The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1895-10-02

| learn from this subject, also that a
small part of the army of God will have
to do all the hard fighting. Gideon's
army was originally composed of thir-
ty-two thousand men, but they went
off until there were only ten thousand
left, and thatwas substracted from un-
til there was only three hundred. 1t is
the same in all ages of the Christian
church; few men have to do the hard
fighting. Take a membership of a thou
sand and you generally find that fifty
people do the work. Take a member
ship of five hundred and you generally
find that ten people do the work.
There are scores of churches where two
or three people do the work.
MWe mourn that there is so much use
less lumber in the mountains of Leb-
anon. think, Of the ten million men,
bership of the Christian church to-day,
if five millions of the names were off
the books the church would be strong
er. You know that the more towards
and drones there are in any army the
weaker it is. would rather have the
three hundred picked men of Gideon
than the twenty-five thousand unsifted
host. How many Christians there are
standing in the way of all progress!
/ think it is the duty of the church of
God to ride over them, and the quicker
it does it, the quicker it does its duty.
Do not worry oh Christian, if you
have to do more than your share of the
work. You had better thank God tina.
He has called you to he one OF til,
picked men, rather than to belong to
the host of stragglers. Would not you
rather be one of the three hundred
that fight than the twenty-five thou
sand that run? suppose those
cowardly Gideonites who went off con-
graduated themselves. They said,
I'VE got rid of al! that fighting, did
not VIC? How lucky we have hccn;
that battle costs us nothing at all"
But they got none Of the spoils of the
victory. After the battle the three
hundred men went down and took the
wealth of the Midianites, and out of
the cups and platters of their enemies
they feasted. And the time will come,
my dear brethren, when the hosts of
darkness will be routed, and Christ
will say to his troops, ''Well done, my
brave men, GO up and take the 'spoils!
Be more than conquerors forever!' and
in that day all deserters will be shot!
| Again, learn from this subject that
Gods way is different from mans, but
is always the best way. If we had the
! planning of that battle, we would have
taken those thirty-two thousand men
that originally belonged to the army,
! and we would have drilled them, and
marched them up and down by the day,
! and week, and month, and we would
have had them equipped with swords
and spears, according to the way of
arming in those times; and then we
would have marched them down in
solid column upon the foe. But that is
not the way. God depletes the army,
and takes away all their weapons and
gives them lamp, and pitcher, and
u trumpet, and tells them to go down
and drive out the Midianites. Isuppose
some wiseacres were there who said:
THAT is not military tactics. The idea
of three hundred men, unarmed, con-
quering such u great host of Midi
anites!" 1t was the best way. What
sword, spear, or cannon ever accom-
plished such victory as the lamp,
pitcher and trumpet?
Gods way is different from mans
way, hut it is always best. Take, for
instance, the composition of The Bible.
If we had had the writing of the Bible,
we would have said: Let one man
write it. Ii you have twenty or thirty
men to write d poem, or make stat.
ute, or write a history, or make an
argument there will be flaws and con.
tradietions But God says, Let not
one man do it, but forty men shall dc
it." And they did, differing enough tc
show there had been no cOllusion be-
tween them, but not contradictinp
each other on any important point
while they all wrote from their own
standpoint and temperament; so that
the matter-of-fact man has his Moses
the romantic nature his Ezekiel; the
epigrammatie his Solomon; the warrior
his Joshua; the sailor his Jonah; the
loving his John; the logician his Paul
Instead of this Bible, which now l car
lift in my hand-instead of the Bible
the child can carry to Sunday
instead of the little Bible the sailor cal
put in his jacket when he goes to sea-
if it had been left to men to write, il
would have been thousand volumes
judging from the amount of ccclesias
tical controversy which has arisen
Gods way is different from mans, but
it is best, infinitely best.
So it is in regard to the Christians
life. If we had had the planning of {
Christians life we would have said
"Let him have eighty years of sun
shine, fine house to live in; let hi.
surroundings all be agreeable; let hin
have sound health; let no chill shivei
through his limbs, no pain ache his
brow, or trouble shadow his soul"
enjoy the prosperity of others so much
| would let every man have as mucl
money as he wants, and roses for hi.
children's cheeks and fountains O
gladness glancing in their large round
eyes. But that is not Gods way. II
seems as if man must be cut, and hit
and pounded just in proportion as III
is useful. His child falls from third
story window and has it's life dashet
out; his most confident Investment
tumbles him into bankruptcy; his
friends, on whom he depended, aid the
natural force of gravitation in taking
him down; his life is Bull Run de
feat Instead of twenty-five thousand
al ~ ln 4