The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-05-17

| hurl it back again! Yes, have tried the
plan. 1 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 yields it. ]
leave it to you &c 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 lodges is not against his
courage. My text says that when Saul az
sailed him David avoided out Of his pres
ence twice'-that Is, when the javelin was
flung he stepped out Of its direction
bent this way or that-in other words, he
lodged. But all those who have read the
lie 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, l guess, about
~ feet high, went out to meet the giant,
who was, guess about 10 feet high, it wa
a big undertaking, and the inequalities Of
the struggle were so great that it struck
the giants idea of the ludicrous, and he
suggested 10 the little fellow that he would
make fine dinner for a buZzard or a jaekal.
"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 lodged it, or the chief work
/ pf bfg 1ifa vrpr41I haua haap 6pna
What q lesson this is to those who go into
useless danger and expose their lives or
their regulations or their usefulness I'M
necessarily When duty demands, go
| 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 avoid? Go not into quixotic battles To
/ fight windmills. You will be of more ;,se
/ to the world and the church as an active
| Christian man than as a target for javelins
/ There are Christians always in fight. j
they go into churches they fight there. II
they GO into presbyteries or conferences or
CONSIDERATIONS they fight there. My advice
TO you is, if anything is to begained for God
or the truth, stand out of the way of the
! javelins. Samuel xviii, IL, 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 if he had
/ not lodged. He lodged on Long Island,
he lodged on New Jersey heights. Lin
coin on his way to Inauguration at Wash
ington was waited for by assassns, but he
! took another train and lodged the desper-
ADDE'S. We have high example of the fact
| that sometimes a man will serve God best
/ by disappearing from this or that place.
this or that environment.
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
eel into the crowd and amid the confusion
escaped to Capernaum and continued exor-
cising devils and cooling fevers and filing
fshnets 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 he lodged 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 opportunity 10 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 Davids hand done to the Jaw
elm in Sauls hands 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 cut2 Had the triangle ever insulted
! the polished shaft? Why the deadly aim
of the destroying weapon against the in
| strument of soothing, calming healing
s0und2 Well, / win answer that if 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 I'M
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
wEo get wrathfully red in the face and
foaming at 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 at the Christian religion
| What has the Christian religion done that
| it should be so assailed2 Whom hath it
bitten and left with hydrophObiac virus in
| their veins that it should sometimes be
chased as though it were maddened ca
nine?
To head off and trip up and push down
and corner our religion was the dominant
| thought in the life of David Hume and
| Voltaire and Shaftesbury and even the
Earl of Rochester until one day in prince
| ly house in which they blasphemously put
| God on trial, and the Earl of Rochester was
the attorney against God and religion and
received the applause of the whole COM
pany, when suddenly the earl was struck
under conviction and Criedi Good God,
that a man who walks uprightly, who secs
| the wonderful works of God and has the
uses Of his senses and reason, should Use
them in defying his Create! wish had
been crawling leper in ditch rather than
have acted toward God as | have done"
Javelin of wit, javelin of irony, javelin Of
scurrility, javelin Of sophistry, javelin Of
human and diabolic hostility have been
flying for hundreds of years end are flying
now. But aimed at what2 At something
that has come to devastate the worldi At
something that Stays nationsi At some
thing that would maui and trample under
| foot and excruciate and crush the human
racer No, aimed at the gospel harp
harp on which prophets played with
somewhat lingering and uncertain fin
gers, but harp on which apostles
played with sublime certainty, and