The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-12-17

those who are the subjects of lifelong
infirnities. He who can lift twice al
much as you can and walk twice as fal
and work twice as long will have {
double account to meet in the Judgment
How often is it that you do not fac
physical energy indicative of spiritua
power! If a clear head is worth more
than one dizzy with perpetual vertigo
if muscles with the play of health in
them are worth more than those drawn
up in chronic "rheumatics, if an eye
quick to catch passing objects is better
than one with vision dim and uncertain,
then God will require of us efficiency
just in proportion to what he has given
us. Physical energy ought to have as
good digestion of truth as we have Ca
pacity to assimilate food. Our spiritual
hearing ought to be as good as our phys
ical hearing. Our spiritu taste ought
to be as clear as our tongue. Samsons
in body, we ought to be giants in moral
power.
The Lost Strength.
But, while you find great many men
who realize that they ought to use their
money Alright and use their intelligence
Alright, how few men you find aware of
the fact that they ought to use their
physical organism Alright! With every
thump of the heart there is something
saying, "Work, work." And lest we
should complain that we have no tools
to work with God gives us our hands
and feet, with every knuckle and with
every joint and with every muscle, say
ing to us, "Lay hold and do something. {"
But how often it is that men with
physical strength do not serve Christ |
They are like ship full manned and
full rugged, capable of vast tonnage,
able to endure all stress of weather, yet
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 mercy. How
often it is that physical strength is used
in doing positive damage or 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 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
in the door Of the tomb, yet writing
more than 100 volumes and sending out
an influence for God that will endure
as long as the "Saints' Everlasting
Rest" Edward Payson, never knowing
a well day, yet how he preached and
how he wrote, helping thousands of dy-
ing souls like himself to 'swim in a sea
of glory" And Robert M 'Cheyne,
walking skeleton, yet you know what
he did in Dundee and how he shook
Scotland with zeal fer God. Philip bod
bridge, advised by his friends, because
of his illness, not to enter the ministry,
yet you know what he did for the "rise
and progress of religion" in the church
and in the world.
Wherefore was told by his doctors
that he could not live a fortnight yet |
at that very time entering upon philan-
thropic enterprises that demanded the |
greatest endurance and persistence. |
Robert Hall, suffering excruciations, so
that often in his pulpit while preaching :
be would stop and lie down ON sofa,
then getting up again to preach about
heaven, until the glories of the celestial
,ity dropped on the multitude, doing
more work perhaps than almost any
well man in his day.
Oh, how often it is that men with +
great physical endurance are not so
great in moral and spiritual stature.
While there are achievements for those
who are bent all their days with sick
of patience, achieve
nents of Christian endurance-I call
upon men of health today, men of mus
lie, men of nerve, men of physical pow
II, to devote themselves to the Lord.
1iants i'll body, you ought to be giants
Ii soul.
Samson's Misguided Strength.
Behold also i'll the story of my text
Illustration Of the damage that strength
an do if it be misguided. 1t seems to
ne that this man spent great deal of
lis time in doing evil-this Samson of
ny text. To pay bet which be had
ost by guessing of his riddle he robs
nd kills 30 people. He was not only
gigantic in strength, but gigantic in
and type of those men in all
ges of the world, who, powerful in
Jody or mind or any faculty of social
position or wealth, have used their
trength for iniquitous purposes.
1t is not the small, weak men of the
ay who do the damage. These small
len who go swearing and loating about
our stores and shops and banking
Houses, assailing Christ and the Bible
nd the church-they do not do the
amage. They have no influence. They
re vermin that you crush with your
Dot. But it is the giants of the day, {
ne misguided giants, giants in phys
,al power, or giants in mental acu-
len, or giants in social position, or q
iants in wealth, who do the damage.
he men with sharp pens that stab re-
gion and throw their poison all !
trough our literature, the men who |
Sc the power of wealth to sanction in 1
luity and bride justice and make truth L
nd honor bow to their golden scepter. C
Iisguided giants-look out for them. I
l the middle and latter part of the last {
,nfurv no dOubt tbprp XVpra thOuSa ! {