The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1895-06-15
TALMAGE's SERMON.
Lesson Of the Staying Of the Phil
istines by Shamgar.
In the War for God Against Sin Men
should Use the Best weapons-Greas.
Things Accomplished by the
Humblest Observation-Disclosures.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took for the
subject of recent sermon in the Acad-
envy Of Music, New York city, "Sham-
gar's Ox-goad," basing 1t upon the
text:
After him was shamgar. which slew Of the
Philistines six hundred men with an ox-goad
Judges 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. Phil
istines, always 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 1t II he had possessed
one. But, fight he must. or GO down
under the stroke Of the Philistines. He
had an ox-goad-a weapon used to
urge on the lazy team; q weapon about
eight feet long, with a sharp iron at
one end to puncture the beast, and a
wide iron chisel or shovel at the other
end with which to scrape the clumps of
soil from the pillow share. Yet, with
the iron prong at one end of the OK
other, it was not such n weapon
as one would desire to use in bat
tie with armed Philistines. But God
helped the farmer, and leaving the
oxen to look after themselves, he
charged upon the invaders of his home
stead. Some of the commentaries, to
make it easier for Shamgar, suggest
that perhaps he led regiment OF
farmers into the combat, his ox-goad
only one of many ox-goads. But the
Lord does not need any of you to help
in making the Scriptures, and Sham
gar, with the Lord on his side, was
mightier than six hundred Philistines
with the Lord against them. The
battle opened. Shamgar, with. mus
Gle strengthened by open air, and plow-
mans, and reaper's, and thresher's
toll, uses the only weapon at hand,
and he swings the ox-goad up and
down. aud this way and that; now
stabbing with the iron prong at one
end of IL, 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 a
panic, and the supernatural forces
come in, and a blow that would not
under other circu instances have pros
trated or slain, left its victim lifeless;
until when Shamgar walked over the
field, he counted one hundred dead,
two hundred dead, three hundred
dead, four hundred dead, five hundred
dead, six hundred dead-all the work
done by an oX-goad with iron prong at
one end and an iron shovel at the
other. Tie fame of this achievement
by this farmer with an awkward
weapon of war, spread abroad, and IL
onized him, until he was hoisted into
the highest place of power, and be-
came the third of the mighty judges
of Israel. So you see that Cincinnatus
was not the only man lifted from pillow
to throne.
For what reason was this unprece.
denied and unparalleled victory OF a
farmers ox-goad put into this Bible,
where there was no spare room for the
unimportant and the trivialp
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, we ought to put to the
best use the weapon 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 of, or
until he could get war equipment, or
could drill regiment, and wheeling
them into line. command them forward
to the charge? TO wait for that would
have been defeat and humiliation. Sc
he takes the best weapon he could lay
hold Of, and that is an ox-goad.
We are called into the battle for
the right, and against wrong, and
many of us have not just the kind o:
weapon we would prefer. 1t may not
be a sword of argument. 1t may not
be the spear of sharp. thrusting wit.
II may not be the battering ram of de-
nunciation. 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 eloquence. but
you have a smile. Well a smile OF en-
enlargement has changed the behavior
of tens of thousands of wanderers, and
brought them back to God, and en-
throned them in Heaven. You can set
an EXAMPLE, and good example has
saved more souls than you could count
in a year. IL you counted oil the time.
You can not give ten thousand dollars,
but you can give as much as the
widow OF the Gospel, whose two
mites, the smallest coins of the He
brews, were bestowed in such a spirit
as to make her more famous than al
the contributions that ever endowed
all the hospitals and universities of al
Christendom, of all time. You have q
very limited vocabulary, but you car
say Eyes" or mo-" and a firm "yes" OF
an emphatic mo" has traversed the
centuries, and will traverse all eter
nifty, with good influence. You may
not have the courage to confront {
large nssemblage, but you can tell
Sunday-school class of two--a boy ant
girl--how to find Christ, and one o
them may become a William Carey, t.
start influences that will redeem India
and the other Florence Nightingale
who will illumine battle-felds covered
Al