The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1895-06-14

Whis Ill iiedSGH llSleuS-IDG SIOTY OF
how God blessed awkward and humble
instrumentalities. Many an evangelist
has come into a town given up to
worldliness. The pastors say to the evan
gelist: w are glad you have come.
but 1t is a 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
gaiety and fashion have taken possess
sion OF the town. We have advertised
your meetings, but are not very hope
full. God bless you" This evangelist
Ike his place on platform or pulpit.
He never graduated at college, and
there are before him twenty graduates
Of the best universities. He never took
one lesson in elocution, and there are
before him twenty trained orators. Many
OF the ladies present are graduates Of
the highest female seminaries, and one
slip in grammar or n mispronuncia-
ton will result in suppressed giggle.
Amid the general chill that pervades
h house. the unpretending evangelist
opens his Bible and takes for his text:
Lord, that my Eyes may be opened"
Opera glasses in the gallery c~uriously
scrutinize the speaker. He tells in a
plain way the story Of the blind man,
tells two or three touching anecdotes
and the general chill gives way before
a strange warmth. A classical nearer
who took the first honor at Yale, and
who is a prince Of proprieties, finds his
spectacles becoming dim with a moist
ure suggestive of tears. A worldly
mother who has been bringing up her
cN~C o~1 H.
ness, puts her handkerchief to her Eyes
and begins to weep. Highly educated
men who came to criticize and pick to
pieces. and find fault, bow on their gold
headed canes. What is that
sound from under the gall
lery? It is a sob, and sobs are
catching; and all along the wall, and all
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 scores, and kneel and re-
pent, and rise up pardoned; the whole
town is shaken, and places Of evil
amusement are sparsely attended, and
rum holes lose their patrons, and the
churches are %thronged, and the whole
community is cleansed, and elevated,
and rejoiced. What power did the evan
gelist bring to bear to capture that
town for righteousness? Not one bril-
liant epigram did he utter. Not n
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 estimate when they prophesied
the failure of that work. They had not
taken into calculation the omnipotence
Of h Holy Ghost. 1t was not the flash
Of a Damascus blade. It was God, be-
fore and behind, and all around the
ox-goad. When people say that crime
will triumph, and the world will never
be converted because of the seeming in
sufiiciency Of the means employed, they
count the six hundred armed Philis-
tines on one side, and Shamgar, the
farmer, awkwardly equipped, on the
other side; not realizing that the cha
riots Of God are twenty thousand, and
that all heaven. cherubic, seraphic,
archangelic, Deific, 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 hts mistake; for at Waterloo
the n hundred and sixty guns of the
English overcame the two hundred and
fifty guns Of the French. God is on
the side Of the right, and one man in
the right will eventually be found
stronger than six hundred men in the
In all estimates Of n kind Of
Christian work, do not make the mis-
take every day made of leaving out the
Head of the Universe.
~o;a -,b;o,$ z-,:-,. -.
the thought that in Gods service it is
best to use weapons that are particu-
suited to US. Shamgar had, like
many of us, been brought up on a farm.
kne nothing about javelins, and
bucklers, and helmets, and breastplates
and greaves Of brass and catapults, and
ballistae, and iron scythes fastened to
the axles Of chariots. But he vas ia
miliar with the fail Of the threshing
floor. and knew how to pound with that;
and h a. Of the woods, and knew
how to hew with that; M the oxgoad Of
the plowman, and knew how to thrust
with that. And you and I will do best
to use those means that we can best
handle; those weapons with which we
make the most execution. Some in
Gods service will do best with the pen;
some with the voice; some by extern
poraneous speech for they have
whole vocabulary of the English
language half way between their brain
and tongue; and others will do best
manuscript spread out before
them. Some will serve God by the
plow, raising wheat and corn and CIV
ng literally Of what they sell to church
IS and missions; some as merchants,
md out of their profits will dedicate a
to the Lord; some as physicians, /
prescribing for the worlds ailments;
md some as attorneys, defending in
locence, and obtaining rights that 9TH
would not be recognized; and
as sailors, helping bridge the seas;
some as teachers and pastors. The
kingdom of God is dreadfully retarded
by so many of us attempting to do that
we cannot do; reaching uu for
broadSword or %falchion, or bayonet, or
scimeter, or Enfield rife or Paixhan's
gun, while we ought to be content with
an ox-goad. / 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