Dodge City times., 1889-07-11
AN INSPIRING SERMON
De. TALMAGE DISCOURsEs ON THE
POwER OF CHRISTIANITY.


POWER OF CHRISTIANITY.
sThs Mightiest weapon Il tho Gospel" His
Subject. and His Text the Words: s'Ihers
Is None Like That; Give 1t Ma"
Rev. T. De Witt Talmage delivered
one Of his characteristic and forcible
sermons at the Brooklyn Tabernacle
upon the subject: The Mightiest
Weapon Is the Gospel" His text was L.
Samuel xxi, 3: There is none like that;
give it me-" The preacher said:
David fed FROM his pursuers. The
world runs very fast when it is chasing
good man. The country is trying to
catch David, and to slay him. David
goes into the house of priest, and asks
him for sword or spear with which to
defend himself. The priest, not being
accustomed to use deadly weapons, tells
David that he cannot supply him; but
suddenly the priest thinks of an old
sword that had been carefully wrapped
up and laid away-the very sword that
Goliah formerly used-and he takes down
that sword, and while he is unwrapping
the sharp, glittering, memorable blade,
it flashes upon Davids mind that this
was the very sword that was used against
himself when he was in the tight with
Goliah, and David can hardly keep his
hands off it until the priest has un-
wound it. David stretched out his
hand toward that old sword, and says:
"There is none like that; give it me-" In
other words. Il want in my own hand
the sword that has been used against
me, and against the cause of God" So
it was given him. Well, my friends,
that is not the first or the last sword
once used by giant and Philistine in
sion of Jesus Christ, and of His glori-
Gus church. l want, as we'll as God may
help me, to show you that many a
weapon which has been used against
the armies of God is yet to be captured
and used on our side; and only initiate
David when l stretch out my hand to-
ward the blade of the Philistine, and
cry: "There is none like that; give it
me-"
/ remark, first, that this is true in re-
gard to all scientific exploration. You
know that the first discoveries in as
were used to battle Christianity.
ratory and out OF its observatory, and
said: Now, We will prove, by the very
structure of the earth, and by the move
ment of the heavenly bodies, that the
Bible is a lie, and that Christianity, as
We have it among men, is positive i'm
position" Good men tremb1ed. The
telescope, the Leyden jars, the electric
batteries, all in the hands of the Philis-
tines. But one day, Christianity, look
ing about for some weapon with which
to defend itself, happened to see the
very old sword that these atheistic Phil
istines had been using against the truth
and cried out: There is none like
that; give it me-" And Copernicus, and
Galileo, and Kepler, and Isaac Newton
came forth and told the world that, in
their ransacking of the earth and
Heaven, they had found overwhelming
presence OF the God whom we worship;
and this old Bible began to shake itself
from the Koran, and Shaster, and Zen
davesta with which it had been
covered up, and lay on the desk of the
scholar, and in the laboratory of the
chemist, and in the lap of the Christian,
unframed and unanswered, while the
towers of the midnight heavens struck
silvery chime in its praise.
Worldly philosophy said: Matter is
eternal. The world always was. God
did not make it." Christian philosophy
plunges its crowbar into rocks, and
finds that the world was gradually made,
and if gradually made, there must have
been some point at which the process
started; then, who started it? and SO that
objection was overcome, and in the first
three words of the Bible we find that
Moses stated magnificent truth when
he said: In the beginning"
Worldly philosophy said: Your Bible
is most inaccurate book; all that story
in the Old Testament, again and again
told, about the army of the locusts-it is
preposterous. There is nothing in the
coming of the locusts like an army. An
army walks, locusts fly. An army goes
in order and procession, locusts
without order" "Wait!" said Christian
philosophy; and in 1868, in the south
western part of this country, Christian
men went out to examine the march of
the locust. There are men right before
me who must have noticed in that very
part of the country the coming up of the
locust like an army, and it was found
that all the newspapers unwittingly
spoke of them as an army. Why? They
like host. They halt like host. No
arrow ever went with straighter fight
than the locusts come-not even turn
ing aside for the wind. If the wind
rises, the locusts drop and then rise
again after it has gone down, taking the
same line of march, not varying foot.
The old Bible right every time when it
speaks of locusts coming like an army;
worldly nhi1OsOnhv wrOnU
Worldly philosophy said: All that
story about the light turned as clay to
the seal is simply an absurdity." Old
time worldly philosophy said: "The
light comes straight" Christian phi
losophy said: Wait o little while, "
and it goes on and makes discoveries
and finds that the atmosphere curves
an. bends the rays of light around the
earth, literally -as the clay to the seal. "
The Bible right again; worldly philoso-
ply wrong again. "Ah," says worldly
philosophy, "all that illusion in Job
about the foundations of the earth is
simrly an absurdity. Where vast thou,
saws God, when l set the foundations
of the earth? The earth has no founda-
tions." Christian philosophy comes
and finds that the word as translated
foundation" may be better translated
sockets" So now see how it will read
if it is translated right: Where vast
thou when 1 set the sockets of the
earth?" Where is the socket? 1t is the
hollow of Gods hand-a socket large
enough for any world to turn in.
Worldly philosophy said: What an
absurd story about Joshua making the
sun and moon stand still. If the world
had stopped an instant, the whole uni
verse would have been out of gear.
Stop" said Christian philosophy, mot
quite SO quick" The world has two
mot Ons-one or its own axis, and the
other around the sun. It was not neces-
sary in making them stand still that
both motions should be stopped-only
the one turning the world on its own
axis. There was no reason why the
halting of the earth should have Jared
and disarranged the whole universe.
Joshua right and God right; inidelity
wrong every time. I knew it would be