The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1895-06-14
AFTER Him Was shamgar. Which Slew
OF the PhiIistincs Six Hundred
hfen with an ox-Goad- - Judges
Chapter 3, Verse FL.

ably have known how to WELD 1t If he
a possessed one. But fight he must,
Or go down unde the stroke Of the Phil
tstlnes. He had an ox-goad-a weapon
used to urge on the lazy team; a weap-
on about eight feet long, with a sharp
iron at one end to p%uncture the beast,
n q 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
ox-goad and the iron scraper at the
other, 1t was not such a weapon as one
would desire to use in battle with armed
ekilistines. But God helped the farmer,
and leaving the oxen to look after
themselves. he charged upon the in
vaders Of his homestead. Some of the
commentaries, to make 1t easier for
Shamgar, suggest that perhaps he led a
regiment Of farmers into the combat,
ox-goad up and down, and this way and
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 six hundred Philistines
with the Lord against them. The battle
opened. Shamgar, with muscle strength
ened by open air, and plowman's, and
reaper's, and thresher's toll, uses the
only weapon at hand, and he swings the
ox-goad upand down, and his way and
that; now stabbing with the iron prong
at n 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 a blow that would not under other
circumstances have Frustrated or slain,
left its victim lifeless; until when Sham
gar walked over the field, he counted
n hundred dead, two hundred dead,
three hundred dead, four hundred dead,
five hundred dead, six hundred dead
all h work done by an
ox-goad with an iron prong at one
end and an iron shovel at the other.
The fame Of this achievement by his
farmer with an awkward weapon Of
war. spread abroad, and lion,zed 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 Cincinnatus was not the orly man
lifted from pillow to throne.
For what reason vas this unprecc-
denied and unparalleled victory of a
farmers ox-goad put into this Bible,
where there was no spare room for the
unimportant and the trivial?
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 weapon we happen to have OF
hand. Why did not Shamgar wait until
he could get a war charger, with neck
arched and back ~caparisoned, and
nostrils shifting the battle afar Off, Or
until he could get war equipment, CT
could drill a regiment, and wheeling
to the charge? To wait for hat would
have been defeat and annihilation. So
he takes the best weapon he could lay
hold of, and that is an oX-goad. We are
called into the battle for the right, and
against wrong, n many Of u have not
iust the kind of weapon we would pre-
fer. It may not be a sword Of argument.
It MAJ not be the spear Of sharp, thrust
ing wit. 1t may not be the Gathering
ram of denunciation. But there IS some
thing we can do, and some forces we
WELD. Do not wait for what you
not, but use what you have. Per-
haps you have not ~eloquence, but you
a smile. Well, a smile of encour-
egement has changed the behavior Of
tens of thousands of wanderers, and
brought them back to God, and en-
throned them in heaven. You cannot
make a persuasive appeal, but o can
set an example, and a good example
has saved more souls than you could
count in a year, If you counted ali the
time. You cannot give ten thousand dol
lars, but you can give as much as the
widow of the Gospel, whose two mites,
the smallest coins Of the Hebrews, were
bestowed in such a spirit as to make
her more famous than all the contyihu-
lions that ever endowed all the hospitals
and universities of all christendoni, Of
all time. You have very limited vooab-
ulary, but you can say yes or mo"
and a firm yes" or an emphatic no."
traversed the centuries, and Will
all eternity, with good infu-
.nce. You may not have the courage to
a large assemblage but YOU
can tell a Sunday school class of two /
q bow and a girl-how to find Christ. !
one of them may become a Will
Carey, to start influences that will
redeem India, and the other a Florence
Nightingale, who will illumine battle
fields covered with the dying and the
dead.
Again my subject springs upon us the
that in calculating the pros
meets of religious attempt, we mus take
omuipotence, and omniscience, and
,m~niprenence, and all h other attri-
bntes of God into the calculation. Whom
dc YOU see on that plowed fielG of my
One nearer says: Il see Sham
Another nearer says: "T see six
hundred P~hilistines." My nearer, you
nave missed the chief parsonage on that
battlefield Of plowed ground. I also see
Shamgar. and six hundred Philistines. I
more than all and mightier than all,
and more overwhelming than all, 1 see
God. Shamgar with his unaided arm,
muscular, and with that hum
Bile j2strument made for agricultural
and never constructed for
could not have wrought such
1t was omnipotence above and
beneath, and back Of and at the point OF
the ox-goad. Before that battle was
,ver the plowman realized this, and all
he civ hundred PhilistfneS realized 1t.