Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-05-19

Ill nus nlRnb hurried an lNStru-
ment of death at it. know
there are styles of music that sin
admires, and you hear it as you pass
the casino and the dance hall, and
the devil has stolen most of the fiddles,
though am glad the ole Bulls have
snatched up the charmed sti ings from
their destruction; but it is fact that
sin has javelin for sacred sounds. In
many churches the javelin of criticism
has killed the music, javelin flung from
organ loft or from adjoining pew of
the supersensitive. Sauls javelin
aimed at David's harp. Thousands of
people so afraid they may not sing
critically, they will not sing at all, or
sing with such low tone that no one
hears them. In many church the
iavelin of criticism has crippled the
harp of worship. If Satan could
silence all the Sunday School songs
and the hymns of Christian worship,
he would gain his greatest achieve
ment When the millenial song shall
rise land it is being made ready there
will beisuch roll of voices, such con-
centred power of stringed and wind in
struments, such majesty, such unani-
nifty, such continental and hemisphere
and planetary reclamation, that it will
be impossible TO know where earth
stops and heaven begins. Roll on, roll
1 II. roll up, thou millenial harmony!
See also in my subject rejected OPP
portunity of revenge. Why did not
David pick up Sauls iavelin and hurl
it back again? David had a skillful
arm. He demonstrated on another oc-
casion he could WELD sling, and he
could have easily picked up that jave-
In oil OF Il ha
sin, and left the foaming and demon ed
monster as lifeless under the javelin
as he had left Goliath under "a fling.
Oh, David, now is your chance. No.
no. Men and women with power of
tongue or pen or hand To reply 10 an
embittered antagonist, better initiate
David, and let the javelin lie at your
feet and keep the harp in your hand.
Do not stril back. Do not play the
game of tit for-tat. Gibbon, in his
history, tells of Bajazet, the great Mos
lem general, who was brought cap
tive to the tent of Timur. lie had
attempted the massacre OF Timur and
his men. Timur said To him: Had YOU
vanquished us, / am not ignorant of
the tate which you reserved for myself
and my troops. but | disdain TO re-
taliatc. Your life and honor are
secure, and shall express my graft
tude 10 God by my clemency to man."
Beautiful! Revenge on Christians
tongue or pen or hand is inapt, and
IN ore damage TO the one who employs
il, than the one against whom il i
employed. What! A javelin hurled
at you and fallen at your feet, and you
not hurl it back again? Yes | have
tried the plan. l learned it from my
father and have practiced it all my lie,
and it works well, and by the help of
God and javelins not picked up 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 a curiosity. The
deepest wound made by javelin is not
by the sharp edge, but at the dull edge
of the handle TO him who yields it.
/ leave il to you to say which got the
best of that fight in the palace-Saul
or David
See also in my subject that the fact
that man sometimes dolges is not
against his courage. My text says
that when Saul assliled him David
avoided out of his presence twice"
that is, when the javelin was flung,
he stepped out of its direction o. bent
this way or that, in other words, he
lodged. But all those who have read
the life of David know that he washot
lacking in prowess. David had faults,
but cowardice was no: one of them.
When David, who was, | guess, about
four feet and half high,
went out to meet the giant,
who was, l guess, about ten
feet high, it was a big undertake
ing, and the inequalities of the
struggle were so great that it struck
the giants idea of the ludicrous, and
he suggested to the little fellow that
he would make fine dinner for buzz
Zard or a jackal: Come 10 me and /
will give thy flesh unto the fowls of
the air and the beasts of the field.
When David went out to meet that
| giant and conquered him, he demon
/ strated, 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 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.
Nnen duty demands, go aneau, 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 wind-mils.
You will be of more use TO the world
and the church as an active Christian
man than as target for javelins.
There are Christians always in a fight.
If they go into churches they fight
there. If they go into presbyteries or
conferences or conscientious they fight
there. My advice to you is, if anything
is to be gained for God or the truth,
stand out of the way of the javelins.
I. Sam. IS: II, David avoided out of
his presence twice" Washington was
as mighty in his retreats as in his adj
vances. His army would several times
have been destroyed il he had not
lodged. He lodged on Long Island,
he lodged on New Jersey Heights.
Lincoln on his way to inauguration at
Washington was waited for by as
sassins, but he took another train and
lodged the desperadoes. We have
high example of the fact that some
times man will serve God best by dis
/ ., l.. 10 Il 70