Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-07-29
CHRISTIAN WEAPONS.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on Their
Use in the Enemy's Hands.
lessons from the Subjugation of the Israeli
ites-Undevelopcd Resources of the
Churcli-Sin's Promises Al
ways Broken.

held near Madison. Wis, Rev. 7. De
Witt Talmage took for his subject,
''Sharpened Axes" the text being /.
Samuel, xiii. 1921: Now there was nc
smith found throughout all the land OF
Israel" etc. lie said:
My loving and glad salutation to this
amounted host of Chautauquans, Chris
tian Endeavorers, Gospel workers and
their friends from all parts of Wiscon-
sin and America, saints and sinners!
My text is gloriously appropriate. What
a scalding subjugation the Israelites
Were suffering. The Philistines had
carried off all the blacksmiths. and torn
down all the blacksmiths shops, and
abolished the blacksmith's trade in the
land of Israel. They had n particu-
lar grudge against blacksmiths. The
Philistnes would not even allow these
parties to work their valuable mines of
brass and iron. nor might they make
any swords or spears There were only
two swords left in all the land. Yea,
these Philistines went on until they
had taken all the grindstones from the
land of Israel, so that If an lsraelitish
farmer wanted to sharpen his pillow or
his AK, he had to go over to the gar
rison of the Philistines to get it done.
There was only one sharpening instru-
ment left in the land, and that was n
file. The farmers and the mechanics
having nothing to whet up the coulter,
and the goad. and the pickaX. save a
simple file, industry was hindered, and
work practically disgraced. The
great idea of these Philistines
was to keep the Israelites dis
armed. They might get iron out of
the hills to make swords of, but
they would not have any blacksmiths
to weld this iron. If they got the iron
welded. they would have no grind
stones on which to bring the instru-
ments of agriculture or the military
weapons up to the edge. But these
Philistines were not forever to keep
their heel on the neck of Gods chill
dren. Jonathan, on his hands and knees.
climbs up a great rock behind which
were the Philistines and his armor-
bearer, on his hands and knees. climbs
mp the same rock, and these two men,
with their two swords, hew to pieces
the Philistines, the Lord throwing
great terror upon them. So it was
then; so it is now. The two men of God
on their knees mightier than a Philis-
tine host on their feet.
learn first from this subject, how
dangerous it is for the church of God
to allow it's weapons to stay in the
hands of its enemies. These Israelites
might again and again have obtained a
supply of swords and weapons, as for
instance when they took the spoils OF
the Ammonites; but these Israelites
seemed content to have no swords, no
spears, no blacksmiths, no grindstones.
no active iron mines, until it was too
late for them to make any. resistance.
So it is in the church of Christ to-
day. We are too willing to give up our
weapons to the enemy. The world
boasts that it has gobbled up the
schools, and the colleges, and the
arts, and the sciences, and the
literature, and the printing press.
Jnfidelity is making mighty
attempt to get all our weapons in its
hand, and then to keep them. You
know it is making this boast all the
time; and after awhile, when the great
battle between sin and righteousness
has opened, if we do not look out we
will be as badly off as these Israelites,
without any swords to fight with, and
without any sharpening instruments.
/ call upon the superintendent OF lit
.erary institutions to see to it that the
men who go into the class rooms to
stand beside the Leyden jars, and the
electric batteries, and the microscopes
or telescopes, be children of God, not
Philistines. The atheistic thinkers OF
this day are trying to get all the intel
lectual weapons of this century in their
own grasp. What we want is scientific
Christians to capture the science, and
scholastic Christians to capture the
scholarship, and philosophic Christians
to capture the philosophy, and lectur'
ing Christians to take back the lectur
ing platform.
We want to send out against Schen
kel and Strauss and Renan of the past,
men like the late Theodore Christlieb
of Bonn; and against the infidel scient
lists, God-worshiping Sillimsn and
Hitchcock and Agassiz. We want to
capture all the philosophical apparatus
and swing around the telescopes on the
swivel, until through them we can see
the morning star of the redeemer, anc
with meteorological hammer discover
the Rock of Ages" and amid the fiora
of the realms find the Rose OF Sharon
and the Lily of the Valley" We wan
"a clergy learned enough to discourse o
the human eye, showing it to be mic
roscope and telescope in one instru
rnent, with 800 wonderful contrivances
and lids closing $4,000 or 10000 times
..w.1