The Penn's Grove record., 1896-01-31
RET. DR.. TBLNHGE.
The Eminent Divine's Sunday
Sermon
Subject: "The Power of Example,"

Subject: "The Power of Example,"
TEXT: "An Abimelech took an ak in hi,
hand and cut down n bough from the tree.
and TOOK it and laid it on his shoulder and
said unto the people that were with himi
what We have seen me 10 make haste and
do as / have DONE And all the people like
wise cut down every man his bough."-
Judges tx, IS.
Abime!ech is a name malodorous in Bib.
history and yet full of profitable suggestion.
Buoys are black and uncomely. but they tell
where the rocks are. The snakes rattle ia
hideous. but it gives timely warning. From
the pinzza of my summer home night by
night l saw a lighthouse fifteen miles away,
not placed there for adornmpnt, but TO tell
mariners to stand off from that dangerous
point. SO all the iron-bound coast or moral
danger Is marked with Saul and Herod and
Rehohonm and Jezebel and Abimelech.
These bad people are mentioned in the Bible
notonly as warnings, but be ause there were
sometimes flashes of good conduct in their
lives worthy Of imitation. God sometimes
drives a very straight nail with a very poo
hammer.
The city of S3hechem had to be taken, and
Ahimeiech and his men were to do it. / see
the dust rolling up from their excited march.
l hear the shouting of the captains and the
yell of the besie2ers. The swords clack
sharply on the parrying shields, and the 20.
ciferation of two armies in death grapple Is
horrible TO hear. The battle goes on all day,
and IS the sun ts setting Abimelech and his
army cry ''S~urrenderi' 10 the beaten foe,
and, unable longer to resist, the city OF
Shechem falls, and there are pools of blood
and discovered limbs AMI glazed eyes look
ing up beggingly for mercy that war never
shows, and dying soldiers with their head on
the lap of mother or wife or sister, who have
come out for the last offices of kindness and
affection, and a groan rolls across the city,
stopping not. because there is no spot for it
to rest, so full is the place Of other groans.
A city wounded! A city dying! Acity dead
Wal for Shechem, all We VINO know the hor.
rors of a sacked town.
As l look over the city / find only one
building standing. an that is the temple OF
the god Berth. Some soldiers outside oi
the city in a tower, finding that they can no
longer defend Shechem, now begin 10 look
out for their own personal safety, and they
fly to this temple Of Berth. They go within
the door, shut it. and they say: Now we
are safe. Abimelech has taken the whole
city, but he cannot take this temple OF
Berth. Here we shall be under the protec-
ton Of the gods" o Berth, the god, 10
your Lest now for these refugees. II you
have eyes. pity them. II you have hands,
ueIp lltiu. Ii you nave lDunueTOOltS, StrlkH
for them. But 10Y shall Abimelech and his
army take this temple Of Berth and the men
who are there fortified? Will they do it with
ths swOrdP Nay. Will they do it with the
spear? Nay. With the battering ram rolled
up by hundred armed strength crashing
against the walls? Nay. Abimelech marches
his mon TO a wood in Zalmon. With his AK
he news off a limb of a tree and puts that
limb upon his shoulder, and then he says to
lis men. HNOu do the aump.h
They are obedient TO their commander.
There is a struggle as TO who shall have axes.
The whoie wood is full Of bending boughs,
and the cracking and the hacking, and the
cutting, until every one of the host has a
limb Of n tree cut down, and not only that,
but has put it on his shoulder Just as abb
melech showed him how. Are these men all
armed with tho tree branch? The reply
comes, "Ail armed" And they march on.
Oh, what II strange army. with that strange
equipment! They come up to the foot Of
he temple at Berth, and Abimelech takes
lis limb of a tree and throws it down, and
he first platoon of soldiers come up, and
hey throw down their branches, and the
second platoon; and the third, until all
around about the temple of Berth there is a
pile of tree branches. The Shechemites look
out from the window of the temple upon
what seems to them childish play on the
parts of their enemies. But soon the fiints are
3tTuCk, ana IHt SPARK D6glLs 10 hIH1lB tue
brush. and the flame comes up all through
the pile. aud the red elements leap to the
easement, and the WOO iwork begins to blaze,
and one arm OF fame Is thrown up on the
right side of the temple, and another arm OF
Dame is thrown up on the left side of the
temple, until they clasp their lurid palms
under the wild night sky, AMI the cry of
hFirei' within and Fire" without announces
the terror, and the strangulation, and the
doom of the S~hechemites, and the complete
overthrow OF the temple OF the god Berth.
Then there went up a shout, long and loud,
from the stout lungs and swarthy chests oil
Abimelech and his men rs they stood amid
the ashes and the dust crying, Victory.
1ctoryi"
Oh my friends, the gospel is not a syllo-
Sism; it is not casuistry; it is not polemics, or
the science of ~squabbles. 1t is blood red fact;
1t Is warm hearted invitation; it is ieaping,
bounding, flying good news; it Is eflorescent
with all light; it is rubescent with al sum
merry glow; 1t is arborescent with all sweet
shade. / have seen the sun rise on Mount
Washington, and from the Tiptop House, but
there was no beauty in that compared with
the dayspring from on high when Christ
gives light to a soul. I have heard Parepa
sing, but there was no music in that COM
pared with the voice of Christ when He said,
''Thy sins are forgiven thee; go in peace"
Good newsl Let every one cut down a branch
OF mis- Tree OF HE anu MhfS I've Luz III
throw II down and kindle it. Let all the way
from Mount Zalmon to Shechem be filed
with thetossinG JOY. Good newsl This bon
fire of the gospel shall consume the last tenn
pie of sin, and will illumine the sky with
apocalyptio Joy, that Jesus Christ came into
the world to save sinners. Any new plan
that makes a mar quit hissin, and that pros
traies q wrong, l am as murh in favor OF as
though all the doctors, and the bishops, and
the arehbishops, and the synods, and the
academical gownsmen OF Christianity sane
| toned II. The temple Of Berth must come
down, and l do not care how it comes
Still further I learn from this subject the
| power of example. II Ablmelech had sat
down on the grass and tod his men to go and
| get the boughs and go out to the battle, they
| would never had gone at all, or II they had
It would have been without any spirit or
| effective result, but when Abimeleeh goes
with his own AK and hews down a branch
| and with Ablmelech's arm puts 1t on Abime'
lech's shoulder and marches on, then, my
text says. all the people did the same. now
natural that wasl What made Garibaldia anu
Stonewall Jackson the most magnetic COM
! handlers OF this century? They always rode
ahead, Oh, the overwhelming power OF ex-
| ample! Here is the father on the wrong road.
All his boys go on the wrong road. Here ls
| a father who enlists for Christ. HIS children
| enlist. Isaw in some Of the picture CALLER.
| les OF Europe that before many Of the great
works of the great masters, the old masters,
| there would be sometimes four and 1--we ar
fists taking copies of pictures. These copies
| thew were going to carry with them. per-
haps TO distant lands, and l have thought
that your life and character are a mas
terpiece, and it is being copied, and long at
ter you are gone will bloom or blast in the
homes of those who knew you and be Cor
gon or q Madonna, Look out what you say
Look out what you do. Eternity will hear
the echo. The best sermon ever preached Is
a HOLY life. The best music ever chanted l;
a consistent walk. II you want others 10
serve God, serve Him yourself. II you want
Others to shoulder their duty, shoulder
yours. Where Abimelech goes his troop.
60. oh, start out for heaven to-day, ant
Yonr family will come after you, and you.