News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-07-27
News and Citizen.
MORRISVILLE and HYDE PARK,
Thursday, July 27, 1898.
A DISARMED PEOPLE.
DR.. TALMAGE FINDS A LESSON IN
THE SUBJUGATED ISRAELITE.

fidels to Assume Too Much In Science
and Literature-We Need More Men Like
Agassiz, SilIiman and Hitchcock.
MADISON, Wis, July 23.-The great
lhrong of many thousands from all parts
IF the north and west are gathered at
be Monona Lake assembly, Chautau-
tua held near this city. Rev. DIR. Tai
mage this forenoon preached to the great
multitude on ''Sharpened Axes" the text
being Samuel xiii, 1921, Now, there
was no smith found throughout all the
land Of Israel" etc.
Ny loving and glad salutation to this
uncounted host, Chautauquans, Chris
han Endeavorers, gospel workers and
their friends from all parts of Wisconsin
md America, saints and sinners! My
text is gloriously appropriate. What
calling subjugation the Israelites were
Butferingi The Philistines had carried
off all the blacksmiths and torn down
all the blacksmiths' shops and abolished
the blacksmith's trade in the land of
Israel.
These Philistines had a particular
grudge against blacksmiths, although
have always admired them and have
sometimes thought I ought to have been
one myself. The Philistines 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 Philistsnes went on
until they had taken all the grindstones
from the land of Israel, so that if an
1sraelitish farmer wanted to sharpen his
plow or his ak he had to go over to
The garrison of the Philistines to get it
done. There was only one sharpening
instrument left in the land, and that was
\ file. The farmers and the mechanics
having nothing to whet up the coulter,
and the goad, and the pickax save
simple file, industry was hindered and
work practically disgraced.
The great idea of these Philistines was
90 keep the Israelites disarmed. They
might get iron out of the hills to make
swords of, but 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 in
struments of agriculture or the military
weapons up to an edge. Oh, you poor,
weaponless Israelites, reduced to a file,
how pity you! But these Philistines
were not forever to keep their heel on
the neck of Gods children. Jonathan,
On his hands and knees, climbs up a
great rock beyond which were the Phil
istines, and 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 Philistines,
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.
A CHURCH WITHOUT WEAPONS.
learn first from this subject how dam
gerous it is for the church of God to al
low its weapons to stay in the hands of
its enemies. These Israelites might again
and again have obtained supply of
swords and weapons, as, for instance
when they took the spoils of the AM
monites, but these Israelites seemed con-
tent 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 farm
ers Juggling along with their pickaxes
and plows, and 1 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." 1 say, "You foolish men; why
don't you sharpen them at homer "Oh."
they say, ''the blacksmiths' shops are all
torn down, and we have nothing left us
but a file"
So it is in the church of Christ today.
We are too willing to give up our weap-
ons to the enemy. The world boasts
that it has gobbled up the schools, and
the colleges, and the arts, and the sci
ences, and the literature, and the print
ing press. Infdelity 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 awhile, when the great battle be-
tween sin and righteousness has opened,
If we do not look out we will be as badly
off as these Israelites, without any
swords to fight with and without any
happening instruments.
l call upon the superintendent of lit
prary institutions to see to it that the
men who go into the classrooms to stand
beside the Leyden jars, and the electric
batteries, and the microscopes or tele-
scopes be children of God, not Philis-
tines The atheistic thinkers of this day
are trying to get all the intellectual
weapons of this century in their own
grasp. What we want is scientific Chris
tians to capture the science, and scholas-
tic Christians to capture the scholarship, |
and philosophic Christians to capture
the philosophy, and lecturing Christians
to take back the lecturing platform.
THE WEAPONS OF SCIENCE.
, We want to send out against Schenkel |
and Strauss and Renan of the past men
like the late Theodore Christlieb of Bonn,
and against tie infdel scientists God |
worshiping S1liman and Hitchcock and |
Agassiz. We want to capture all the
philosophical apparatus and swing
bround the telescopes on the swivel I'M
ill through them we can see the morn
ing star of the Redeemer, and with min
eralogical hammer discover the ''Rock
of Ages" and amid the fora of the
realms find The ''Rose of Sharon and the
Lilly of the Valley"
We want clergy learned enough to
discourse of the human eye, showing it
to be a microscope and telescope in one
instrument, with 800 wonderful con-
Erivances and lids closing &c, 900 or 40, 600
times day, all its muscles and nerves
and bones showing the infinite skill Of
an infinite God, and then winding up
with the peroration, HE that formed |
the eye, shall he not see?' And then we |
want to discourse about the human ear, |
its wonderful integuments, membranes
and vibration, skid 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 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 be in
league" with the truth, and "the stars in
their courses shall fight against Sisera."
Oh, church of God, go out and recap
ture these weapons. Let men of God go
out and take possession of the platform.
Let all the printing press of this coun
Try speak out for Christ, and the report
Irs, and the typesetters, and the editors
Ind publishers swear allegiance to the
Lord God of truth.
All, my friend, that day must come,
end if the great body of Christian men
have not the faith, or the courage, or the
conservation to do it, then let some JON
Rthan 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