The Monitor-register., 1897-12-17

swinging idly at the docks, when these
men ought to be crossing and recrossing
the great ocean of human SUFFERING and
sin with Gods supplies of mtfey. How
often it is that physical stresgth is used
in doing positive damageor in luxurious
ease, when, with sleeves rolled up and
bronzed bosom, fearless of the shafts of
opposition, it ought to be laying hold
with all its might and Juggling away to
lift up this sunken wreck of a world.
1t is a most shameless fact that much
of the business. of the church and of the
world must be done by those compare
lively invalid. Richard Baxter, by rea-
son of his diseases, all his days sitting
III the door of the tomb yet Writing
moreathan 100 volumes and sending out
al Influence for God that will endure
as long as the Saints Everlasting
sBest. Edward Payson, never knowing
a we'll day, yet how he preached and
howshe wrete, helping thousands of dy-
ia3 souls like himself to "swim in a sea
os&19y And Robert M'Cheyne, a
walking Skeleton, yet you know what
he did in Dundees9and how he shook
scotland with zeal for God. Philip Dod-
bridge, advised by his friends, because
of hissi4lness, n9E to enter the ministry,
yetsyou Know what he did for the ''rise
and progress of~religion" in the church
and in the world.
Wilberforce was told by his doctors
that he could not live a fortnight, yet
at that very time entering upon philan-
Ahropic enterprises that demanded the
greatest endurance and persistence.
Robert Hall, suffering excruciations, SO
that often in bis pulpit while preaching
he would stop and lie down on a sofa,
then getting up again to preach about
heaven, until the glories of the celestial
city dropped on the multitude, doing
more work perhaps than almost any
we'll man i'll his day.
Oh, how often it is that men with
great physical endurance are not So
great in moral and spiritual statufe.s
While there are achievements for those
who are bent all their days with sick
ness-achievements of patience, achieve
ments of Christian endurance call
upon men of health today, men of mus
Gle, men of nerve, men of physical pow
er, to devote themselves to the Lord.
Giants in body, you ought to be giants
in soul.
samson's Misguided Strength.
Behold also in the story of my text
illustration of the damage that strength
can do if it be misguided. 1t seems to
me that this man spent a great deal OF
his time in doing exil-this Samson of
my text. To pay a bet which he had
lost by guessing Of his riddle he robs
and kills 80 people. He vas not only
gigantic in strength, but gigantic in
mischief, and a type of those men in all
ages of the world, who, powerful in
body or mind or any faculty of social
position or wealth, have used then
strength for Ubiquitous purposes.
tz Il not the small, weak men Of the
| day wh6 do the damage. These small
men who go swearing and loafing about
your stores and shops and banking
houses, assailing Christ and the Bible
and the church-they do not dos stee
damage. They have no influence. They
are vermin that you crush with your
foot. But it is the giants of the day,
the misguided giants, giants in phys
ical power, or giants in mental acu-
men, or giants in social position, or
giants in wealth, who do the damage.
The men with sharp pens that stab re-
ligionsaapd throw their poison all
through our literature, the men who
use the power of wealth to sanction in
iauitytand bride justice and make truth
and honor bow to their golden scepter.
Misguided giants-look out for them.
In the middle and latter part of the last
century, no doubt, there were thousands
of men i'll Paris and Edinburgh and
London who hated God and blasphemed
the name of the Almighty, but they did
but little mischief-they were small
men, insignificant men. Yet there were
giants in those days.
Who can calculate the soul havoc of a
Rousseau, going on with avery enthu-
siasm of iniquity, with fiery imagina-
ton seizing upon all the impulsive ma
lures of his day, or David Hume, who
employed his life as a spider employs
its summer, in spinning out silken
webs to trap the unwary, OR Voltaire,
the most learned nan of his day, mar
shallng a great host of skeptics and lead
ing them out in the dark land of inf
fellty, or Gibbon, who showed an un-
comfortable grudge against religion in
his history of one of the most fascinat-
ing periods of the worlds existence,
"The Decline and Fall Of the Roman
Empire'-a book in which, with all
the splendors of his genius, he magnifed
the errors of Christian disciples, while,
with a sparseness of notice that never
can be forgiven he treated of the Chris
tlan heroes of whom the world was not
worthy?
A Crown on Earth.
Oh, men of stout physical health.
men Of great mental stature, men of
high social position, men of great power
OF any sort, l want you to understand
your power, and l want you to know
that that power devoted to God will be
a crown on earth, to you typical of a
crown III heaven, but misguided, be-
draggled in sin, administrative of evil,
God will shunder against you with his
condemnation in the day when million
alre and pauper, master and slave, king
and subject, shall stand side by side in
the judgment, and money bags and ju-
dicial ermine and royal robe shall be
rlven with the lightnings.
Behold a1soRhew a giant may be slain
Delilah started the train of circum-
stances that pulled down the temple of
Dagon about Samson's ears, and tens
of thousands of giants have gone down
to death and hell through the same i'm
pure destinations. 1t seems to me that
it is high time that pulpit and platform
and printing press speak out against
the impurities of modern society. Fas-
ti%diousness and prudery say: Better
not speak. You will rouse up adverse
criticism, you will make worse what you
want to make better. Better deal in
g%littering generalities. The subject is
too delicate for polite ears" But there
comes a voice from heaven overpower-
ing the mincipg sentimentalities of the
day, saying, Cry aloud, spare not, lift
up thy voice like a trumpet and show
my people their transgressions and the
house of Jacob their SINS"
The trouble is that when people write
or speak upon this theme they are apt
to cover it UP with the graces of bellies
l%ettres, SO that the crime is made at
tractiye instead of repulsive. Lord By
| RON in nnon Jrapf' ado1,,e +i,;, 49,