Democratic messenger., 1893-05-20

rOIi III, roll up, tnOu mllIennial harmony!
See also in my subject rejected oppor
tunity Of revenge Why did not David
pick up Saul's javelin and hurl it back
again, David had skillful arm. He
demonstrated ON another occasion he could
WELD sling. and he could have easily
picked up that javelin, aimed it az Saul,
the would be assassin, and left the foaming
and demcnted monster as lifeless under the
javelin as he had left Goliath under a
sling. Oh, David, now is your chance
No, no. Men and women with power Of
tongue or pen or hand to reply to an EN-
bittered antagonist, better initiate David
Better initiate David and let the javelin lie
at your feet and keep the harp in youI
hand. Do not strike back. Do not play
the game of tit for tat.
Gibbon, in his history. tells of Bajazet,
the great Moslem general, who was brought
a captive to the tent of Timur. He had at
tempted the massacre of Timur and his
men. Timur said to him: Had you van
quished u.s. ] am not ignorant OF the fate
which you reserved for myself and my
troops, but disdain to retaliate. Your life
and honor are secure, and ] shall express
my gratitude to God by my clemency to
man." Beautiful!
Revenge ON Christians tongue or pen or
hand is inapt and more damage to the one
who employs it than the one against whom
it is employed. What A javelin hurled
Mt you and fallen Mt your feet and you not
huri it back again! Yes, / have tried the
plan. learned it from my father and
have practiced it all my life, and it works
well, and by the help Of God and javelins
not picked up l have conquered all my foes
and preached funeral sermons in honor Of
most Of them.
The best thing you can do with javelin
hurled at you is to let it lie where it dropped
or hang it up in your museum as n curl
osity. The deepest wound made by jave-
lin is not by the sharp edge, but at the dull
end Of the handle to him who wields il. !
leave it to you to say which got the best Of
that fight in the palace-Saul or David.
See also in my subject that the fact that
a man sometimes dodges is not against his
courage. My text says that when Saul as
sailed him David avoided out of his pres
ence twice''-that is, when the javelin was
flung he stepped out Of its direction or
bent this way or that-in other words, he
lodged. But all those who have read the
life Of David know that he was not lack
ing in prowess. David had faults. but
cowardice was not one Of them.
When David, who was, ! guess, about
~ feet high. went out to meet the giant.
who was, guess. about 10 feet high, it WA
big undertaking. and the inequalities 81
the struggle were so great that it struck
the giants idea of the ludicrous, and he
suggested to the little fellow that he would
make a fine dinner for buzzard or jackal
Come to me, and will give thy flesh unto
the fowls OF the air and to the beasts Of the
field"
When David went out to meet that giant
and conquered him, he demonstrated, as
he did on other occasions, his courage But
am so glad that when Saul flung that
javelin, David dodged it, or the chief work
of his life would never have been done.
What lesson this is TO those who go into
useless danger and expose their lives "r
their regulations or their usefulness un-
necessarily. When duty demands. 20
ahead. though all earth and hell oppose
Dodge not one inch from the right position.
But when nothing is involved. step back or
step aside.
Why stand in the way of perils that you
can avoidi Go not into quixotic battles &c
fight windmills. You will be Of more ~.
to the world and the church rs an active
Christian man than as target for javelins.
they go into churches they fight there. II
they 20 into presbyteries or conferences or
CONSIDERATIONS they fight there Ny advice
to you is, il anything is TO be gained for God
or the truth. stand out Of the way Of the
javelins. Samuel xviii, II, David avoided
out Of his presence twice"
Washington was as mighty in his re.
treats rs in his advances. His army would
several times have been destroyed IL he had
not lodged. He lodged on Long Island.
he dodged on New Jersey heights. Lin
coin on his way to Inauguration ut Wash
incton was waited for by assassins, but he
took another train and lodged the desper
ADDE'S. We have high example of the fact
that sometimes n man will serve God best
by disappearing from this or that place.
this or that environment.
A mob brought Christ to the top Of the
rocks back of Nazareth. They did not like
his preaching, and they proposed to hurl him
down the precipice. But while they were
getting ready for the massacre Christ dart
ed into the crowd and amid the confusion
escaped to Capernaum and continued exOr-
cising devils and cooling fevers and filling
fishnets and giving healthy circulation OF
blood to paralysis and curing dementia and
turning corpses into living men and women
and doing his chief work.
What a good thing ne dodged the crowd
on the rocks back Of Nazareth! Likewise
at Jerusalem one day, while he was saun-
tering up and down in Solomon's Porch
waiting for an opportunity to say Kind
words or do a useful deed, the people pro-
posed to- pay him for his self sacrifices by
stoning him to death, but the record is.
'He escaped out Of their hands"
See also in my subject the unreasonable
attitude of javelin toward harp. What had
that harp in David's hand done to the Jaw
elm in Saul's hand! Had the vibrating
strings of the one hurt the keen edge Of
the other? Was there an old grudge be
tween the two families of sweet sound and
sharp cut? Had the triangle ever insulted
the polished shaft. Why the deadly aim
of the destroying weapon against the in
strument of soothing, calming. healing
sound. Well. will answer that il you
will tell me why the hostility of so many
to the gospel. why the virulent attacks
against Christian religion, why the angry
antipathy Of so many TO the most genial.
most inviting, most salutary influence un-
der all the heavens.
Why will men give their lives to writing
and speaking and warning against Christ
and the gospel? Why the javelin Of the
worlds hatred and rage against the harpof
heavenly love: You know and know men
who get wrathfully red in the face and
foaming Mt the mouth, and use the gesture
of the clinched fist, and put down their feet
with indignant emphasis, and invoke all
sarcasm and irony and vituperation and
scorn and spite mt the Christian religion
What has the Christian religion done that
Il should be so assailei. Whom hath il
bitten and left with hy,lrophobiac virus in
their veins that it should sometimes be
chased as though it were "A maddened Ca
nine?
To head of and trip up and push down
and corner our religion was the dominant
thought in the life Of David Hume and
Voltairc and Shaftesbury and even the
Earl of Rochester until one day in a prince
ly house in which they blasphemously put
God on trial. and the Eai! Of Rochester was
the attorney against God and religion and
received the applause of the whole COM
pany. when suddenly the earl was struck