Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-05-26

the help OF God and javelins no. picked up
have conquered ali my foes and preaehe
funeral sermons in homo. Of most Of them
The best thing you cGn do with iaveiia
hurled az YOU is TO let Il lie where il dropped
or hang il up in your museum Is curiosity.
The deepest wound made by jayalin i not
by the sharp edge. but at the dull end Of the
handle to him who wields it. / leave II 20
you 10 say which got the hes. Of that fight II
the palace-SauI or David.
See also in my biect that the fact that
man sometimes lodges Is not against his
courage. Ay text says that when Saul as
sailed him. David avoided out of his pres
ence twice"-that i. when the iavelin 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 lacking IN proweSS-
David had faults, but cowardice was not one
Of them.
When David who was. l guess. about four
and half feet high. went out 10 meet the
giant. who wac. guess, about 10 feet high.
It was big undertaking. and the inequali-
ties of the struggle were 50 great that it
struck the giants idea Of the ludicrous, and
be suggested to the little fellow that he would
make a fina dinner for buzzard or iackal
Come to re. and will give thy flesh unto
the fowls cf the air and 70 the beasts OF the
field
When David went out 10 meet that giant
and conquered him, ne demonstrated, - ae
did On other occasions, his courage. But l
am so glad that wnen Saul flung that javenn
David lodged IL or the chief work of his life
would never have been done. What a lesson
this is to those who go into useless danger
| and expose their lives or their regulations or
| their usefulness unnecessarily. When duty
| demands, go ahead, though all earth and hell
/ oppose. Dodge not ole 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 avoid? Go not into quixotic battles to
| a ill a,.fy To
the world and the church as an active Chris
| tian man than a target for jayelins. There
| are Christians always in fight II they go
| into churches. they fight there II they go
| into presbyteries or conferences or cpnsocla-
| tons, they fight there. My advice to you g.
| if anything is to be gained for God or the
truth, stand out of the way of the iavelin.
I Samuel, xviii, II, David avoided out of
| bis presence twice"
Washington was as mighty in his retreats
| as in his advances. His army would several
times have been destroyed if he had not
| lodged He lodged on Long Island he
lodged on New jersey heights. Lincoln Oh
his way to inauguration at Washington was
waited for by assassins, but he took another
| train and lodged the desperadoes We have
high example of the fact that sometimes 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 Nazarrah. They did not like
y,
Him down the precipice. But while they
were getting ready for the massacre Christ
| darted into the crowd and amid the confu-
sion escaped to Capernaum and continued
| exercising devils and cooling feyers and fill
| ing fish nets 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 good thing He lodged the crowd on
the rocks back of Nazareth Likewise at
dow iIo fari no.
| up and down in Solomons porch waiting for
| an opportunity to say kind words or do a
useful deed, the people proposed 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 bject the unreasonable
attitude Of jayelin toward harp. What had
| that harp in David hand done to the javelin
in Saul's hand? Had the vibrating strings Of
the one hurt the keen edge of the other! Was
| there an old grudge between the two fam
| lilies of sweet sound and sharp cut? Had the
| triangle ever insulted the polished shaft?
Why the deadly aim of the destroying
weapon against the instrument Of soothing,
calming, healing sound? r-seSs< -: Il:
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 under 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 world s
| hatred and rage against the harp of heavenly
| love2 You know and know men who get
| wrathfdlly red in the face and foaIning at
| the mouth and use the gesture Ofthe clinched
| fist and put down their feet with indignant
| emphasis and invoke all sarcasm and irony
| and vituperation and scorn and spite at the
| Christian religion. What has the Christian
| religion done that it should be so assailed?
Whom hath it bitten and left with hydro
| phobia virus in their veins that it should
| sometimes be chased as though it were a
| maddened canine?
To mead OF and trip up and push down
| and corner our religion was the dominant
thought in the life of David Hume and Vol
taire and Shaftesbury and even the Earl Of
| Rochester, until one day in a princely house,
in which they blasphemously put God on
| trial, and the Earl OF Rochester was the attor-
| ney against God and religion and received
| the applause of the whole company, when
| suddenly the earl was struck under convic
| ton and cried ''Good God. that man who
| walks uprightly, who sees the wonderful
works of God and has the use OF his senses
| and reason, should use them in defying his
! Creator! I wish [ had been crawling leper
in ditch rather than have acted toward God
as have done.
| scurrility, javelin of sophistry, javein Of hu-
| man and diabolical hostility have been flying
| for hundreds of years and are flying now.
| But aimed at what2 At something that has
come to dsvastate the world? At something
| that Stays nations? at something that would
| maui and trample under foot and excruciate
and crush the human race?
| Nc, aimed at the gospel herp-harp on
| which prophets played with somewhat linger-
iTrV and uncertain fingers huf harm on which