Connecticut western news., 1893-07-27
A DISARMED PEOPLE.
DR. TAlMAGE FINES 4 LESSON n THE SUBJUGATED lSRAELiTE.

The Church of Todsy Has Allowed the In-
 fdeis to Assume Too Much In Science
 and Literature-we Need More Men Like
 Axassix, siIiman and Hitchcock.
 MADISON, Wis, July 23.-The great throng of many thousands from all parts of the north and west are gathered at the Monona Lake assembly, a Chautau- qua held near this city. Rev. Dr. Tal- 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 Israeli etc. .-=.
 My loving and glad salutation to this host, Chautauquans, Chris tian Endeavorers, gospel workers and their friends from all parts of Wisconsin and America, saints and sinners! My text is gloriously appropriate. What a galling subjugation the Israelites were sufferingl The Philistines had carried of all the blacksmiths and torn down all the blacksmiths' shops and abolished the blacksmith's trade in the land of Israel.
 These Phihstines had particular grudge against blacksmiths, although l have always admired them and have sometimes thought ought to have been one myself. The Philistines would not even allow these parties to work their valuable mines of brass and ircl, nor might they make any swords or spears. There were only two swords left in all the land Yea, these Philistines went on until they had taken all the grindstones from the land of Israel, so that if an Israelitish farmer wanted to sharpen his blow or his ax he had to go over to the garrison of the Philistines to get 1t done. There was only one sharpening instrument left in the la1d, and that was . file. The farmers and the mechanics having nothing to whet up the coulter, and the goad, and the pickax save a simple file, industry was hindered and work practically disgraced.
 The great idea of these Philistines was to keep the Israe1ites 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 file, how I pity youi 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 a 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.
 CHURCH WITHOUT WEAPONS.
 learn first from this subject how dan- gerous it is for the church of God to al- low it's weapons to stay in the hands of it's enemies. These Israelites might again and again have obtained 8 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 CTS tugging along with their pickaxes and blows, and 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." I 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 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 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 sharpening instruments.
 call upon the superintendents of lit erary 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 intellectua weapons of this century in their owr 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 featuring Christian, to take back the featuring platform.
 THE WEAPONS OF SCIENCE.
 We want to send out against Schenke and Strauss and Renan of the past mel like the late Theodore Christlieb of Bonn and against the infdel scientists Got worshiping Silliman and Hitchcock ant Agassiz. We want to capture all tn philosophical apparatus and swin, around the telescopes on the swivel un til through them we can see the morn ing star of the Redeemer, and with min
 
 eralogical hammer discover the "Rocl of Ages" end amid the fora of tn realms find the Rose of Sharon and tn Lily of the Valley"
 We want clergy learned enough t. discourse of the human eye, showing 1 to be microscope and telescope in on Instrument, with 800 wonderful con trivances and lids closing 80,000 or 40, ,00 times a day, all its muscles and nerve and bones showing the infinite skill o an infinite God, and then winding u with the peroration, "He that forme' the eye, shall he not see" And then w want to discourse about the human ear its wonderful integuments, membrane and vibration, and. it's chain of smal bones, and it's auditory nerves, closin with the question, He that planted tn ear, shall he not hear?'
 And we want some one able to ez pound the first chapter of Genesis, bring ing to it the geology and the astronom of the world, until, as Job suggested