Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-08-04
'SHARPENED AXES"
Subject tf DR.. Talmage's Sermon at
Madison, Wis

!
Samuel xiii 1921.
My loving and glad salutation to this un-
counted host, Chautauquans, Christian En-
! GeavUrs. gospel workers and their friends
from all parts os Wisconsin and America,
saints and sinners My text is gloriously
appropriate. What q CALLING subjugation
the Israelites were suffering The Philistines
had carried off all the blacksmiths and torn
down all the blacksmiths' shops and abolished
the blacksmth's trade in the land of Israel.
These Philistnes had a particular grudge
against blacksmiths. although have always
admired them and have sometimes thought
l ought to have been one myself. The Phil
istines 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 ii an lsraelitsh farmer
wanted to sharpen his plow or his ak he had
to go over to the garrison CT the Philistines
TO get it done. There was only one sharpen
ing instrument left in the land, and that was
file The farmers and the mechanics hav-
| ing nothing to whet up the coulter, and the
| goad and the pickax save a simple file, in
! dustry was hindered and work practically
! diSgraced
The great idea of these Phiistines was TO
keep the Israelites disarmed They might
get iron out ofthe hills to make swords of,
hut they would not have any blacksmiths to
weld this iron. If they got the iron welded,
! they would have no grindstones on which to
bring the instruments OF agriculture or the
military weapons up to an edge. Oh, you
| poor. Weaponess Israetes. reduced to file,
how I p ty you But these Phiistines were
rot forever to keep their heel on the neck OF
! Gods children. Jonathan, on his hands and
knees. climbs up great rock beyond which
! were the Phil;stines, aud his armOr bearer,
on his hands and knees, climbs up the same
! rock, and these two men, with their two
swords. hew to pieces the Phiiistines, 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 Philistine
host on their feet.
learn first from this subject how danger
Gus il is for the church of God to all DIV its
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, bu,
these Israclites 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.
see the farmers Juggling along with their
pickaxes and plows, and say, "Where are
you going with those things" They say,
"Oh, we are going over to the garrison of
| the Philistines to get these things sharp
ened." l say, "You foolish men why don't
you sharpen them at homer "Oh," they
say. "the backsmiths shops IRE all torn
down, and we have noting lett ~ but a
| file "
So it is in the church of Christ to-day. We
are too willing to give up our weapons to the
! rh.a hat hac H.
bled up the schools, and the colleges, and
the arts and the sciences, and the literature,
an the printing press. lnhdelity is making
a 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
a while, when the great battle between sin
and righteousness has opened, # we do not
look out we will be as badly off as these Is
raelites, without any swords to fight with
and without any sharpened instruments.
call upon the superintendents of literary
institutions to SEQ 20 il that the men who go
into the classrooras to stand beside the Ley
den Jars. and the electric batteries, and the
microscopes or TELESCOPES be children of
God, not Philistines. r ae 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 Chris
tians to capture thescholarsEip, and philoso-
phic Christians to capture ne philosophy,
and lecturing Christians to take back the
lecturiug platform.
We want TO send out against Schen,.al
and Strauss and Renan of the past men liEs
the late Theodore Christ - of Bonn, ar,
against the in1de scientis God wotshi5 >.
ing Silliman and Hitchc ock and Agassiz.
We want to capture all the philosophical,
apparatus and swing around the telescopes
on the swivel until through tb ~. we can see
the morning star II the Redeemer, and with
neurological hammer discover the "Rock
of Ages" and arid the fora of the realms
find the 'Rose OF Sharon and the Lily OF
the Valley"
We want clergy learned enough to dis
course of the human eye, showing it to be
microscope and telescope lr one instrument,
with 600 wonderful contTivances and lids
closing so, 900 Or 40, 900 times a day, al it,
muscles and nerves and bones showing the
infinite skill of an infinite God, ami then
winding up with the peroration, "He that
formed the eye, shall He not see2" And
then we want tc' discourse about the human
ear, its wonderful integunlents, membranes
and vibration. and its chain of small bones,
and its auditory nerves, closing with the
question "He that planted the ear, shall He
not hear?'
And we want some one able to expound
the first chapte of Genesis, bringing to it
the geology and the astronomy OF the world,
until, as JOB suggested, "the stones OF the
field shall be in league with the truth, and
''the stars in their courses shall fight against
Sisera." Oh. church of God go out and re-
capture these weapons Let men of God go
out and take possession of the platform. Let
all the printing press of this country speak
out for Christ and the reporters, and the
typesetters and the editors and publishers
swear allegiance to the Lord God of truth.
Alb, my friend, that day must come, and II
the great body Of Christian men have notthe
faith. or the courage, or the conservation to
do it. then let some Jonathan on his busy
hands and on his praying knees climb up on
the rock of hindrance, and in tfe name OF
the Lord God of Israel slash to p1ecesthose
literary Philistines. If these men Will
not be converted TO God, then they must be
destroyed.
Again. / learn from this subject what
large amount of the church's resources is
actually hidden and buried and undeveloped.
The Bible intinates that that was very
rich land-this land of Israel. 1t says,
''The stones are iron, and out OF the nils
thou shalt dig brass" and yet hundreds oil
thousands of dollars worth OF this metal was
kept under the hills. Well, that is the dill
Guilty with the church of God at this day. Its
talent is net 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
eoquence were consecrated TO the Lord
Jesus Christ, it could in few years persuade
this whole earth to surrender to God.
There IL enough undeveloped Christian
energy in the United States to bring the
whole world to Christ. but it is buried I'M
der strata Of Indifference and under whole