Connecticut western news., 1895-06-06
THE DEADLY OXGOAD
REV. DR. TALMAGE ON SHAMGAR'S
 EFFECTIVE WEAPON.


 ment-The Essential Elements of vio-
 tory-Need of Gods Help.
 NEW YORK, June 2.-In his sermon today Rev. Dr. Talmage discusses one of the most heroic and picturesque char acters in ancient Jewish history, man who, like many others who achieved high distinction, came from the 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 GOO men with an oxgoad" (Judges iii, 3I.
 One day while Shamgar, the farmer, was blowing with yoke of oxen, his command of whoa haw gee was changed to the shout of battle. Philistines, al- ways ready to make trouble, march mp with sword and spear Shamgar, the plowman, had no sword and would not probably have known how to wield it if he had possessed one. But fight he must or go down under the stroke of the Phil istines. He had an oxgoad-a weapon used to urge ou the lazy team; weap- on about eight feet long, with sharp iron at one end to puncture the beast and wide iron chisel or shovel at the other end with which to scrape the clumps of soil from the plowshare. Yet with the iron prong at one end of the oxgoad and the iron scraper at the oth- CT it was not such weapon as one would desiNe to use ill battle with armed Philistines But God helped the farmer, k<~1 1<o1r selves he charged upon the invaders of his homestead.
 Some of the commentaries to make 1t easier for Shamgar, suggest that per haps he led 8 regiment of farmers into the combat, his oxgoad only one of many oxgoads. But the Lord does not need any of you to help in making the 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's s and reaper's and thrasher's toil, uses the only weapon at hand, and he swings the o4goad 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 bringing down the whole weight of the instrument upon the heads of the enemy. The Philistines are in a panic and the supernatural forces come in and blow ahat would not under other circum- stances have prostrated or slain left it's victim ifeless, until, when Shamgar walked over the field he counted 100 dead, 200 dead, 800 dead, 400 dead, 500 dead. GOO dead-al the work done by an oxgoad with iron prong at one end and an iron shovel at the other. The fame of this achievement by this farmer with an awkward weapon of war spread abroad and ionized 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 blow to throne.
 For what reason was this unprece- dented and unparalleled victory of a farmers oxgoad put into this Bible, where there was no spare room for the unimportant and the trivial?
 The Choice of Weapons.
 It 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 i'll 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 sniffing the battle afar off, or until he could get war equipment or could drill a regi- ment, and wheeling them into line command them forward to the charge? Towait 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, and many of us have not just the kind of weapon we would prefer. It may not be sword of argument. It may not be the spear of sharp, thrusting wit. It may not be the battering ram of de- nunciation.
 But there is something we can do and some forces we can wield. Do not wait for what you have not, but use what you have. Perhaps you have not elo- quence, but you have D smile. We'll, smile of encouragement has changed the behavior of tens of thousands of wan derers 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 more souls than you could count in year if you counted all the time. You cannot give SIC, 1000, 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 fa- nous than all the contributions that ever endowed all the hospitals and uni versailles 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 trav- ersed tho centuries, and will traverse all eternity, with good influence, You may not have the courage to confront a large assemblage, but you can tell a Sunday school class of two-a boy and 8 girl-how to find Christ, and one of them may become William Carey, to start influences that will redeem India, and the other Florence Nightingale, who will illumine battlefields covered with the dying and the dead.
 That was a tough case in town of England where young lady, applying for Sabbath school class, was told by the superintendent she would have to pick up one out of the street. The worst of the class brought from the street was one Bob. He was fitted out with re- spectacle clothing by the superintend- ent But after two or three Sabbath. he disappeared. He was found with his clothes in tatters, for he had been fight ing. The second time Bob was we'll clad for school After coming once or twice he again disappeared, and was found in rags, consequent upon fighting. The faachar xvaa disnnsad tn give him m