The Penn's Grove record., 1893-07-28

the Israelites did right when they went over
to the Philistines to use their grindstones.
My friends, is 1t not right for US to employ
the worlds grindstones2 II there be art, II
there be logic, il there be business faculty on
the other side, let us go over and employ it
for Christ's sake
The fact is we fight with too dull weapons,
md we work with too duh implements. We
hack and we maui when we ought to make q
clean stroke. Let US go over among sharp
bus ness men and anon sharp literary men
and find out what their taste Is, and then
transfer il to the cause of Christ. II they
have science and art, it will do US good to
rub against 1t. In other words. let us EN-
ploy the worlds grindstones. We will listen
to their music, and We will watch their acu-
men, and we will use their grindstones, and
we will borrow their philosophical apparatus
to make our experiments, and we will Dor
row their printing presses to publish our
Bibles. and we will borrow their rail trains
to carry our Christian literature. and we
will borrow their ships TO transport our
missionaries.
That was what made Paul such a master in
his day. He not only got all the learning he
could get of DIR. Gamaliel, but afterward
standing on Mars hill and in crowded thor
onghfares quoted their poetry and grasped
their logic and welded their eloquence and
employed their mythology until Dionysius,
the Areopagite, learned in the schools o.
Athens and Heliopolis, went down under his
tremendous powers.
That was what gave Thomas Chalmers his
power in his day. lie conquered the worlds
astronomy AMI compelled it to ring out the
wisdom and greatness of the Lord, until for
the second hime the mc..i:S s;aIs SANG TO-
egther, and all the sons of God shouted for
joy. That was what gave to Jonathan Ed
wards his influence in his day. He con-
quered the world 8 metaphysics and forced it
into the service OF God, until not only the
old meeting house In Northampton, Mass.
Christian power.
Well, now, my friends, we all nave tools Of
Christian usefulness. Do not let them lose
their edges. We want no rusty blades in
this fight. We want no Golfer that canno
rip up the glebe. We want no ak that can
not fell the trees. We want no goad that
cannot start the lazy team. Let us get the
very best grindstones We can find, though
they be in the possession OF the Philistines,
compelling them TO turn the crank, while we
bear down with all our might on the swift
revolving wheel until all our energies and
faculties shall be brought up to q bright,
keen, sharp, glittering edge.
Again, my subject teaches US On what q
small allowance Phiiistine iniquity puts a
man. Yes, these Philistines shut up the
mines, and then they took the spears and the
swords, then they took the blacksmiths, then
they took the grindstones, and they took
everything but a file. Oh, that Is the way sin
works. 1t grabs everything. 1t begins with
robbery, and it ends with robbery. It de-
5poils this faculty and that faculty and keeps
on until the whole nature is gone. Was the
man eloquent before, it generally thickens
his tongue. Was he fine In personal appear
ance, 1t mars his visage. Was he a~fluent, 1t
sends the sheriff to sell him out. Was he in
iluential, it destroys his popularity. Was he
placid and genial and loving, 1t makes him
splenetic and cross. and so utterly Is he
changed hat you can see he Is sarcastic and
rasping and that the Philistines have left him
nothing bat a file.
oh, "the way Of the transgressor Is hard"
His cup is bitter. His night is dark. His
pangs are deep. His emo is terrific. Philis-
tine iniquity says 10 that man, NOW. sur
render to me, and | will give you all you
~want-music Tor the dance, swift steeds
for the race, imperial couch to slum-
Der on, and you shall be refreshed with the
rarest fruits in baskets of golden filigree."
He lies. The music turns out to be a croan.
The fruits burst the rind with ran poison.
The flligree is made up of twisted snakes.
The couch is a grave. Small allowance OF
rest, small allowance of peace, small allow
ance of comfort. Cold, hard, r~ough-noth-
ing but a file. So it was with Voltaire, the
most applauded man of his day:
The Scripture was his ~jestboak. whence he drew
Ronmots to gall the Christian and the Jew;
An intidel when wei , but what when sickf
Oh, then a text would touch him to the quick.
