they had
taken all the grindstones from the lend of
Israel, so that il an Israelitish farmer
wanted to sharpen his pillow or his axe, he
had to go over to the garrison of the Philis-
tines 70 Get 1t done. There was only one
sharper ing instrument 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-axe,
save simple file, industry was hindered,
and work practically diseraced. The great
idea # these Philistines was to keep the
1sraelites disarmed. They might get iron
out of the hills to MAKE swords of, but
they would not have any blacksmiths to
weld this iron. II they got the iron WE'LL
ed they would have no erindStones on
which to bring the Instruments of agri-
culture or he military weapons up to an
edge o you poor, weaponless IsraeliteS,
reduced to file, how l pity you. But
these Philstines were not forever 10 keep
their heel on the neck of Gods children.
iona han on his han Is and knees climbs
up great rock bevoni which were the
Phiis ines; 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 PhiliStines, the
Lord throwing a great terror upon them.
SO it was then; so it is row. Two men of
God on their knees, mightier than a
Philistine host on eheir feet.
| learn first from this subject how
dangerous it is for the Gnu CHI of God to
allow its weapons to stay in the hands Of
its enemies. These lsraeltes might again
and again have obtained a supply of
swords and weapons, as for instance when
H., l., I'll - h.
but these 1sraelites seemed content to
have no swords, no spears, no blacksmiths,
no grindstones. no active iron mines, until
it was too late for them to make any re-
sistance. see the farmers uyging along
with their pick-axes and plow, and say:
"Nhere are you going with those
things?"
They say: ooh, we are going over to the
Carr son of the Philistnes to get these
things sharpened."
l say: "You foolish men, why don't y GU
sharpen them at homer"
"Oh," they say, "the blacksmith's shops
are all torn down, and we have nothing
left us but fie"
So it is in the Church of Jesus Christ 70.
day. We are too willing TO give up our
weapons TO the enemy. The world boasts
that it has gobbled up the schools, and the
colleges, and the arts, and the sciences,
and the literature, and the printing press.
Infidelity is making mighty attempt to
get all our weapons in its hands and then
TO keep them. You know it is max
ing this boast all the time, and
after awhile, when the great battle
between sin and Righteousness has
opened, if we do not look out we will be as
badly off as these Israelites, without any
swords to fight with and without any
sharpening instruments. 1 call upon the
superintendents of literary institutions 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, he children of
God; not Philistines. The Sarlylean,
Emersonian and Tyndallean thinkers Of
this day are trying to get all the intel
lectual weapons of this century in their
own grasp. What we want is scientific
Christians to capture the science, and
scholastic Christians to capture the schol-
arship, and philosophic Christians to
capture the philosophy, and lecturing
Christians to take back the lecturing plat
form. We. want to send out against
Schenkel, and Strauss, and Renan, q
Theodore Christlieb, of Bonn; and against
the infitel scientists of the day 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 see the morning star of the
Redeemer, and with meteorological ham
mer discover the Rock of Ages, and amid
the fora of the realms find the Rose OF
Sharon and the Lily of the Valley.
Let men of God go out and take possess
sion of the platform. Let any printing
presses that have been captured by the
enemy be recaptured for God; and the
reporters, and the type settlers,
and the editors, and the publishers
swear allegiance to the God of truth.
All, my friend, that day must come,
and if the great body of Christian men
have not the faith, or the courage, or the
to do it, then let some Jona-
than on his busy hands and on his pray
ing knees climb up on the Rock of Him
drance, and IN the name of the Lord God
of Israel slash to pieses those literary
Philistines. If these men will not be con-
verted to God, then they m ust be over
thrown.
Again, I learn from this subject what
a large amount of the Church's resources
Is actually hidden, and buried, and unde-
veloped. The Bible intimates that tina
was a very rich lana, this lind of Israel.
1t says:
The stones are iron, and out OF the hills
thou shalt dig brass
And y ct hundreds and thousands Of dol
lars of this metal was kept under the
hills. Well, that is the difficulty with the