The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-07-31

and vibration, and it's chain Of small
bones, and its auditory nerves, closing
with the question, 'He that planted the
ear, shall he not hearF'
And we want some one able to ex-
pound the first chapter of Genesis, bring
ing to it the geology and the astronomy
of the world, until, as Job suggested,
''the stones of the field shall 10 IN
league with the truth, and "the stars IN
their courses shall fight against Slsera.
Oh, church of God, go out and recap
ture these weapons. Let men OF Goa so
out and take possession OF the plaI1orh'
Let all the printing press of this coun-
try speak out for Christ, and the report
ers, and the typesetters, and the editors
and publishers swear allegiance to the
Lord God of truth.
All, my friend, that day must come.
and if the great body Of Christian men
have not the faith, OF the courage. or the
conservation to do it, then let some JON
athan on his busy hands and on his
praying knees climb up on the rock OF
hindrance, and in the name of the Lord
God of Israel slash to pieces those liter
airy Philistines. If these men will not
be converted to God, then they must be
destroyed.
MORE CHRISTIAN ENERGY NEEDED.
Again, learn from this subject what
o large amount of the church's resources
is actually hidden and buried and I'M
developed. The Bible intimates that
that was very rich land-this land OF
Israel. 1t says, ''The stones are iron, and
out of the hills thou shalt dig brass"
and vet hundreds of thousands Of dollars
worth of this metal was kept under the
hills. Well, that is the difficulty with
the church of God at this day. Its tai
emit is not developed. If one-half OF its
energy could be brought out, it might
take the public iniquities of the day by
the throat and make them bite the dust.
If human eloquence were consecrated to
the Lord Jesus Christ, it could in few
years persuade this whole earth to sur
render to God.
There is enough undeveloped Christian
energy in the United States to bring the
whole world to Christ, but it is buried
under strata Of Indifference and under
whole mountains Of sloth. Now, is it
not time for the mining to begin, and
the pickaxes to plunge, and for this bur-
led metal to be brought out and putintc
the furnaces and be turned into how
itzers and carbines for the Lords host?
The vast majority of Christians in this
day are useless. The most Of the Lords
battalion belong to the reserve corps
The most of the crew are asleep in the
hammocks. 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 and
all the wealth enlisted for Christ's sake?
I 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 glorious ad-
vance. And I say to you now as the
general said when his troops were af-
frighted. Rising up in his stirrups. his
hair flying in the wind, he lifted his
voice until q, 900 troops heard him, cry
ing out, sForward, the whole liner
THE LoGICIANs OF THE CHURCH.
Again, I learn from this subject that
we sometimes do well to take advantage
of the worlds sharpening instruments.
These Israelites were reduced to file.
and SO they went o sar to the garrison OF
the Phi1istines 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. My
friends, is it not right for us to employ
the worlds grindstones2 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
Elements. 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 Heliopolis, went down under
his tremendous powers.
That was what gave Thomas Chalmers