Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-10-17

hand clave unto the sword
As look at Eieazar's hand coma to the
conclusion that he has done great deal of;
hard hitting. am not surprised when I
see that these four men -Eleazar and his
three companions-droye back the army Of
Phiiistines that Eleazar's sword clave 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 ha took
hold OF the sword the sword took hold Of
him. Oh. we have found an enemy who
cannot be conquered by rose water and soft
speeches. II must be sharp stroke and
straight thrust There is intempsrance and
there is fraud, and thers is gambling, and
there is lust and there ara ten thousand
battalions of iniquity, armed Phiiistine
iniquity. How are they to be captured and
overthrown? Soft sermons in morocco
cases laid down in front of an exquisite audi,
ence will not do it. You have got to cali
things by their right names
We have got to expel from our churches
Christians who eat the sacrament on Sun
day and devour widows houses all the weak.
We have got to stop our indignation against.
the Hittites and ths Jebusites aud the Gers
gishites, and let those poor wretches go, and
apply our indignation to the modern trans
gressions which need to be dragged out and
slain. Ahabs here. Herods here. Jezsbels
here. The massacre 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 ten
dency is to refine on Christian work We
keep on refining on it until we send apollo
getic word to iniquity We are about to cap
ture 1t. And we must go with sword silver
chased and presented by the ladies, and we
must ride on white palfrey under embroid-
arad hoI1sinr uniting tho oY,1xr i,.ot
enough to make the charger dance grace
fully, and then we must send a missive, deli
cate 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 4
Churches that shook our cities with great
revivals sending around to ask some demon
strative worshiper if he viii not please to say
amen" and .'hallelujahn a little softer. 1t
seems as If in our churches we wanted
baptism of cologns and balm of a thousand
flowers, when we actually need a baptism Of
fire from the Lord God OF PentscosE. But
we are SO afraid somebody will criticise our
sermons, or criticisa our prayers, or criticisa
our religious WORK that our anxiety for the
worlds redemption is lost in the fear we will
get our baud hurt, while Eieazar went into
the conflict, And his hand ciave unto the
sword"
But see in the next p.ace what hard
thing it was for Eliazar to get his hand and
his sword parted. The muscles and the sin
ews had been SO long grasped around the
sword he could not drop it when he proposed
to drop it. and his three comrades suppose,
came up and tried to help him, and they
bathed the back part of the hand, hoping
the sinews and muscles would relax. But
no. ''His hand c,ave unto the sword.n
Then 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 while they were successful 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 Unite States to-day many
aged ministers of the Gospel. They are too
feeble now to preach. In the church records
the word opposite their name is ''emer-
titus" OF the words are, "a minister without
charge" They were an heroic race. They
had small salaries AMI but few books. and
they swan spring freshets to meet their ap-
pointmenIs. But they did in their day u
mighty wort for God They took off more OF
the heads of Philistine iniquity than you could
count from noon to shutdown. You put that
old minister of the Gospel now into PRAYER
meeting, or occasional pulpit, or a sick
room where there issome 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 cannot drop it. Ibis hand clave unto
the sworin
had in my parish in Philadelphia very
aged man. who in his early life had been the
companion and adviser Of the early Presi-
dents, Madison and Monroe. He had
welded vast influence, hut | only knew him
as very aged man. The most remarkable
thing about him was his ardor for Christ
When he could not stand up in the meeting
without propping he would throw his arms
around pillar of the church, and though
ibis mind was partially gone his love for
Christ was so great that all were in deep re-
spect and profound admiration, and were
moved when he spoke. | was called to see
him die. | entered the room. and he said,
Mr.. Talmage | cannot speak to YOU now"
He was in very pleasant delirium, as he
imagined he had an audience before him.
He said, Il must tell these people to come
to Christ and prepare for heaven" And
then in this pleasant deliriun, both arms
lifted, this octogenarian preached Christ and
told of the glories of the world to come.
There lying on his dying pillow, his dying
hand clave to his sword
Oh, if there ever was anyone who had
right to retire from the conflict it was old
Joshua. Soldiers coma back from battle
have the names OF the battles on their flags,
showing where they distinguished them
selves, and it is very appropriate inscrip-
ton. Look at the flag of old General
Joshual On it Jericho, Gideon, Hazar. City
of Al, and instead of the stars spriuklei on
the flag the sun and the moon which stood
still. There he is, one hundred and ten years
old. He is lying fat on his back but he is
preaching. His dying words are battle
CharVa AGAINST i1Olatrv and a rnllvlnV
for the Lord of Hosts as he says, behold,
this day 90 the way of all the EARTH and
God hath not failed to fulfill his promise
concerning Israel" His dying hand clave
unto the sword.
There is the headless body of Paul on the
road to Ostea. His great brain and his great
heart have been severed. The elmwood rods
had stung him fearfully. When the corn
ship broke up he swan ashore, coming up
drenched with the brine Every day since
that day when the horse reared under him
in the suburbs of Damascus, as the superna-
tural light fell down to this day when he is
sixty-eight years of age and old and decrepit
from the prison cell of the Mamertine, he has
been outrageolsly treated and he is waiting
to die. How does he spend his last hours?
Telling the world how badly he feels, AMI de-
scribing the rheumatism that he got IN
prison, the rheumatism affecting his limbs,
or the neuralgia piercing his temples. or the
thirst that fevers his tongue? Ga, no. His
last words are the battle shout for Christen-
dom: 81 am now ready to be offered, and
the time Of my departure is at hand; l have
fought the good fight" And 50 his dying
hand clave unto the sword.
1t was in the front room on the second
floor that my father lay a-dying. 1t was
Saturday morning, four o'clock. just three
years bsfore that day my mother had left
him for the skies and he had been homesick
-
years of age. Ministers of the Gospel came
in to comfort him, but he comfortsd them.
How wonderfully the words sounded out
from his dying pillow, 4 have been young
and now am old, yet have | never seen
the righteous forsaken. or his seed begging
bread' They bathed his brow, they bathed
his hands, and they bathed his feet and they
succeeded in Strengthening out the feet; but
they did not succeed in bathing open the
hand so it would stay open. They bathed
the hand open, but it came shut. They
bathed it open again, but it came shut.
What was the matter with the thumb and
the fingers of that old hand? All it had
so long clutche1 the sword of Christian con-
fict that 'his han1 clave unto the sword"
preach this sermon as tonic. L want
you to hold tae truth with ineradicable grip
and l want you to strike 50 hard for God
that it will react and while you take the
sword, the sword will take you.
You noticed that the officers of the North
ern army few years ago assembled at
Denver, and you noticed that the officers of
the Southern army assembled at Lexington.
Soldiers coming together are very apt to re-
count their experiences and TO show their
scars. Here is a soldier who pulls up his
sleeve and says, There, | was wounded in
that arm" and shows the scar And an
other soldier pulls down his collar, aud says,
There, / was wounded in the neck" And
another soldier says. 81 have had no use of