The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-01-08
BOOTS AND SADDLES.
aev. DR.. Talmage Gives the Word
for an Onslaught
ON the Serted Hosts of siu-The Who'll,
Christian Life LIkened to n Great
Cavalry Charge Riding
TO Conquest.

thou art able on thy part TO set riders upor
them.-IL Kings, xviii, q.
Up by the water works, the upper
reservoir of Jerusalem, the general Of
the besieging army and the general:
of besieged Jerusalem are in consnlta
tion. Though Gen. Rab-shakeh had
been largely paid to stop the siege, he
kept the money and continued the
siege-the military miscreantl Rab
shaken derides the capacity of the
city to defend itself, and practically
says: "You have not 1000 men who
can manage horses. Produce 2,O0t
cavalrymen, and / will give you a
present of 1000 cavalry horses You
have not in all your hesieged city OF
Jerusalem 1000 men who can mount
and by bit and bride control horse.
Rab-shakeh realized that it is easier
to fihd horses than skillful riders, and
hence he makes the challenge OF tn e
text: Il will deliver thee 1000 horses
if thou be able to set riders upon
them.
Rab-shakeh, like many another bad
man, said a very suggestive thing.
The world is full of great oppOrtuni-
ties, but few know how to bride them
and mount them and manage them.
More spirited horses than competent
riders! The fact is that in the church
of God we have plenty of fortresses
well manned, and plenty of heavy ar
tillery, and plenty of solid columns
of brave, Christian soldiery, but what
we most need is cavalry-mounted
troops of God-for sudden charge that
seems almost desperate. If Washing
ton, if New York, if London are ever
taken for God, it will not be by slow
bonn bardment of augmentation, or
| by regular unlimbering of great theo-
logical guns from the portfolios of
The churches, but by gallop of sud
den assault and rush of holy en-
ergy that will astound and throw
into panic the long lines of drilled
opposition, armed to the teeth. Moth
ing so scares the forces of sin as n re-
Vival that comes, they know not
whence, to do that which they can
aot tell, to work in way that they
:an not understand. They will be
overcome by flank movement The
church of God must double up their
eigat a. left wing. If they expect us
from the north, we will take them
from the south. If they expect US at
| IL o'cock at noon, we viii como upon
them at - o'clock at night. The OPP
portunities for this assault are great
and numerous, but where are the
men? Il will deliver thee 1900
horses, if thou be able to set riders
upon them"
The opportunities of saving America
and saving the entire planet were
never SO many, never SO urgent, never
so tremendous as now. Have you not
noticed the willingness of the printing
press of the country to give the sub
iect of evangelism full swing in col
umn after column? Such work was
formerly confined to tract distribution
and religious journalism. Now the
morning and evening newspapers, by
hundreds and thousands of copies,
print all religious intelligence and
print most awakening discourses.
Never since the world has stood has
such force been offered to all en-
yaged in the worlds evangelization.
Of the more than Il, 900 newspapers on
this continent, / do not know one
that is not alert to catch and distrib-
ute all matters of religious informa-
ton. Oh, now L see n mighty sugges-
tiveness in the fact that the first book
ot any Importance that was ever
published, after Johann Gluten berg
invented the art of printing, was
The Bible. Well might the poor man
toll on, polishing stones, and manu-
featuring looking glasses, and max
ing experiments that brought upon
him the charge of insanity, and bor-
rowing money, now from Martin
Brother and now from Joban Faust,
until he set on foot the mightlest
power for the evangelization of the
world. The statue in bronze which
Thorwaldsen erected for Gutenberg
in 1897, and the statue concentrating
him by David Dangers in 1910, and
unveiled amid all the pomp that mill
tary professions and German bands of
best music could give the occasion,
were insignificant compared with the
fact, to be demonstrated before all
earth and all Heaven, that Johann
Gutenberg, under God, inaugurated
forces which will yet accomplish the
worlds redemption. The newspaper
press will report Christ's sermons yet
to be delivered, and describe
His personal appearance, if, as
some think, He shall come again
to reign on earth. The newspapers
press may yet ublish Christ's prOcla-
nation of the worlds emancipation
from sin and sorrow and death. Tens
of thousands of good men in this and
other lands have been ordained by the
laying on of hands to preach the Cos
pei, but it seems to me that just now,
by the laying on of the hands of the
Lord God Almighty, the newspaper
presses are being ordained for preach
ing the Gospel with wider sweep and
mightier resound than we have ever
yet imagined. The iron horses of the
printing press are all ready for the
battle, but where are the men good
enough and strong enough to mount
them and guide them? 81 will deliver
thee 1000 horses, if thou be able to set
riders upon them"
Go out to the soldiers home and
talk with the men who have been in
the wars, and they will give you right
appreciation of what is the impor-
tance of the cavalry service IN battle.
You hear the clatter of the hoofs and
the whirr of the arrows and the clash
of the shields and the bang of the
carbines as they ride up and down the
centuries Clear back in time, Osy
mandyas led 10000 mounted troops in
Bactriana. Josephus says that when
the Israelites escaped from Egypt
so, 900 cavalrymen rode through the
parted Red Sea. Three hundred and
seventy-one years before Christ, Epa-