Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1895-06-08

teacher was disposed to give him up,
but the superintendent said, "Let us try
him again, and the third suit of clothes
was provided him. Thereafter he came
until he was converted, and joined the
church, and started for the gospel min
istry, and became foreign missionary,
preaching and translating the Scriptures.
Who was the boy called Bob? The illus
trious Dr. Robert Morrison, great ON
earth and greater in heaven. Who his
teacher was | know not, but she used
the opportunity opened and great has
been her reward. You may not be able
to load an Armstrong gun; you may not
be able to llurl Hotchkiss she'll; you
may not be able to shoulder glittering
mnsket; but use anything you can lay
your hands on. Try blacksmith's ham
ner Or merchant S -yardstick or ma
con S trowel or carpenters plane or a
housewives broom or a farmers OK
goad One of the surprises of heaven
Will be what grand results came from
how simple means. Matthias Joyce, the
vile man, became a great apostle of
Righteousness, not from hearing John
Wesley preach, but from seeing him kiss
little child on the pulpit stairs
The Help of God.
Again, my subject springs upon us
the thought that in calculating the pros
poets of religious attempt we must take
ornnipotence and omniscience and ON
nipresence and all the other attributes
of God into the calculation Whom do
you see on that plowed field of my text?
One nearer says, i see Shamgar. An
other nearer says, Il sec 600 Philis-
tines. - Ny nearer, you have missed the
chief parsonage on that battlefield of
plowed ground. l also see Shamgar and
600 Philistines; but, more than all and
mightier than all and more overwhelm-
ing than all, | see God. Shamgar with
his unaidod arm, however muscular,
and with that humble instrument made
for agricultural purposes and never
constructed for combat, could not have
wrought such victory. 1t was omnipo-
tence above and beneath and back of and
at the point of the oxgoad. Before that
battle was over the plowman realized
this, and all the GOO Philistines realized
it, and all who visited the battlefield
afterward appreciated it. l want in
heaven to hear the story, for it can new
er be fully told on earth-perhaps some
day may be set apart for the rehearsal,
whilo all heaven listens-the story of
how God blessed awkward and humble
instrumentalities. Many an evangelist
has come into a town given up to world
illness. The pastors say to the evangel-
list: 1--WE are glad you havc come, but
it is n hard field, and we feel sorry for
you. The members of our churches play
progressive euchre and go to the theater
and bet at the horse races, and gayety
and fashion have taken possession of the
town. We have advertised your meet
ings, but are not very hopeful. God
bless YOU This evangelist takes his
place ON platform or pulpit He never
graduated at college, and there are before
him 20 graduates Of the best universi-
ties He never took one lesson in elocu-
ton, and there are before him 20 trained
orators. Many of the ladies present are
graduates of the highest female semi
naries, and one slip i'll grammar or one
INSTRUMENTATION will result in sup
pressed gigglc. Amid the general chill
that pervades the house the unpretepd-
ing evangelist opens his Bible and takes
for his text, Lord, that my eyes may
be opened. " Opera glasses in the gal
lery curiously scrutinize the speaker.
He tells in plain way the story of the
blind man, tells two or three touching
anecdotes, and the general chill gives
way before strange warmth.
A classical nearer who took the first
honor at Yale and who is prince Of
proprieties finds his spectacles becoming
dim with moisture suggestive of tears.
A worldly mother who has been bring
ing up her SONS and daughters i'll utter
godlessness puts her handkerchief to her
eyes and begins to weep. Highly edu-
Gated men who came to criticise and
pick to pieces and find fault bow on
their gold headed canes. What is that
sound from under the gallery? 1t is
sob, and sobs are catching, and all along
the wall and all up and down the audi
ence 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 scores
and kneel and repent and rise up par
doned; the whole town is shaken and
places of evil amusement are sparsely
attended and rum holes lose their pa
irons, and the churches are thronged,
and the whole community is cleansed
and elevated and rejoiced. What power
did the evangelist bring to bear to cap
ture that town for Righteousness? Not
one brilliant epigram did he utter. Not
one graceful gesture did he make. Not
one rhetorical climax did he pile up.
But there was something about him
that people had not taken in the esti-
mate when they prophesied the failure
of that work. They had not taken into
the calculation Tie omnipotence Of the
Holy Ghost. II was not the flash of a
Damascus blade. 1t was God, before
and behind and all around the oxgoad.
When people say that crime will tri-
mnph and the world will never be con
verified because of the seeming INSULT
cheney of the means employed, they
count the coo armed Philistines on one
side and iihamgar, the farmer, awk-
wardly equipped, on the other side, not
realizing that the chariots of God are
20, 600 and that all heaven, cherubic,
seraphic, archanselic, deific, is en- what
otherwise you'd be the weak side. Ma
poleon, the author Of the saying, "God
is on the side of the heaviest artillery"
lived to find out his mistake. for at Wa
terloo the 100 guns of the English over
came the $50 guns of the French. God
is on the side Of the right, and one man
in the right will eventually be found
stronger than GOO men in the wrong. In
all estimates Of any kind of Christian
work do not make the mistake every
n IA