The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-07-26
" "SHARPENED AXES"
Subject Of a Sermon by Rev. T. De
Wit Talmage, D. D.,
Delivered Mt the Monona Lake Assembly
In Wisconsln-The Church Too willing
to Give Up Weapons to tho Enemy
More Christians Wanted
In Science, Art and
Philosophy.

Assembly, Chautauqua held near
Madison, Wis. The subject was "Sharp-
ened Axes" the text being l. Samuel,
xiii, 1921: snow there was no smith
found throughout all the land of Is
rael."
My loving and glad salutation to this
uncounted host, 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 ascalding subjugation the Israel
ties were suffering. The Philistines
had carried off all the blactsmiths,
and torn down all the blacksmiths
shops, and abolished the blacksmiths'
trade in the land of Israel. These Phi
listines had q particular grudge against
blacksmiths, although l have always
admired them, and have sometimes
thought / ought to have been one my
self. The Philistines would not even
allow these parties to work their val
liable mines of brass and iron, nor
might they make any swords or spears
There were only two swords left in all
the lands. Yea, these Philistines went
on until they had taken all the grind
stones from the land of Israel, SO that
If an Israelitish farmer wanted to
sharpen his plow or his AK, he had to
go over to the garrison of the Philis-
tines to get 1t done. There was only
one sharpening instrument left in
the land and that was file.
The farmers and the merchants having
nothing to whet up the coulter, and
the goad, and the piclSax save simple
file, industry was hindered and work
practically disgraced. The great idea
of the Philistines was to keep the
lsraelites disarmed. They might get
iron out of the hills to make swords
Of, but they would not have any black
smiths to weld this iron. If they got
the iron welded, they would have no
grindstones on which to bring the in
struments Of agriculture or the mill
tary weapons up to an edge. o, you
poor, weaponless Israelites, reduced to
file, how l pity you! 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 great rock beyond
which were the Philistines; and his
armor-bearer, on his hands and knees,
climbs up the same rock, and these two
men, with their swords, hew to pieces
the Philistines, the Lord throwing a
great terror upon them. So it was
then; so it is now. The two men of
God on their knees, mightier than a
Philistine host on their feet.
learn first from this subject, how
dangerous it is for the church of God
to allow 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; 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.
see the farmers tugging along with
their pickaxes and plows, and say,
"Where are you going with those
things?" They say, 20, we are going
over to the garrison OF the Philistines
toget these things sharpened." l say,
"You foolish men, why don't you
sharpen them at homer" "O," they
say, "the blacksmiths' shops are all
torn down, and we have nothing left
us but file."
So 1t 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. Infdelity is
making mighty attempt to get all our
weapons in its hands, 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, II 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 superin-
tendents of literary institutions TO see
TO 1t that the men who go into the class
rooms to stand beside the Leyden jars,
and the electric batteries, and the mi
croscopes or telescopes, be children of
God, not Philistines The atheistic
thinkers Of this day are trying TO get
all the intellectual weapons of this
country in their own grasp. What we
want is scientific Christians to capture
the science, and scholastic Christians
TO capture the scholarship, and philo-
sophie Christians to capture the philos-
ophy, and lecturing Christians to take
back the lecturing platform.
We wantto send out against Schenkel
and Strauss and Renan of the past, men
like the late Theodore Christlieb, OF
Bonn; and against the infidel scientists
a God-worshiping Silliman and Hitch
cock 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, and
with mineralogical hammer discover
the "Rock Of Ages" and amid 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 II TO
be microscope and telescope in one In
strument, with eight hundred wonder
full contrivances, and lids closing $4,000
or 10000 times day; all It's muscles
and nerves and bones showing the In
finite skin Of an infinite God, and then