The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1896-01-31
Of Abimelech, although / suppose some

to testify to-day that by no other mode
certainly not by ordinary modes
could that temple SO easily so thoroughly
have been taken. Fathers and moth
ers, brethren and sisters in Jesus
Christ, what the Church most wants to
learn, this day, is that any plan is right,
is lawful is best, which helps to over
throw the temple of sin, and capture
this world for God. We are very apt
to stick to the old modes OF attack.
We put on the old-style coat OF mail.
We come up with the sharp, keen, gilt
tering spear of argument, expecting in
that way to take the castle; but they
have thousand spears where we have
ten. And so the castle of sin stands.
Oh, my friends, we will never capture
this world for God by any keen sabre
or sarcasm, by any glittering lances Of
rhetoric, by any sapping and mining
CT profound disqulsition, by any gum
powdery explosions of indignation, by
sharpshootings Of wit, by howitzers Of
mental strength made to swing shell
i've miles, by cavalry horses gorgeously
caparisoned paving the air. In vain
all the attempts on the part of these
ecclesiastical foot soldiers, light horse
men and grenadiers.
My friends, propose a different style
Of tactics. Let each one go to tn, for
est Of Gods promise and invitation, and
hew down a branch and pat il on his
shoulder, and let us all come around
these obstinate iniquities, and then
with this pile, kindled cy the fires Of
holy zeal and the flames Of a conse-
Grated life, we will burn them out.
What steel cannot do, fire may. And
l announce myself in favor of any plan
of religious attack that succeeds-any
plan Of religious attack, however radi-
cal, however odd, however unpopular,
however hostile to all the convention
alities of Church and State. If one
style of prayer does not do the work,
let us try another. If the Church
music of to-day does not get the VIC
tory, then let us make the assault with
a backwoods chorus. If a prayer-meet-
ing at half past seven in the evening
does not succeed, let us have one as
early in the morning as when the angel
found wrestling Jacob too much for
him. If a sermon with the three au-
thorized heads does not do the work,
then let us have sermon with twenty
heads, or no heads at all. We want
more heart in our song, more heart In
our almsgiving, more heart in our
prayers, more heart in our preaching.
Oh, for less OF Abimelech's sword and
more of Abimelech's confiagration!
l had often heard
There Is n fountain filed with blood
sung artistically by four birds perched
on their Sunday roost in the gallery,
until l thought of Jenny Lind, and Nil
sson, and Sontag, and all the other
warblers; but there came not one tear
to my eye, nor one master emotion to
my heart. But one night l went down
to the African Methodist Westinghouse
in Philadelphia, and at the close of the
service a black woman, in the middle
of the audience. began to sing that
hymn, and all the audience Joined in,
and we were flCated some three of four
miles nearer heaven than l have ever
been since. | saw with my own eyes
that fountain filled with blood''-red,
agonizing, sacrificial redemptive, and l
heard the crimson plash of the wave as
we all went down under it.
For sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains
Still further, | learn from this sub
ject the power of example. If Abim-
elech had sat down on the grass, and
told his men to go and get the boughs,
and go out to the battle, they would
never have gone at all, or If they had,
it would have been without any spirit
or effective result; but when Abimelech
goes with his own axe and hews down
a branch, and with Abimelech's arms
puts it on Abimelech's shoulder, and
marches on, then, my text says, all
the people did the same. How natural
that was. What made Garibaldi and
Stoncwall jackson the most magnetic
commanders of the century? They al
ways rode ahead. Oh the overwhelm"
ing power of example! Here is father
on the wrong road; all his boys go on
the wrong road. Here is a father who
enlist for Christ: his children enlist.
I saw in some of the picture galleries
of Europe, that before many of the
great works of the masters-the old
masters-there would be sometimes
four or five artists taking copies of the
pictures. These copies they are going
10 carry with them, perhaps to distant
lands: and l have thought that your
life and character are masterpiece,
and 1t is being copied, and long after
YOU are gone it will bloom or blast in
the homes of these who knew you, and
be a Gorgon or Madonna. Look out
what you say. Look out what you
do. Eternity will hear the echo. The
best sermon ever preached is holy
life. The best music ever chanted is
q consistent walk. II you want others
to serve God. serve him yourself. If
you want others to shoulder their duty,
shoulder yours. Where Abimelech
goes his troops go. Oh, start out for
heaven to-day, and your family will
come after you, and your business as
sociates will come after you, and your
social friends will join you. With one
branch of the tree OF life for n baton.