Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-06-03
THE DEADLY OXGOAD
REV. En- rALMAGE ON SHAMGAR'S
EFFECTIVE WEAPON.


New YORK, June 2.-In his sermon
today Rev DR.. Talmage discusses one
of the most heroic and picturesque char
acters in ancient Jewish history, a man
who, like many others who achieved
high distinction, came from the sturdy
rural clas3es-the agriculturists The
subject OF the sermon was ''Shamgar' s
Oxgoad, the text being, AFTER him
was Shamgar, which slew of the Philis-
tines 600 men with an oxgoad" (JuGges
iii, 81.
One day while Shamgar, the farmer,
was blowing with yoke of oxen, his
command of whoa haw gee was changed
to the shout of battle. Philistines, al
ways ready to make trouble, march up
with sword and spear. Shamgar, the
plowman, had no sword and would not
probably have known how to WELD it if
he had possessed one. But fight he must
or go down under the stroke of the Phil
istines. He had an oxgOad-a weapon
used to urge on the lazy team; a weap-
on about eight feet long, with a sharp
iron at one end to puncture the beast
and wide iron chisel or shovel at the
other end with which to scrape the
clumps of soil from the plowshare Yet
with the iron prong at one end Of the
oXgOad and the iron scraper at the 9TH
er it was not such weapon as one
would desire to use in battle with armed
Philistines. But God helped the farmer,
and leaving the oxen to look after them
selves he charged upon the invaders of
his homestead.
Some of the commentaries, TO make it
easier for Shamgar, suggest that per-
haps he led regiment Of farmers into
the combat, his oxgoad only one of
many oxgoads. But the Lord does not
need any of you to help in making the
Scriptures, and Shamgar, with the Lord
on his side, was mightier than 600 Phil
istines with the Lord against them. The
battle opened. Shamgar, with muscle
by open air and plowman's
and reaper's and thrasher's toll, uses the
only weapon at hand, and he swings the
oxgoad up and down, and this way and
that, now stabbing with the iron prong
at one end of it and now thrusting with
the iron scraper at the other, and now
bringing down the whole weight of the
instrument upon the heads of the enemy.
The Philistines are in q panic and the
forces come in and blow
that would not under other circum-
stances have Frustrated or slain left it's |
victim hfeless, until, when Shamgar
walked over the field he counted 100
dead, 200 dead, 800 dead, 400 dead, 500
dead, 600 dead-a1 the work done by
an oxgoad with iron prong at one end
and an iron shovel at the other The
fame of this achievement by this farmer
with an awkward weapon of war spread
abroad and lionized him, until he was
hoisted into the highest place of power
and became the third of the mighty
judges of Israel So you see that Gin
cinnatus was not the only man lifted
from pillow to throne.
For what reason was this unprcce-
denied and unparalleled victory Of a
farmers oXgoad put into this Bible,
where there was no spare room for the
and the trivial?
The Choice Of Weapons.
1t was, first Of all, to teach you and
to teach me and to teach all past ages
since then and to teach all ages to come
that in the war for God and against sin
Oh we happen to have on hand. Why
did not Shamgar wait until he could
get war charger, with neck arched and
back caparisoned and nostrils shifting
the battle afar off, or until he could get |
war equipment or could drill q regi-
ment, and wheeling them into line
command them forward to the charge?
To wait for that would have been defeat |
md humiliation. So he takes the best |
weapon he could lay hold of, and that
is an oxgoad. We are called into the
battle for the right and against wrong,
and many Of US have not just the kind
Of weapon we would prefer. 1t may not
be a sword of argument. 1t may not be
the spear of sharp, thrusting wit. It
may not be the battering ram of de
1unciatiOE.
But there is something we can do and
some forces we can WELD. Do not wait
for what you have not, but use what
you have. Perhaps you have not elo-
luence, but you have a smile Well, a
smile of encouragement has changed the
behavior of tens Of thousands of wan
ilerers and brought them back to God |
and enthroned them in heaven. You
cannot make a persuasive appeal, but
you can set an example, and a good eX-
ample has saved more souls than you
could count in year if you counted all
the time. You cannot give $4,000, but
you can give as much as the widow of |
the gospel, whose two mites, the small
est COINS of the Hebrews, were bestowed |
in such q spirit as to make her more IA
nous than all the contributions that
ever endowed all the hospitals and uni
of all Christendom, of all time.
You have very limited vocabulary, but
you can say Eyes" or mo-, - and firm
Eyes or an emphatic mo" has trav-
ersed the centuries, and will traverse