Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-10-09
REV. Or. IgLugGE.
The Brooklyn Divine's Sunday
Sermon.

Sermon.
Subject. "Gideon's Battle With the
Midianites."
TEXT: Sand the three companions blew
the trumpets, and brake the pitchers. and
held the lamps in their left hands and the
trumpets in their right hands to blow withal
And they stood every man in his pace
round about the camp, and all the host raI
and cried and ied."-Judges vii, 20, 21.
That is the strangest battle ever fought.
God had told Gideon to go down and thrash
the Midianites. but his army is too large. FOL
the glory must be given to God and not tc
man. And so proclamation is made that all
those of the troops who are cowardly and
want to go home may go, and $4,000 OF
them scampered away, leaving only 10000
men. But God says the army is toe
large yet. and so he orders these 10000
remaining to march down through a
stream and command Gideon to notice in
what manner these men drink Of the water
as they pass through it. If they get down
on all fours and drink, then they are to be
pronounced lazy and incompetent for the
campaign. but il, in passing through the
stream, they scoop up the water in the palm
OF their hand and drink and pass on they are
to he the men selected for the battle.
stream and the most of them come down or
all fours and plunge their mouths like horse
or an OK into the water and drink, but there
are 800 men who, instead of STOPPING. just
dip the palm of their hands in the water and
bring it to their lips, ''lapping Il as dog
lappeth" Those 500 brisk, rapid, en-.
thusiastic men are chosen for the
campaign. They are each to take a trumpet
In the right hand. and n pitcher in the left
hand, and lamp inside the pitcher, and
~. Il
trumpets, and throw down the pitchers, and
hold up the lamps. SO it was done.
1t is night. l see great host of Midianites
sound asleep in the valley of Jezreel. Gid
con comes up with his 800 picked men. and
when everything is ready the signal is given
and they blow the trumpets. and they throw
| down the pitchers. and hold up the lamps
| and the great host of Midianites. waking out
| Of a sound sleep, take the crash of the
/ crockery and the glare of the lamps for the
coming on of an overwhelming foe, and they
| run and cut thems elves to pieces and horri.
! bly, perish.
The lessons OF this subject are very spir
| tied and impressive. This seemingly value.
! less lump Of quartz has the pure gold in 1t.
| The smallest dewdrop on the meadow at
night has a star sleeping in its bosom. and
| the most Insignificant passage of Scripture
| has in il a shining truth. Gods mint coins
| no small change.
| learn in the first place from this subject
| the lawfulness of Christian strategem. You
| know very well that the greatest victories
| ever gained by Washington or Napoleon
| were gained through the fact that they came
| when and in a way they were not expected
| sometimes falling back to draw out the foe,
| sometimes breaking out from ambush, some
| times crossing Il river on unheard of RATS,
| all the time keeping the opposing forces in
| wonderment rs to what would be done next.
You all know what strategy is in military
| affairs. Now / think it is high time we had
| this art sanctified and spiritualized. In the
church, when we are about to make Chris
| tian assault, we send word to the opposing
| force when we expect to come. how many
| troops we have, and how many rounds ~
| shot, and whether we will come with artil-
| lery, infantry or cavalry, and of course
| we are defeated. There are thousands OF
| men who might be surprised into the king
dom of God. We need more tact and ingen
uity III Christian work. 1t Is in spiritual
| affairs as in military, that success depends
| in attacking that part of the castle which is
| not armed and intrenched.
For instance, here is a man all armed or
| the doctrine of election. All his troops OF
| argument and prejudice are at that particu-
| lar gate. You may batter away at that side
| of the castle for fifty years, and you will not
| take il, but just wheel your troops to the side
gate of the hearts affections, and in five
minutes you capture him. never knew
a man to be saved through brilliant ar
L
kingdom of God by the horns Of a dilemma.
There is no grace in syllogisms. Here is Il
man armed on the subject of perseverance
of the saints. He does not believe in it.
Attack him at that point; and he will perse-
we're to the very last in not be-
lieving it, Here is man armed
on the subject of baptism. He believes
| in sprinkling or immersion. All your dis
| cussion of ecclesiastical hydropathy will not
| change him. l remember when 1 was a boy
h.,- r rix
a summer day to bathe, and we used to dash
| water on each other, but never got any re-
| suit except that our eyes We're blinded, and
| all this splashing of water between Baptists
| and Pedobaptists never results in anything
but the blurrlng of the spiritual eyesight. In
! other words. you can never capture a man g
| soul at the point at which he is especially
| intrenched. But there is in every mans
heart a bolt that can be easily showed. A
| little child four years old may touch that
bolt, and 1t will spring back, and the door
| will swing open. and Christ will come in.
! Think that the finest of all the fine arts l.
| the art of doing good, and yet this art is the
least cultured. We have in the kingdom OF
God to-day enough troops to conquer the
whole earth for Christ II we only had skillful
maneuvering. Iwould rather have the 30O
lamps and pitc hers of Christian strategem
| than 100, 600 drawn swords Of literary and
| ecclesiastical combat.
learn from this subject also that a small
part of the army of God will have to do all
the hard fighting. Gideon's army was origin
ally composed of 80 900 men. but they went
| of until there were only IL, 900 left, and that
was substracted from until there were only
800. 1t is the same in all ages of the Chris
| tian church. A few men have to do the hard
| fighting. Take a membership of 1000, and
you generally find that fifty people do the
work. Take membership of SEQ, and you
generally find that ten people do the work.
There are scores of churches where two or
:hree people do the work.
| We mourn that there is so much useless
lumber in the mountains of Lebanon. ]
think of the 10, ,000, 900 membership OF the
Christian church to-day If 100000 of the
names were of 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
| 300 picked men of Gideon than the 81, 900
unsifted host. The many Christians there are
| standing in the way of all progressl Think
it is the duty of the church of God to ride
over them, and the quicker it does it the
quicker 1t does its duty.
Do not worry, o Christian, if you have to
| do more than your snare 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 800 that fight than
! the 1000 that run? l suppose those cow
ardly Gideonites who went off congratu-
lated themselves. They said: 1--WE got rid
! of all that fighting. did not we? How
lucky we have ueen! That battle costs
us nothing at all" But they got none
OF the spoils of the victory. After the battle
the 300 men went down and took the wealth
OF the Midianites, and out of the cups and
platters OF their enemies they feasted. And
the time will come. my dear brethren.