The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-06-07

IeacnerS ana pastors Inc klnguOm
of God is dreadfully retarded by so
many of US attempting to do that
which we cannot do: reaching up for
broadsword. or falchion. or bayonet,
or scimeter, or Enfield rifle. or Paix-
hams gun, while we ought to be con-
tent with an oX-gOad.
l thank God that there are tens Of
thousands of Christians whom you
never heard of and never will hear of
until you see them in the high places
of Heaven, who are now in a quiet
way in homes, and school houses, and
praying circles, and by sick beds. and
up dark alleys, saying the saving
word, and doing the saving deed; the
aggregation of their work overpower-
ing the most ambitious statistics. In
the grand review of Heaven. when the
regiments pass the Lord of Hosts. there
will be whole regiments of nurses, and
Sabbath school teachers, and tract
distributors, and unpretending work
ers. before whom, as they pass, the
kings and queens of God and the Lamb
will lift flashing coronet and bow down
in recognition and reverence.
The most of the Christian work for
the worlds reclamation and salvation
will be done by people of one talent,
and two talents, while the ten-talent
people are up in the astronomical OBJ
servatories studying other worlds,
though they do little or nothing for
the redemption of this world; or are
up in the rarified realms of Higher
Criticism" trying to find out that Moses
did not write the Pentateuch, or to
prove that the throat of the whale was
not large enough to swallow the min
ister who declined the call to Nineveh,
and apologizing for the Almighty for
certain inexplicable things they have
found in the Scriptures. 1t will be
found out at the last that the Krupp
guns have not done so much to capture
this world for God as the ox-goads.
Years ago / was to summer in the
Adirondacks. and my wealthy friend,
who was great hunter and fisherman,
said: 81 am not going to the Adiron-
dachs this season. and you can take my
equipment. and | will send it up to
Paul Smiths" Well, it was there
when 1 arrived in the Adirondacks. a
splendid outfit, that cost many hun
dreds of dollars. gorgeous tent and
such elaborate fishing apparatus; such
guns of all styles of exquisite make, and
reels and pouches, and bait, and
torches, and lunch baskets, and many
more things that l could not even
guess the use OF. And my friend of
the big soul had even written on and
engaged men who should accompany
me into the forest and carry home the
deer and trout. If the mountains
could have seen and understood it at
the time, there would have been a
panic among the antlers. and the fins
through all the John Browns Tract"
Well, am no hunter, and not roe
buck, or a game fish did | injure.
But there were hunters there that
season who had nothing but a plain
gun. and a rug to sleep on, and a coil
of fishing line, and a box of ammuni-
tion and bait, who came in ever and
anon with as many of the captives of
forest and stream as they and two or
three attendants could carry. Now, l
fear that many Christian workers who
have most elaborate educational and
and professional equip
ment, and most wonderful weaponry,
sufficient, you would think. to capture
a whole community or 4 whole nation
for God, will in the last day have but
little except their fine tackling to
show, while some who had no ad-
vantages except that which they got
in prayer and conservation. will, by
the souls they have brought to the
shore of eternal safety, prove that
they have been gloriously successful
as fishers of men. and in taking many
who like the hart. were painting after
the water brooks.
Take the first weapon you can lay
your hand on. Why did David choose
the sling when he went at Goliath, and
Goliath went at him. Brought up in
the country. like every other boy he
knew how to manage a sling. Saurs
armor was was first put on him, but
the giants armOr was too heavy. The
helmet was clapped on him as an ex-
and David said: II cannot
go with these, for l have not proved
them. And the first wise thing David
did after putting on Saurs armor was
to put it off. Then the brook Elah,
the bed of which was dry when l saw
it, and one vast reach of pebbles, fur
nished the five smooth stones of the
brook with which Goliath was prose-
cuted. Whether it be boys sling, or
a broken pitcher, or an ox-goad, take
that which you can manage, and ask
God for help, and no power on earth
or in hell can stand before you.
Go out against the Philistines. We
must admit the odds are against US
to one. In the matter of
dollars, those devoted to worldliness
and sin and dissipation, when compared
with the dollars and cents devoted to
holiness and virtue-six hundred to
one The houses set apart for vice, and
and ruin, as compared
with those dedicated 10 good, six hun
dred to one. Of printed newspaper
sheets scattered abroad from day to
day, those depraving as COM
pared with those elevating are six
hundred to one. The agencies for max
ing the world worse compared with
the agencies for making the world bet
ter, six hundred to one. But Moses in
his song, chants: How should one
chase a thousand, and two put ten
thousand to fiight?" and in my text
one ox-goad conquers six hundred up
lifted battle-axes; and the day of uni
versal victory is coming. unless the
Bible be fabrication, and eternity a
myth, and the chariots OF God are IN
on the golden streets, and the