The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-07-26

| he tnaJ Planned tne ear, snail lie not
hearP" And we want some one able to
expound the first chapter of Genesis,
bringing toit the geology and the as
tronomy of the world, until, as Job sug-
gested, "the stones of the field shall be
in league" with the truth, and "the
stars in their courses shall fight against
Sisera." o, Church of God, go out and
recapture these weapons. Let men Of
God go out and take possession OF the
platform. Leta the printing-presses Of
this country speak out for Christ, and
the reporters, and the typesetters, and
and publishers swear allegiance to the
Lord God of truth. All, my friend,
that day must come, and II the great
body Of Christian men have not the
faith, or the courage, or the consecra-
| tion to do it, then let some Jonathan,
on his busy hands and on his praying
knees, climb up on the rock Of hind
rance, and in the name Of the Lord
God of Israel, slash to pieces those
literary Philistines. If these men will
not be converted to God, then they
must be destroyed.
Again, learn from this subject what
a large amount of the church's
resources is actually hidden, and
buried and undeveloped. 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 yet hun
dreds of thousands of dollars worth Of
this metal was kept nnder the hills.
Well, that is the difficulty with the
church of God at this day. Its talent is
not developed. Ifone-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 a
few years persuade this whole earth to
surrender to God. There is enough un-
developed Christian energy in the
States to bring the whole world to
Christ; but it is buried under strata
of Indifference and under whole noun
tains of sloth. Now is it 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 hammocks.
The most of the metal is under the
hills. o, is it not time for the church
of God to rouse up and understand that
we want all energies, all the talent,
and all the wealth enlisted for Christ's
sake? l like the nickname that the
English soldiers gave to Blucher, the
commander. They called him "0ld
Forwards. We have had enough re-
treats in the church of Christ; let us
have glorious advance. And say to
you now, as the general said when his
troops were affrighted. Rising up in
his stirrups, his hair flying in the wind,
he lifted up his voice until twenty thou
sand troops heard him, crying out:
Forward, the whole line"
Again, learn from this subject that
we sometimes do well TO take advan-
tage of the worlds sharpening instru-
ments. 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 ploughs
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
1t not right for us to employ the
worlds grindstones? II there be art,
il there be logic, II there be business
faculty 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 implements.
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. II they have
science and art it will do us good
TO rub against it. In other words, let
us employ 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 experiments, and we'll 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 master in his day.
He not only got all the learning he
could get of Dr. Gamaliel, but after
ward, 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 un-
der his tremendous powers. That was
what gave Thomas Chalmers his power
in his day. He conquered the worlds
astronomy and compelled IL 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 influence in his day. He conquered
the worlds metaphysics and forced 1t
into the service of God, until not only
the old meeting house in Northampton,
Massachusetts,, but all Christendom,