Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1895-06-08
THE DEADLY OXGOAD
REV. DR.. TALMAGE ON SHAMGAR'S
EFFECTIVE WEAPON.


!, ment-Tho Essential Elements of Vic
tory-Necd of Gods Help.
= NEW YORK, June 2.-In his sermon
today Rev. DR.. Talmage discusses one
Of the most heroic and picturesque char
acters III ancient Jewish history, man
who, like many others who achieved
high distinction, came from tho sturdy
rural classes-the agriculturists. The
subject of the sermon was "Shamgar' s
Oxgoad, -. the text being, after him
was Shamgar, which slew of the Philis-
tines 600 men with an oxgoad" Judges
iii, 80.
One day while Shamgar, the farmer,
was blowing with yoke of oxen, his
command of whoa baw gee was changed
to the shout Of battle Philistines, al
ways ready to make trouble. march up
(. with sword and spear. Shangar, the
plowman, had no sword and would not
probably have known how to WELD 1t if
he had possessed one But fight he must
or 90 down under tho stroke of the Phil
istines He had an oxgoad-a weapon
/. used 10 urge on the lazy team; a weap-
on about eight feet long, with sharp
iron at one end TO puncture the beast
4 and wide iron chisel or shovel at the
1 other end with which to scrape the
4 clumps of soil from the plowshare. Yet
4 with the iron prong ut one end of the
4 oxgoad and the iron scraper at the 9TH
err it was not such weapon as ono
would desire to use IN battle with armed
Philstines But God helped the farmer,
. and leaving the oxen to look after them
4 selves he charged upon the invaders of
4 his homestead.
Some Of the commentaries, to make 1t
easier for Shamgar, suggest that per-
haps he led regiment of farmers into
4 the combat, his oxgoad only one of
!. many oxgoads But the Lord does not
/ need any Of you to help in making the
i Scriptures, and Shamgar, with the Lord
] on his side, was mightier than 600 Phil
/ istines with the Lord against them. The
! battle opened Shamgar, with muscle
strengthened by open air and plowman'
and reaper's and thrasher's toll, uses the
I only weapon at hand, and he swings the
oxgoad up and down, and this way and
| that, now stabbing with the iron prong
| ut one end of it and now thrusting with
/ the iron scraper at the other, and now
i bringing down the whole weight of tho
!. instrument upon the heads of the enemy.
/ The Philistines are in panic and the
forces come IN and blow
fthat would not under other circun-
sstances have Frustrated Or slain left its
llvictim lifeless;; until, when Shamgar
l.walked over the field he counted 100
tdead, 200 dead, 300 dead, 400 dead, 800
fdead, 600 dead-all the work done by
an oSgoad with iron prong at one end
and an iron shovel at the other. The
52hf st ct t a3dc 2aa'
abroad and lionizcd him, until he was
hoisted into the highest place of power
and became the third of the mighty
Judges of Israel So you see that Gin
cinnatus was not the only man lifted
from pillow to throne
For what reason was this unprece-
dented and unparalleled victory OF
farmers oxgoad put into this Bible,
where there was 10 spare room for the
unimportant and the trivial?
Tho Choice of Weapons.
1t was, first of all, to teach you and
to teach me and to teach all past ages
since then and to teach all ages to come
that in the war for God and against sin
we ought TO put to the best use the weap-
on we happen to have on hand. Why
did not Shamgar wait until he could
get war charger, with neck arched and
back caparisoned and nostrils shifting
the battle afar off, or until he could get
war equipment or could drill regi-
ment, and wheeling them into line
command them forward to the charge?
To wait for that would have been defeat
and annihilation. So he takes the best
weapon he could lay hold of, and that
is an oxgoad We are called into the
battle for the right and against wrong,
aud many of us have not just the kind
of weapon we would prefer. 1t may not
be a sword Of argument. 1t may not be
tho spear of sharp, thrusting wit. 1t
may not be the battering ram of de-
nunciation.
But there IS something we can do and
some forces we can WELD. Do not wait
for what you have not, but use what
you have Perhaps you have not elo-
quence, but you have smile. Well
smile of encouragement has changed the
behavior Of tens of thousands Of wan
derors and brought them back to God
and enthroned them in heaven. You
cannot make a persuasive appeal, but
you can set an example, and a good ex-
ample has saved moro souls than you
could count in year if you counted all
the time. You cannot give $l0,0 600, but
you can give as much as the widow OF
the gospel whose two mites the small
est coins Of the Hebrews, were bestowed
in such spirit as to make her more ia
nous than all the contributions that
ever endowed all the hospitals and uni
versities of all Christendom, of all time,
You have very limited vocabulary, but
you can say yes" or "no, and firm
yes or an emphatic mo" has tray
ersed the centuries, and will traverse
all eternity, with good influence. You
may not have the courage to confront a
large assemblagc, but you can tell
Sunday school class of two-a boy and
a girl-how to find Christ, and one Of
them may become William Carey, to
start influences that will redeem India,
and the other a Florence Nightingale,
who will illunline battlefields covered
with the dying and the dead.
That was tough case i'll town OF
England where young lady, applying
for Sabbath school class, was told by
the superintendent she would have to