The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1895-10-12

maneuvering. would rather have
the three hundred lamps and pitchers
OF Christian stratagem than one hun
bred thousand drawn swords of liter
airy and ecclesiastical combat.
learn from this subject. also, that
o small part of the army of God will
have to do all the hard fighting. Gid
cons army was originally composed
OF thirty-two tn ousand men, but
they went off until there were
only ten thousand left, and
that was subtracted from until
there were only three hundred. 1t is
the same in all ages OF the Christian
church; few men have to do the hard
| fighting. Take membership OF a
thousand. and you generally find that
fifty people do the work. Take mem
bership of five hundred, and you gen.
orally find that ten people do the
work. There are scores of churches
where two or three people do the
| work.
We mourn that there Is so much USE
less lumber in the mountains of Leb-
anon. ! think, of the ten million
membership of the Christian church
to-day, If five millions of the names
were Off the books the church would
be stronger. You know that the more
towards and drones there are in any
army the weaker it is. would rather
have the three hundred picked men of
Gideon than the thirty-two thousand
unsifted host. How many Christians are
standing in the way of all progress!
think it is the duty of the church OF
God to ride over them, and the quicker
it does it, the quicker it does its duty,
Do not worry. oh Christian, If you
have to do more than your share of
the work. You had better thank God
that He has called you to be one of the
picked men. rather than to belong to
the host of stragglers. Would not you
rather be one of the three hundred
that fight than the twenty-five thou
sand that run? suppose those cow
ardly Gideonites who went Off con-
graduated themselves. They said,
1--WE got rid of all that fighting, did not
we? How lucky we have been; that
battle costs us nothing at ALL" But
they got none of the spoils OF the
victory. After the battle the 900 men
went down and took the wealth of tho
Midianites, and out of the cups and
platters of their enemies they Toasted.
And the time will come, my dear
brethren, when the hosts of darkness
will be routed, and Christ will say to
His troops. "Well done, my brave
men, go up and take the spoils! BE
more than conquerors forever!" and in
that day all deserters will be shot!
Again, learn from this subject that
Gods way is different from mans, but
is always the best way. If we had the
planning of that battle, we would
have taken those thirty-two thousand
men that originally belonged to the
army, and we would have drilled
them, and marched them up and
down by the day and week, and
month, and we would have had
them equipped with swords or spears,
according to the way of arming in
those times; and then we would have
marched them down in solid column
upon the foe. But that is not the
way. God depletes the army. and takes
away all their weapons, and gives
pet, and tells them to go down and
drive out the Midianites. / suppose
some wiseacres were there who said:
THAT is not military tactics. The
idea of three hundred men, unarmed,
conquering such a great host of Mid
ianitesw 1t was the best way. What
sword, spear or cannon ever accom-
plished such victory as the lamp,
pitcher and trumpet?
Gods way is different from mans
way, but it is always best! Take, for
instance, the composition of the Bible.
If we had had the writing of the Bible
we would have said: Let one man
write it. If you have twenty or thir-
ty men to write u poem or make u
statue or write history, or make
an argument, there will be flaws
and contradictions" But God says:
Let not one man do it, but
forty men snail do It," And they
did. differing enough to show there
had been no collision between them,
but not contradicting each other on
any important point, while they all
wrote from their own standpoint and
temperament; SO that the mattcr-of-
fact man has his Moses; the ro-
| mantle nature his Ezekiel; the
epigrammatic nature his Solomon;
| the warrior his Joshua; the sailor
his Jonah; the loving the John;
the logician his Paul. Instead of this
Bible, which now / can lift in my hand
Instead Of the Bible the child
can carry to Sunday school-instead
of the little Bible the sailor can put in
his jacket when he goes to sea-if it had
been left to men to write, it would
have been a thousand volumes, judg
ing from the amount Of cccles;ast;cal
controversy which has arisen. Gods
way is different from mans, but it i.
best, infinitely best
So it is in regard to the Christian
life. II we had had the planning OF 9
Christians life we would have said
Let him have eighty years of sun
shine, fine house to live in; let hi.
surroundings all be agreeable: let hin
have sound health; let no chill shivci
through his limbs, no pain ache hi,
brow, or trouble shadow his soul"
enjoy the prosperity of others S,
much. l would let every maj
have as much money ne h,