Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-07-24

MADISON, Wis, July 23.-The great
throng of many thousands from all parl
of the north and west are gathered
the Monona Lake assembly, Chaut
qua held near this city. Rev. DR..
mage this forenoon preached to the 6
multitude on 'Sharpened Axes" the
being l Samuel xiii, 1921, chow, til
was no smith found throughout all tN
land Of Israel" etc.
My loving and glad salutation to this
uncounted host, Chautauquans, Chris
tan Endeavorers, gospel workers and
their friends from all parts of Wisconsin
and America, saints and sinners! My
text is gloriously appropriate. What a
calling subjugation the Israelites were
sufferingi The Philistines had carried
off all the blacksmiths and torn down
all the blacksrniths' shops and abolished
the blacksmiths trade in the land of
Israel
These Philistines had particular
grudge against blacksmiths, although |
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 iron, 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
pillow or his ak he had to go over to
the garrison of the Phiistines to get it
done. There was only one sharpening
instrument 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
simple file, industry was hindered and
work practically disgraced.
The great idea of these Philistines was
to keep the Israelites 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 you'll 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 great terror upon
them. So it was then; SO it is now. The
two men of God on their knees mightier
than a Philistine host on their feet.
4 CHURCH WITHOUT WEAPONS.
1 learn first from this subject how dam
gerous it is for the church of God to al
low its weapons to stay in the hands OF
its enemies. These Israelites might again
and again have obtained a. 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. I see the farm
ers tugging along with their pickaxes
and plows. and [ say, Where are you
going with those things?" They say,
'sOh, we are going over TO the garrison Of
the Philis1ines to get these things sharp
ened." ] say. You foolish men; why
don't you sharpen them at homer ooh"
they say, "thc blacksmiths' shops arc all
torn down, and we have nothing left us
but q 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. Infidelity is making a mighty
attempt to get all our weapons in its
hand AMI 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 superintendent 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 intellectual
weapons of this century in their own
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 lecturing Christians
TO tez.e back the lecturing platform.
THE WEAPONS OF SCIENCE.
We want to send out against Schenkel
and Strauss and Renan of the past men
like the late Theodore Christlieb of Bonn.
and against the infidel scientists a God
Siili1nan and Hitchcock and
Agsssiz. We want to capture all the
philosophical apparatus and swing
around the telescopes on the swivel I'M
IL 4L-o-,nIn them we can see the morn