Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-08-04

the other side, let us go over and employ 1t
| 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 taste Is, and then
| transfer il TO the cause of Christ. III they
have science and art, it will do us good to
rub against it. In other words, let us en-
ploy the worlds grindstones. We VIII listen
! 10 their music, and We will watch their acu-
men. and we will use their grindstones, ana
I we will borrow their philosophical apparatus
| to make our experiments. and we will Dor
row 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 gotall the learning he
: could get of DR.. Gamaliel, but afterward
standing on Mars hill and in crowded thor
oughfares quoted their poetry and graspcd
their logic and welded their eloquence and
employed their mythology until Dionyslus,
the Areopagite, learned in the schools OF
Athens and HeliOpOlis, went down under MS
tremendous powers.
power in his day. lie conquered the worlds
astronomy AMI compelled it to ring out the
wisdom AMI greatness of the Lord, until for
the seconf, time the morning stars sang to-
gether, ard all the sons of God shouted for
joy. That was what gave to Jonathan Ed
wards his influence in his day. He con-
quere1 the world S metaphysics and forcedlt
into the service Of God, until not only the
old meeting house in Northampton, Mass.
but all Christendom, felt thrilled by his
Christian power,
Well, now, my friends, we all have tools OF
Christian usefulness. Do not let them lose
their edges. We want no rusty blades in
this fight. We want no Golfer that cannot
{ rip up the glebe. We want no Ak that can
not fell the trees. We want no goad that
cannot start the lazy team. Let us get the
very best grindstones we can find, though
they be in the possession Of the Philistines,
compelling them to turn the crank, while we
bear down with all our might on the swift
revolving wheel until all our energies and
faculties shall be brought up to a bright,
keen, sharp, glittering edge.
Again, my subject teaches US on what q
small allowance PhiIistine iniquity puts a
man. Yes, these Philistines shut up the
mines, and then they took the spears and the
swords, then they took the blacksmiths, then
they took the grindstones, and they took
everything but hle Oh, that is the way sin
works. 1t grabs everything. 1t begins with
robbery, and it ends with robbery. 1t de-
spoils this faculty and that faculty and keeps
on until the whole nature is gone. Was the
man eloquent before, it generally thickens
his tongue. Was he fine in personal appear
ance, it mars his visage. Was he affluent, 1t
sends the sheriff to Sell him out Was he in
fiuential, it destroys his popularity. Was he
placid and genial and loving, it makes him
splenetic and cross, and 50 utterly is he
changed that yoa can see he is sarcastic and
raspng and that the Philistines have left him
nothing but a file.
Oh, ''the way of the transgressor is hard.
His cup is bitter. His night is dark. His
pangs are Deep His end is terrific. Philis-
tine iniquity says 10 that man, "Now, sur
render to me. and will give you all you
want-music for the dance, swift steeds
for the race, imperial couch to slum-
Der on, and you shall be refreshed with the
rarest fruits in baskets of golden filigree.
He lies. The music turns out to be groan.
The fruits burst the rlnd with rank poison.
The filigree is made up of twisted snakes.
The couch is a grave. Small allowance OF
rest, small allowance of peace, small allow
ance of comfort Cold, hard rough-noth-
ing but file So it was with Voltaire, the
most applauded man Of his day
X,
Bonmots to gall the Christian and the Jew;
An infdel when wei but what when sick7
Oh then text would touch him to the quick.
Seized with hemorrhage of the lungs n
Paris, where he had gone to be crowned in
the theater as an idol of all France, he sends
q messenger to get priest that he may be
reconciled to the church before he dies A
great terror falls upon him. He makes the
place all round about him so dismal that the
nurse declares that she would not for oil the
wealth of Europe see another inf1del die.
Phiistine iniquity had promised him all the
worlds garands but in the last hour OF his
life, when he needed solacing, sent tearing
across his conscience AMI his nerves file,
file.
SO it was with Lord Byron, his uncleanness
in England only surpassed by his uncean-
ness in Venice. then going on to his brilliant
misery at Missolonghi, and fretting at his
nurse. Fletcher fretting at himself frettiny
at the world. frettng at God, and he who
gave to the world "Chlde Harold" and
"Sardanapalus. and THE Prisoner OF
Chillon." and "The Siege Of Corinth," re-
dueed to nothing but file
Oh, sin has great facility for making prom
Uses, but it has just as great facility Tor
breaking them. A Christian life is the only
cheerful life. while life of wicked surrender
is remorse, ruin and death. Its painted glee
days of the Mexican Empire Montezuma
said he felt knawing at his heart something
like canker. Sin, like monster wild
beast of the forest. sometimes ticks all over
its victim in order that the victim may be
more easily swallowed; but generally sin
rasps and gals and tears AMI upbraids and
files Is it mo-. 50, Hero1? Is it not so, Hill
debrand2 Is it not so, Robespierre? Aye!
ave it is so; it is 50. "The way of the
uiokad He furnpfh inside down"
History tells us that when Rome was
founded, on that day there were II vultures
flying through the air. but when a trans
gressor dies the skies is black with whole
flocks OF them. Vultures When [ see sin
robbing 50 many people, and see them GO
ing down day by day and week by week, L
must give plain warning. 1 dare not keep
it back lest | risk the salvation of my own
soul. Rover, the pirate, pulled down the
warning bell on Inchcape rock. thin king that
he would have chance to despoil vessels
that were crushed on the rocks. but one
night his own ship crashed down on this
very rock and he went down with all hrs
cargo God declares, "When l say to the
wicked thou shalt surely die, and thou
givest him not warning that same man shall
die in his iniquity, but his bloUi Will re-
quire at thy hands"
learn from this subject what a sad thing
1t is when tne church of God loses its metal.
These Philistines saw that if they could only
get all the metallic weapons out OF the hands
of the Israeltes all would be well, and there
fore they took the swords and the spears.
They did not want them to have single me-
tallic weapon. When the metal OF the Is
raelites was gone, their strength was gone.
This is the trouble with the church OF God to-
day. It is surrendering its courage. 1t has
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