The Penn's Grove record., 1895-06-07

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vades the house the un~pretendinR~ evangelist
ppens bis Bible and takes for bis text, Lord,
that my eyes may be opened Opera glassef
In the gallery 6nrfopsly s~crutintse tho
speaker. He tells in a plain way the story o,
the blind man, tsils two or three touching
anecdotes, and the general chill gives va!
before q strange warmth.
A classical hearer who took the first honor
at Yale and who IL . prince Of prophecies
finds his spectaoles becoming dim with a
moisture suggestive OF tears. A worldly
mother, who had been bringing up her sons
and daughters In utter godlessness, pits hex
handkerchief to her eyes and begins 10 weep
Highly educated men who came to criticiss'
and pick to pieces and fnd fault bow on their
gold-headed canes. What Is that sound
from under the galleryf 1t s q sob, and
sobs are catching. and all along the wall and
ali up and down the audience there Is deep
emotion, so that when at the close of the
service anxious souls are invited to especial
seats or the inquiry room, they come up by
soores and kneel and rel mt and rise up
~pardoned; the whole town Is shaken and
places of evil amusement are sparsely at
tended and rum holes lose their patrons, and
community ts oleansed and elevated and re-
joiced. What power did the evangelist bring
to bear to capture that town for righteous
ness2 Not one brilliant epigrgm did he ut
ter. Not one graceful gesture did he make.
Not one rhetorical climax did he pile up.
But there was something about him that peo-
pie had not taken In the estimate when they
prophesied the failure OF that work. They
had not taken into the calculation the ON
Impotence ofthe Holy Ghost. 1t was not the
flash Of q Damascus blade. 1t was God, be-
fore and behind and all around the oxgoad.
When people say that crime will tri.
umph and the world will never be COM
verted because Of the seeming tnsufl-
cheney of the means employed, they count
the 800 armed Philistines on one side and
Shamgar, the farmer, awkwar,ily equipped,
on the other side, not realizing that the
chariots Of God are 80, 900 and that all heaven,
cherubic. seraphic, archangelie, deilc, is on
what otherwise would be the weak side.
Napoleon, the author OF the saying, "God Is
on the side Of the heaviest artillery" lived
to find out his mistake, for at Waterloo the
i60 guns Of the English overcame the $50
guns Of the French. God Is IN the side of
the right, and n man in the right will
eventually he found stronger than COO men
In the wrong. In all estimates OF any kind
Of Christian work do not make the mistake
avery day made of leaving out the head Of
the universe.
Again, my subject springs upon us the
thought that in Gods service 1t Is best to use
weapons that are particularly suited to us.
5hamgar had, like many OF US, been brought
up on q farm. He knew nothing about lave
lihs and bucklers and helmets and breast
plates and grsayes of brass and cstapults
and ballist@ and Iron seythes fastened to the
axles Of chariots. But he was familiar with
the fail otthe thrashing fioor and knew how
10 pound with that, and the ax of the woods
md knew how to hew with that, and the
oxgoad of the plowmsn and knew how to
thrust with that. And you and I will do
haaf 70 Kfda AhAaA NnaaDa fh.& - Lx.A
handle, those weapons with which we can
make the most execution. Some in Gods
service will do best with the PEN; some with
the voice; some by extemporaneous speech,
Tor they have the whole vocabulary OF the
English language half way between their
Drain and tongue, and others will do best
with manuscript spread out before them.
will serve God by the plow, raising
wheat and corn and giving literally of what
they sell to churches and missions; some q
merchants. n out Of their profits will dedi-
safe a tenth to the Lord; some as physicians,
prescribing for the worlds ailments; and
ONE as attorneys, defending innocence and
obtaining rights that otherwise would not be
recognized; and SOM as sailors, helping
bridge the seas; and some as teachers
and pastors. The kingdom Of God
attempting to do that which we cannot do,
reaching up for broadsword or falohion or
bayonet or scimeter or Enfield rife or Paix-
hans gun, while we ought to be content
with an oxgoad. ] 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 . quiet wsy in hon ~s and
s~choolhouses and in praying circles l by
sick beds and up dark alleys saying the saw
ing word and doing the saving deed, the ag-
sregation Of their work oyerpowering 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 aud Sabbath
school teachers and tract distributors and
u~npretending workers, 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 lone by
people Of one talent and two talents, while
the ten talent people are up In the astronom-
ical obseryatories studying other worlds.
though they do little or nothing for the RS
demption Of this world, or srs up In the
realms Of higher ertticism" trying
Pentatsuch or to prove thsz the throat Of
the whale was not large enough to swallow
the minister who declined thu call to Nine
yah and a~pologiztng for the Almighty for
certain tnexplicable things they have found
In the Scriptures. It Will be found out at
the last that the Krupp guns nave not done
20 much to capture this world for God as the
oxgoads.
Years ago I was to summer In the Adiron.
iacks, and my wealthy friend, who was a
great hunter and fisherman, said, IT am not
you can take my equipment and I will send
1t up to Paul Smith's.o Well 1t was there
when I arrived In the Adirondacks, q SPLEEN
did outfit, that cost many hundreds OF dol
lars, q gorgeous tent, and such elaborate
fishing apparatus; such guns Of oil styles OF
exquisite make and reels and pouches and
bait and torches and lunch baskets and
many more things that could not
even guess the use Of And my
friend OF the big soul had sven writ
ten on and engaged men who should 40
company me into the forest and carry home
the deer and the trout. II the mountains
could have seen and understood 1t at the
time there would have bean panic among
the antlers and the fms through all the
..John Browns Tract" Well, I am no
hunter. and mot Q roebuck or q game fish
did / iniure. But there were hunters there
that season who had nothing but . plain
gun and q rug to sleep on and q coil Of fish
ing line and a box OF ammunition and bait,
who anne in ever and anon with as many oil
the captives Of forest and stream as they
and two or three attendants could
carry. Now. 1 fear that many Chris
tian workers who .,fiAve most elAbo-
rate educational and theological and profess
sional equipment, and Wsst wonderful wea-
ponry, sufficient, you would think, to cap
ture Q whole community or q whole Nation
for God, will In the last day have but little
except their fine taekiing to show, while
some who had no advantage except thai
which they got In prayer and conservation
will, by the souls they have brought to the
shore Of eternal safety, pkpye that they have
been gloriously successfuIaNs fishers Of men,
and In taking many who, like the hart were
painting after the water brooks.
r,What made the Amalekites run before
Gldeon's army Each one Of the army knew
how much racket the breaking OF one pitcher
would make. So 800 men that night tool
800 pitchers and a lamp inside the pitcher,
and at q given signal the lamps were lifted
ana the pitchers wers Violently cashed
down. The flash OF light and tho RACKET o.
the 800 demolished pitchers sent the enemy
into wild flight. Not much OF a weapon
you would cay, Is q broken pitcher, but
the Lord made that awful crash OF
crockery the means Of triumph for His
people. And there u. yet to be q battle
with the pitchers. The night OF the
worlds dissipation may get darker and
darkar lint affap awrhllo tu xwhax vrat.h -