The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-07-26


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. The Rev. DIR.
Talmage this forenoon preached to this
great multitude on "Sharpened Axes
the text being 1 Samuel xiii. 1921, Now,
there was no smith found throughout all
the land Of Israel" etc.
My loving and glad salutation TO this
uncounted 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
CALLING subjugation the Israelites were
suffering! The Philistines had carried
off all the blacksmiths and torn down
all. the blacksmiths' shops and abolished
the blacksmith's trade I'm the land of
| Israel. These Philistines had a particu-
lar grudge against blacksmiths, although
1 have always admired them and have
sometimes thought l 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
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 farm
er wanted to sharpen his plow or AK he
had to go over to the garrison of the
Philistines to get it done. There was
only one sharpening instrument left
| in the land and that was a
Eln Ntan Far md ur,fp
| having nothing to whet up the Golfer
and the goad and the pickax save simple
| file, industry was hindered and work
| practically disgraced.
Gods People Disarmed.
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
I any blacksmiths to weld this iron. If
| they got the iron welded they would
| have no grindstones on which to bring
| the instruments of agriculture or the
military weapons to an edge. oh, you
| poor, weaponless Israelites, reduced to
| file, how 1 pity youl But these Philis-
! tines We're not forever to keep their heel
/ on the neck of Gods children. Jonathan,
/ on his hands and knees. climbs up a
1 SItdL TUCK DtyOIQ WHICH were the ull-
| 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 a Philistine host on their feet.
L learn first from this subject how
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| to allow its weapons to stay in the
| hands of its enemies. These Israelites
| might again and again have ATTAINED a
| supply of swords and weapons, as, for
| instance, when they took the spoils of
! the Ammonites, but these Israelites
seemed content 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 farmers tugging along with their
! pickaXes and plows, and l say, Where
| are you going with those things?" They
! say, "Oh, we are going over to the gar
| riSon of the PhilistineS to get these
| things sharpened." 1 say, You foolish
men; why don't you sharpen them at
! homer" "Oh," they say, 'the black
smiths shops are all torn down, and we
| have nothing left us but file"
Christians Need the Schools.
| So it is in the church Of Christ today.
| 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 and the
sciences, and the literature and the
| printing press. Infidelity is making a
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 between 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.
l call upon the superintendents of lit
erary institutions to see to IT that the
| men 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
1 Philistines. The atheistic thinkers of
this day are trying to get all the in
| tellectual weapons of this century In
| their own grasp. What we want is
scientific Christians to capture the
| science. and scholastic Christians to cap
ture the scholarship, and philosophic
| Christians to capture the philosophy,
| and lecturing Christians to take back
! the lecturing platform.
Christian Men 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 infldel scientists a God
| worshiping Silliman and Hitchcock and
| Agassiz. We want to capture all the
| philosophical apparatus and swing
! around the telescopes on the swivel until
| through them can see the morning
star of the Redeemer, and with miner
| illogical hammer discover the Rock of
| Ages" and amid the flora of the realms
| find the Rose of Sharon and the Lily
| of the Valley
| We want a clergy learned enough to
| discourse of the human eye, showing II
| to be a microscope and telescope in
| one instrument, with 500 wonderful con-
trivances and lids closing 10000 or 40,o 600
| times a day, all its muscles and nerves
and bones showing the infinite skill of
! an infinite God, and then winding up
with the peroration. "He that formed
| the eye shall he not see?" And then
we want TO discourse about the human
ear, it's wonderful integuments, men,
branes and vibration, and it's chain of
| small bones, and it's auditory nerves.
| closing with the question: He that
| planted the ear. shall he not hear?'
| And we want some one able to ex-
| pound the first chapter of Genesis, bring
| ing to il the geology and the astronomy
/ of the world until, as Job suggested,
"the stones of the field shall be in
league" with the truth and 1.-The stars
| In their courses shall fight against ST.
sera" oh church of God, go out and
recapture these weapons. Let men of
| God go out and take possession of the
! platform. Let all the printing press
OF this country speak out for Christ and
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