The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-06-07

trous 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 the reward.
You may not be able to load an Arm
strong gun; you may not be able tC
hurl Hotchkiss shell; you may not
be able to shoulder a glittering mus
ket; but use anything you can lay
your hands on. Try a blacksmith
hammer. or a merchants yardstick, oi
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 q great apostle
of Righteousness, not from hearing
John Wesley preach, but from seeing
him kiss a little child on the pulpit
! stairs.
Again, my subject springs upon us
the thought that in calculating the
propects of religious attempt, we must
take omnipotence and omniscience,
and omnipresence, and all the other
attributes of God into the calculation.
Whom do you see on that plowed field
of my text? One hearer says: ~ see
Shamgar." Another hearer saws: 81
see six hundred Philistines." My
hearer, you have missed the chief per
sonage on that battlefield of plowed
ground. / also see Shamgar and six
hundred Philistines, but more than all
and mightier than all, and more over
whelming than all, see God. Sham
gar with his unaided arm, hoverer mus
cular, aud with that humble instrument
made for agricultural purposes,
and never constructed for combat
could not have wrought such victory.
1t was Omnipotence above, and be-
the ox-goad. Before that battle was
over the plowman realized it. and all
who visited the battlefield afterward
appreciated it / want in Heaven to
hear the story. for it can never be fully
told on earth-perhaps some day may
be set apart for the rehearsal. while
all Heaven listens-the story of how
God blessed awkward and humble in
strumentalities. Many an evangelist
has come into n town given up to
worldliness. The pastors say to the
evangelist: eve are glad you have
come, but it is hard field and we feel
sorry for you"
1.-The members of our churches play
progressive euchre, and go to the thea
ter, and bet at the horse races, and
gaiety and fashion have taken posses
A.. 1. a..l
your meetings, but are not very hope
full. God bless you" This evangelist
takes his place on platform or pulpit.
lie 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 pres
ent are graduates of the highest
female seminaries. and one slip in
grammar or one mispronunciatiou will
result in suppressed giggle. Amid the
general chill that pervades the house,
the unpretending evangelist opens his
Bible and takes for his text: Lord,
that my eyes may be opened" Opera
glasses in the gallery curiously scruti-
nize the speaker. He tells in plain
way the story of the blind man, tells
two or three touching anecdotes, and
then the general chill gives way be-
fore a strange warmth. A classical
hearer who took the first honor at
Yale, and who is prince of
proprieties, finds his spectacles be-
coming dim with a moisture sug-
gestive of tears. A worldly mother,
who has been bringing up her sons
and daughters in utter gOdlessness
puts her handkerchief to her eyes and
begins to weep. Highly educated men
VINO 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
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 kueel and re-
pent, and rise up pardoned; the
whole town is shaken up, and
places of evil amusement are sparsely
attended and rum holes lose their pat
rons and the churches are thronged,
and the whole community is cleansed,
and elevated, and rejoiced. What
power did the evangelist bring to bear
to capture that town for righteous
ness? 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 some
thing about him that people had not
taken in the estimate when they
prophesied the failure of that work.
They had not taken into the calcula-
ton the omnipotence of the Holy
Ghost 1t was not the fash of a
Damascus blade. 1t was God before
and behind and all around the OK
goad.
Napoleon, the author of the saying,
"God is on the side of the heaviest
artillery" lived to find out his mistake;
for at Waterloo the 16O guns of the
English overcame the 25C guns of the
French. God is on the side of the
right, and one man in the right will
eventually be found stronger than 600
men in the wrong. In all estimates of
any kind of Christian, work, do not
make the mistake every day made of
leaving out the Head of the Universe.
Again, my subject springs upon US
the thought that in Gods service it is
best to use weapons that are particu-
larly suited to US. Shamgar had, like
many of US, been brought up on a
farm. He knew nothing about javelins,
and bucklers, and helmets, and breast
plates. and preayes of brass. and cata-