The Red Cloud chief., 1893-08-04
CHRISTIAN WEAPONS.
DR.. Talmago Discourses on Their
Use in the Enemy's Hands.
Lessons from the subjugation Of the Israel.
ties -undcveIoped Resources OF the
Church-sin's Promises Al
ways Broken.

y ihitfiaks bb'h WI hH F''INNNs
''Sharpcned Axes" the text being /.
Samuel, xiii. 1921: "Now there was no
smith found throughout all the land Of
Israel" etc. lie said:
My loving and glad salutation to this
~uncounted host of Chautauquans, Chris
tian E~ndcavorcrs, Gospel workers and
their friends from all parts of Wiscon-
sin and America, saints and sinners!
My text is gloriously appropriate. What
a scalding subjugation the %lsraclites
were suffering. The Philistines had
carried off all the bl~acksmiths, and torn
down all the blacksmiths' shops, and
abolished the blacksmith's trade in the
land Of %clsracl. They had "a particu-
lar grudgc against blacksmiths. The
Philistines would not even allow these
parties to work their valuable mines of
brass aId iron. nor might they make
any swords or spears. There were only
I'VE swords left in all the land. Yea,
these Philistincs went on until they
had taken all the grindstoncs from the
land of Israel, so that IL an lsraelitish
farmer wanted To sharpen his pillow or
his AZ, he had to go over to the gar
rison of the Philistincs to get il done.
There was only one sharpening instru-
mcnt left in the land, and that was a
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 Philistincs
vas to keep the ~lsraelites dis
armed. They might get iron out of
the hills to make swords of, but
they would not have any blacksmiths
to weld this iron. II they got the iron
welded, they would have no grind
stones on which to bring the instru-
ments of agriculture or the military
weapons up to the edge But these
Philistincs were not forever to keep
their heel on the neck of Gods chill
drcn. Jonathan, ON his hands and knees,
climbs up u great rock behind which
were the Philistines and his armor-
bearer, On his hands and knees, climbs
up the saine rock, and these two men.
with their TIVE swords, hew to pieces
the Philistincs, the Lord throwing "a
great terror upon them. So IL was
then. so IL is now The two men of God
on their knees mightier than u Philis-
tine host ON their feet.
| learn first from this subject, how
dangerous it III for the church of God
to allow its weapons to stay In the
hands of its enemies. These ~Israclites
might again and again have obtained Il
supply of swords and weapons, as for
instance when they took the spoils of
the Ammonites; but these lsraelitcs
seemed content to have no swords, no
spears. no blacksIniths, no grindstones.
no active iron mines, until il was TOO
late for them to make any resistance.
So 1t is in the church of Christ to-
day. We are too willing to give up our
weapons To the enemy. The world
boasts that it has gobbled up the
schools. and the colleges, and the
arts, n the sciences. and the
literature, and the printing press.
lnfdelity is making u mighty
attempt to get all IL weapons in its
hand, and then to keep them. You
know il is making this boast all the
time; and after awhile, when the great
battle between sin and Righteousness
has opened, II we do not look out we
will be as badly of as these lsraelitcs,
without any swords to fight with, and
without any sharpening Instruments
call upon the superintendent of lit
erary institutions to see to it that the
mcn who go into the class rooms to
stand beside the Leyden jars, and the
electric batteries, and the microscopes
or telescopes, be children of God, not
Philistines. The athcistic thinkers O!
this day are trying to get all the intel
lectual weapons of this century in their
WI grasp. What we want is scientific
Christians to capture the science, and
scholastic Christians TO capture tn,
scholarship, and philosophic Christian,
to capture the philosophy, and lectur
ing Christians to take back the lcctur
ing platform.
We want to send ont against Schen
KEEL and Strauss and Renan of the past
men like the late Theodore Christlicb
of Bonn; and against the iniidcl scient
lists, a God-worshiping Silliman anC
Hitchcock and Agassiz, We want tc
capture all the philosophical apparatu
and swing around the telescopes on tn,
swivel, until through them we can Sc,
the morning star of the redeemer, an,
with meteorological hammer discove
the Rock of Ages" and amid the ior,
of the realms find the Rose of Sharol
and the Lily of the Valley" We wan
a clergy learned enough To discourse q
the human eye, showing it tn be II mic
roscope and telescope in II instrr
=. ment, with 500 wonderful contrivancc
and lids closing 30, 900 or 40, 900 times
day; all its muscles and nerves an
bodies showing the infinite skill of a
infinite God, and then winding up wit
the peroration: "He that formed I'll
eve. shall he not seq" And the
we want to discourse about the huma
ear. its wonderful intcguments, mer
brancs and vibration, and its chain
small homes, and the auditory nerve
closing with the question: "lie thu
planted the ear shall he not hear
And we want some n able tn eNpour
the first chapter of Genesis, bringing
it the theology and the astronomy
the world, until. us Job suggeste
"the stones of the field shall be