News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-07-27
tbe throat and make them bite the dust.

under strata OF lnulleIeliSo e1h"
v!ole mountains of sloth. Now, Is IL
not time for the mining to begin, ana
the pickaxes to plunge, and for this Dur
led metal to be brought out and put
the furnaces and be turned into now
itzers and carbines for the Lords host'
The vast majority of Christians III tnis
day are useless The most of the Lord 5
battalion belong to the reserve corps
The most of the crew are asleep IN tne
hanmocks. The most of the metal IS
under the hills.
Oh, is it not time for the church OF
God to rouse up and understand that we
want all the energies, all the talents anu
all the wealth enlisted for Christ's sake!
like the nickname that the English SOL
diers gave to Butcher, the commander.
They called him "Old Forwards" We
have had enough retreats in the church
of Christ; let us have a glorious adj
vance. And I say to you now as the
general said when his troops were at
frighted. Rising up in his stirrups, his
hair flying in the wind, he lifted his
voice until 90, 900 troops heard him, cry
ing out, Forward, the whole liner
4 THE LOGICIANS OF THE CHURCH.
Again, I learn from this subject that
we sometimes do we'll to take advantage
of the worlds sharpening instruments.
These Israelites were reduced to file,
and so they went over to the garrison OF
the Philistines to get their axes, and their
goads, and their plows sharpened. The
Bible distinctly states in the context that
they had no other instruments now with
which to do this work, and the Israelites
did right when they went over to the
Philistines to use their grindstones. Ny
friends, is it not right fcS - TO employ
the worlds grindstones? If there be art,
if there be logic, if there be business fac
| ulty on the other side, let US go over and
employ it for Christ's sake.
The fact is we fight with too dull
weapons, and we work with too dull i'm
plements. We hack and we maui when
we ought to make clean stroke. Let
us go over among sharp business men
and among sharp literary men and find
out what their tact is, and then transfer
it to the cause of Christ. If they have
science and art, it will do us good to rub
against it. In other words, let us en-
ploy the worlds grindstones. We will
| listen to their music, and we will watch
| their acumen, and we will use their
grindstones, and we will borrow their
| philosophical apparatus to make our ex-
| periments, and we will borrow their
printing presses to publish our Bibles,
and we will borrow their rail trains to
carry our Christian literature, and we
will borrow their ships to transport our
missionaries.
That was what made Paul such mas
ter in his day. He not only got all the
learning he could get of DR.. Gamaliel,
but afterward standing on Mars hill
and in crowded thoroughfare quoted
their poetry and grasped their logic and
welded their eloquence and employed
their mythology until Dionysius, the
Areopagite, learned in the schools of |
Athens and Heliopols, went down under |
his tremendous powers.
That was what gave Thomas Chalmers
his power in his day. He conquered the
worlds astronomy and compelled it to
ring out the wisdom and greatness of
the Lord, until for the second time the
morning stars sang together, and all the
sons of God shouted for joy. That was
what gave to Jonathan Edwards his in
fuence in his day. He conquered the
worlds metaphysics and forced it into !
the service of God, until not only the
old meeting house in Northampton, |
Mass, but all Christendom, felt thrilled |
by his Christian power.
Well, now, my friends, we all have |
tools of Christian usefulness. Do not let |
them lose their edges. We want no rusty |
blades in this fight. We want no Golfer |
that cannot rip up the glebe. We want |
no ak that cannot fell the trees. We |
want no goad that cannot start the lazy |
team. Let us get the very best grind |
stones we can find, though they be in the |
possession of the Philistines compelling |
them to turn the crank, while we bear
down with all our might on the swift |
revolving wheel until all our energies |
and faculties shall be brought up to c
bright, keen, sharp, glittering edge.
Again, my subject teaches US on what
q small allowance Philistine iniquity |
puts man. Yes, these Philistines shut |
up the mines, and then they took the |
spears and the swords, then they took the |
then they took the grind |
stones, and they took everything but a
file. Oh, that is the way sin works. 1t |
grabs everything. 1t begins with rob-
berry, and it ends with robbery. 1t de- |
spoils this faculty and that faculty and |
keeps ON until the whole nature is gone.
Was the man eloquent before, it gener-
ally thickens his tongue. Was he fine
In personal appearance, it mars his Wis
Gge. Was he aff1uent, it sends the sher-
iff to sell him out Was he influential,
it destroys his popularity. Was he placid
and genial and loving, it makes him
splenetic and cross, and so utterly is he
changed that you can see he is sarcastic
Gnd rasping and that the Philistines
have left him nothing but file.
Oh, 'the way of the transgressor is
hard" His cup is bitter. His night is
dark. His pangs are deep. His end is
terrific. Philistine iniquity says to that
man, ''Now, surrender to me, and will
give you all you want-music for the
dance, swift steeds for the race, imperial
couch to slumber on, and you shall be
refreshed with the rarest fruits in bas-
kets of golden fligree." He lies. The
music turns out to be a groan. The
fruits burst the rind with rank poison.
The fligree is made up of twisted snakes.
The couch is a grave. Small allowance
of rest, small allowance of peace, small
allowance of comfort. Cold, hard, rough
nothing but a file. So it was with
Voltaire, the most applauded man of his
day:
The Scripture was his textbook, whence he
drew
BonmOts to gall the Christian and the jews;
An infdel when well, but what when sick?
Oh, then text would touch him to the quick.
Seized with hemorrhage of the lungs
in Paris, where he had gone to be
crowned in the theater4 - idol of all
France, he sends a mess to get a
priest that he may be reconciled to the
church before he dies. A great terror
falls upon him. He makes the place all
round about him so dismal that the
nurse declares that she would not for all
the wealth of Europe see another infidel
die. Philistine iniquity had promised
him all the worlds garlands, but in the
last hour of his life, when he needed
solacing, sent tearing across his con-
science and his nerves file, file.
So it was with Lord Byron, his I'M
cleanness in England only surpassed by
his uncleanness in Venice, then going on
to his brilliant misery at Missolonghi, end
fretting at his nurse, Fletcher, fretting
at himself, fretting at the world, fretting
at God, and he who gave to the world
"Childe Harold" and 'Sardanapalus,"
and ''The Prisoner of Chillon," and 1.-THE
Siege of Corinth, reduced to nothing but
n flaf