The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1891-11-13

1
Ear does not know his hand is hurt
"His hand clave unto the sword"
As l look at Eleazar's hand Z come TO
the conclusion that he has done a great
deal of hard hitting. I am not sur
prised when I see that these four men,
! Eleazar and his three companions
drove back the army of Philistincs, that
/ Eleazar's sword clavo to his hand
for every time he struck an enemy with
/ one end OF the sword the other end OF
the sword wounded him. When he took
hold of the sword the sword took hold
of him. Oh, we have found an enemy
who can not be conquered by rose
water and soft speeches. 1t must be
sharp stroke and straight thrust. There
! is intemperance. and there is fraud, and
there is gambling and there is lust,
and there are ten thousand battalions
OF iniquty, armed Philistine iniquity.
How are they to be captured and over
! thrown? Soft sermons in morocco cases
laid down in front of an exquisite audi
ence will not do it. You have got to
call things by their right name.
We have got to expel from our
churches Christians who eat the sacra-
ment on Sunday and devour widows
| houses all the week. We have got to
stop our indignation against the Hit
tites and the Jebusites, and the Ger
| gishites, and let those poor wretches
go, and apply our indignation TO the
modern transgressions which need to
be dragged out and slain. Ahabs here,
Herods here, Jezebels here. The mas
sacre of the infants here. Strike for God
so hard that while you Stay the sin the
sword will adhere to your own hand.
tell you, my friends, we want a few
John Knoxes and John Wesleys in the
Christian church to-day. The whole
tendency is to refine on Christian work.
We keep on refining on it until we send
| apologetic word to iniquity we are
about TO capture it, and we must go
with sword silver-chased and presented
| by the ladies, and we must ride on
white palfrey under embroidered hous-
ing, putting the spurs in only just
enough to make the charger dance
gracefully, and then we must send
missive, delicate as a wedding card, to
ask the old black giant of sin if he will
not surrender.
Women saved by the grace of God
and on glorious mission sent, detained
from Sabbath classes because their
new hat is not done Churches that
shook our cities with great revivals
sending around to ask some demonstra.
tive worshiper if he will not please to
say amen" and "halleluiah" a little
softer. 1t seems as if in our church we
wanted baptism of cologne and balm
of a thousand flowers, when we actu-
ally need a baptism of fire from the
Lord God of Pentecost. But we are so
afraid somebody will criticise our SER
mons, or criticiSe our prayers, or criti-
else our religious work, that our anxi-
ETY. for the worlds redemption is lost
in the fear we will get our hand hurt,
while Eleazar went into the conflict,
land his hand clave unto the sword"
But I see in the next place what a
bard thing it was for Eleazer to get his
hand and his sword parted The muscles
And the sinews had been so long
e'rasped around the sword he could not
crop it when he proposed to dropit, and
his three comrades suppose, came up
End tried to help him, and they bathed
the back part of the hand, hoping the
sinews and muscles would relax. But
TO. "His hand clave to the sword"
Chen they tried to pull open the fingers
and to pull back the thumb, but no
sooner were they pulled back than they
closed again, land his hand clave unto
the sword" But after awhile they
were successful, and then they noticed
that the curve in the palm of the hand
correspondent exactly with the curve of
the hilt "His hand clave unto the
sword"
You and l have seen it many a time.
There are in the United States to-day
many aged ministers of the Gospel
They ore too feeble now to preach. In
the church records the word opposite
their name is emeritus" or the words
are, "a minister without charge" They
were heroic race. They had small
salaries and but few books, and they
swan spring freshets to meet their APP
pointments, but they did in their day a
mighty work for God. They took off |
more of the heads of Philistine iniouitv |
than you could count from noon to sun.
down. You put that old minister of |
the Gospel now into a prayer meeting |
or occasional pulpit or a sick-room |
where there is some one to be comfort |
ed, and it is the same old ring to his |
voice and the same old story of pardon
and peace and Christ and Heaven. His
hand has so long clutched the sword in |
Christian conflict he can not drop it |
Ills hand clave unto the sword"
had in my parish in Philadelphia a
very aged man who in his early life had
been the companion and adviser of the
early presidents, Madison and Monroe.
He had welded vast inflnnnnn hut I