Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1893-07-27

There is enough undeveloped Christian
energy in the United States to bring
the whole worli to Christ; but it Is
! buried un Ter strata of indif-
! ference and under whole noun
tains of sloth. Now is II not
time for the mining to begin, and
! the pickaxes to plunge, and for this
buried metal to be brought out and
put into the furnaces, and be turned
into howitZers and carbines for the
Lords host? The vast majority of
Christians in this day are useless
The most of the Lords battalion be-
long to the reserve corps The most
of the crew are asleep in the ham
mocls The most of the metal is
under the hills Oh, is it not time for
the church of God to rouse up and un-
derstand that we want all the ener-
gies, all the talent, aud all the wealth
enlisted for ChriSts sake? | like the
nickname that the English soldiers
gave to Iluch +, the commander.
They called him 80 d Forwards"
We have had enough retreats in the
church of Christ; let us have a glorious
advance. And say TO you now, as
the general said when his troops were
afIrighted. Rising up in his stirrups
his hair flying in the wind, he lifted
up his voice until 10000 t'ooYS heard
him, crying out: FORWARD, the whole
line ...
Again learn from this subject, that
we sometimes do well to take advhn-
tage of the world sharpening instru-
ments. These lsraelitcs were reduced
to file, and so they went over to the
garrison of the Philistincs To ge their
axes aud goads, and their plo"s sharp
cned. The bible distinctly states in
the context that tn hal no other
instruments now with which to do
this work, aud the IsraeIites did light
when they went over to tue Phllis
tines to use their griudstoncs. Ny
friends, is il not r.ght for us to EN-
ploy the world grinds ones? II there
ba art, If there be logic, If there be
business faculty on the other side, let
us go over and employ il for Christs
sake. The fact is, we fight with too
dull weapons, and We work with too
dull implemonts We ha * and we
maui when we ought to make a clean
stroke Let MS go over among sharp
business men, and among sharp liter
ary men. and find out what their tact
is, and then transfer it TO the cause Of
Christ. If they have science and
art il will do US good to rub against
il. In 9th y words, let US employ the
worlds grindstones We will stem to
their music, and will watch their acu-
men. and we will use their grin istoneS:
and we will borrow their philosophical
apparatus to make our experiments,
and we viii borrow their printing
presses to publish our bibles, and we
will borrow their rail trains to carry
our Christian literature, AMI we Will
borrow their ships 20 t ansport our
missionaries. hat was what made
Paul such master in his day. lie not
only got all the learning he could get
of DR. Gamaliel, but aitcrward, stand
ing on Mars Hill, an in crowded thor
oughfare, quoted their poetry. and
grasped their logic, and welded their
clOJuence, and employed their my
thology, until Dionisius the Areopa-
Cite, learned in the schools If Athens
and HeliopOlls, went down under his
tremendous powers. That was what
gave Thomas Chalmers his power in
his day. He ,olquered the world IS as
trCnomv AMI compelled 1t to ring
out the " sdom and greatness of
the Lord, until for the second time the
morning stars sang togeth and all
the sons of God shouted for joy That
WAS what gave to Jonathan Edwards
| his Influence in his day. lie conquered
| the worlds metaphys cs and forced it
| into the service of tod, until not oaly
| the old meeting house in Northamp-
| ton, Massachusetts,, but all Christen-
dom felt thrilled by his Christian
power Well, now, nay friends, we
all have tools of Christian usefulness.
| 10 not LIT them losn their edges We
want no rusty blades in this fight
| We want no coulter that cannot rip
| up the glebc. We want no axe that
cannot fell the trees. We want no
goad that cannot start the lazy team.
| bet MS get the very bsst grindstpnes
we can find, though they he in thr.
| possession of the Philistines, compell-
| ing them to turn the crank while we
| bear down with all our might on the
swiftly revolving wheel until al our
energies ami faculties shall be brought
up TO bright, keen, sharp, gl.tter.ng
| edge. .s.. . . s...
Again: my subject teaches us on
what small allowance Philistine
| iniQuity puts mru. Yes; these Phil
| istines shut up the mines, and then
they took the sp ars and the swords,
| then they took the grindstOnes, aud
! they took everything but file. Oh,
| that is the WY sin works: it grabs
everything. 1t begins with robbery,
and il ends with robbery. 1t despoils
| this faculty and that faculty, and
| keeps on until the whole nature is
gone. Was the man elo Iuent before,
! it generally thickens his tongue Was
| he fine in personal appearance, it mars
| his visagc. Was he afiiucnt it sends
! the sheriff to sell him out. Was he
| influential, it destroys his popularity.
| Was he pla I'D, and genial, and loving,
| il makes him SPLEEN tic and cross; and
| so utterly is he changed that you can
see he is sarcastic and ra Sping, and
| that the Philistircs have left him no. h.
! ing tut a file. oh, 1.-THE way of the
tran-gressor is ha d His cup is bit
ter. His night is dark His plngs
are deep. His eud is terrific. Philis-
! tine iniquity says to that man: Now
| surrender 10 me, and will give you
all Won want--music for the dance,
swift stecds for the IA q, imperial
couch TO slumber on, aud you shall be
refreshed with the rarest fruits, in bas-
kets of golden filagree, y He lies. The
music turns out to be a groan. l he fruits
burst he riud with rank poison. The
flagree is made up Of twisted snakes.
The couch is a grave, Small allow
| ance of rest; small allowance of peace;
small allowance of comfort. Cold
hard, rough-nothing but file. So il
was with Voltairr, the mostapplaudeC
| man of his day:
The Scripture was his jest book whence HI
drew aHI.I.t I. ga. tJE
| Bon mots to gall the Christian and the jew
An infidel when welt, but what when sick
Oh, then text would touch him to tn
quick.
Seized with hemorrhage of the lung
in Paris, where h, had gone to b,
crowned in the theater as an idol of al
France, he SENDS "a messenger to get
priest, that he may be reconciled Il
the church before he dies. A grea
terror falls upon him. He makes tn
place all round about him so disma
that the nurse declares that she woul
not for all the wealth of Europe Sc
another infidei die PhiIistins iniquit,
I I