Seized with hemorrhage OF the lungs in
Paris, where he had gone to be crowned in
the heater as an idol of all France, he sends
a messenger to get a priest that he may be
reconciled to the church before he dies. A
great terror falls upon him. He makes the
place Nj round about him so dismal that the
muse declares that she would not for all the
wea::h of Europe see another infidel die.
philistine iniquity had promised him all the
worlds ~garlands, but in the last hour OF his
life, when he needed solacing, sent tearing
across his conscience and his nerves a file, a
file.
So it was with Lord Byron, his u~ncleanness
in England only surpassed by his unclean-
ness - Venice, then going on to his brilliant
nurse, Fletcher, fretting at himself, fretting
at the world, fretting at God, and he who
gave to the world "Childe Harold" and
"Sardanapalus," and 1.-THE Prisoner OF
Chiffon" and ''The Siege Of Corinth," re-
duced to nothing but a file!
Oh, sin has great facility for making prom
lses, tx 1t has just as great facility for
brea kin them. A Christian life Is the only
chee,tt- life, while a life of wicked surrender
is remorse, ruin and death. Its painted glee
Is sepulchral g~lastliness. In the brightest
days OF the Mexican Empire Montezuma
said lie felt knawing at his heart something
like a canker. Sin, like a monster wild
beast of the forest. sometimes licks all over
its victim In order that the victim may be
more easily swallowed but generally sin
rasps and gals and tears and upbraids and
files. Is it not 80, Herod? Is 1t not so, Hill
debrand? Is it not so, Robespierre? Aye
ave! it is so it is so. 1.-THE way of the
wicked He turneth upside down."
History tells US that when Rome was
founded, on that day there were IL vultures
flying through the air, but when a trans
gressor dies the skies is black with whole
fiocks OF them. Yulturesl When I see sin
robbing so many people, and I see them go
ing Town day by day and week by week, l
must give n plain warning. l dare not keep
it back lest | risk the salvation OF my own
soul. Rover, the pirate, pulled down the
warning bell on lnchcape rock. th~inkinSthat
he would have a chance to despoii vessels
that were crushed on the rocks, but one
night his own ship crashed down on this
very rock, and he went down with all his
cargo, God declares, when | say to the
wicked thou shalt surely die, and thou
sivest him not warning, that same man shall
lie in his iniquity, but his blood will 1 re-
uuire at thy hands"
| learn from this subject what a sad thing
II is when the church of God loses its metal.
These Philistines saw that il they could only
get all the metallic weapons out OF the hands
OF the Israelites all would be- well, and there
fore they took the swords and the spears.
They did not want them to have a single me-
tallic weapon. When the metal of the Is
~raelites was gone, their strength was gone.
This is the trouble withthe church of God to-
day. 1t is surrendering its courage. 1t has
got enough metal. How seldom ii is that
you see a man taking his position in q pew,
or in pulpit, or in u religious society, and
holding That position agninlt all oppression,
and all trial, AN all persecution, and all crit
icis,n,
The church OF Col to-day wants more
backbone, more defiance, more consecratsd
bravery, more metal. How often you ses 4
man start out in some good enterprise, and
at the first blast OF n~ewspaperdom he has
collapsed, and all his courage gone, forget
full OF the fact that II a man be right ali the
newspapers of the earth, with all their coll
umns pounding away at him, IN do him
any permanent damage! 1t il only when a
man is wrong that he can be damaged. Why,
God Is going TO vindicnte His truth, and He
is going TO stand by, you, my friends, in
every effort you make for Christ's cause and
the salvation Of men.
l sometimes say 10 my wife: "Fhere is
something wrong the newspapers have not
assaulted me for three mOnthsl / have not
lone my duty against public iniuulties, and