Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1897-01-08
rALMAGE'S SERMON
INTEREST TING THEME IN TIN
uAsHINGTON PREACHER
Subject. "The Battle Against Sin"

= v - AAAN " ailHN NN arF hNA'. 49,
Of Jerusalem, the general % the besieging
army and the generals ufhesiegel Jerusalem
are IN consultation. Though General RAD
shaken had been largely paiu TO stop the
sie"e he Kept the money and continued the
slese-the military miscreant kab-shakeh
derides the capacity Of the city TO defend IT.
sell and practically says; You have not
tu0O men who can manage horses. froduce
200 cayalrymen. and will give you pres
ent OF ZOO cavalry horses. You have not IN
all your besieged city oi Jerusalem 2V1J
men VINO can mount them, and ny on and
birdie control horse Eab--hakeh re-
allied that IL Is easier 10 find horses than
sSiiliul riders, and hence he makes the chal-
lenge OF the text: Il will deliver thee 1000
horses IL thou be able to set riders upon
them"
Rab-shaSeh, like many another bad man,
said very suggestive thing. The world Is
iull oi great energies and great opportnni-
ties, but few know how TO bride them and
mount them aud manage them. More Spir-
tied horses than competent riders! The fact
is that in the church of God we have plenty
Of fortreSses well manned and plenty OF
heavy artillery and plenty Of solid columns
OF brave Christian s0ldiery, but what we
most need is cavalry-mounted troops Of
GOd-tor sudden charge that seems almost
desperate. If Washington, if New York. il
London, are ever taken for God. II will not
be by slow bombariment of augmentation
or by regular Numbering OF great theO-
logical guns from the portfolios OF the
churches, but by gallop of sudden assault
and rush OF holy energy thai will astound
and throw into panic the long lines of drilled
opposition armed to the teeth. Nothing so
scares the forces of sin as a revival that
comes they know not whence, to do that
which they cannot tell. to work in way
that they cannot understand. They will be
overcome 10y flank movement. The church
Of God must double up their right or left
wing. II they expect us from the North, we
will take them from the South. II they eX-
pect us at IL o'clock at noon. we will come
upon them at u O'Clock ut night. The Op.
portunities Tor this assault are great aud
numerous, but where are the men? al will
deliver thee 2OU0 horses ii 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, neverso tremendous as now.
( Have you not noticed the willingness Of the
| printing press of the cOuntrytO give the sub
| ject of evangelism full swing in column 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
| engaged in the worlds evangeli2ation. OF
| the more than 1900 newspapers on this con-
| tinont do not know one that is not alert to
catch and distribute all matters of religious
information. Oh, now see mighty sug-
/ gestiyeness in the fact that the first book of
any importance that was ever published after
Johann Gutenberg invented the art of print
ing was the Bible. Well might that poor
! man toll on, polishing stones and manulac-
turing looking glasses and making expert
| 70 tbnt ht 81 ,1, 80
| insanity and borrowing money, now from
! Martin Brother and now from Johann Faust,
until he set on foot the mightest power for
the eYangeliZatiOn of the world. The statue
| in bronze which ThOrwaldsen erected for
Gutenberg in 1897 and the statue commence
rating him by David Dangers in 1910 and
unveiled amid all the pomp that military
| 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 re-
dempton.
The newspaper press will yet announce
Nations born in a day. The newspaper press
will report Christ's sermons yet to DO de-
livered and describe His personal appear
ance, if, as some think, He shall come again
to reign on earth. The newspaper press may
yet publish Christ's proclamation 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 Al
mighty, the newspaper presses are being or
dained for preaching the Gospel with wider
sweep and miGhter 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
themt II will deliver thee 1000 horses II
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 right appreciation of what is the
Importance of the cavalry service in battle.
You hear the chatter of the hoofs and the
whr Of the arrows and the clash Of the
shields and the bang of the combines rs they
ride up and down the centuries. Clear back
in time Osymandyas led 10000 mounted
troops in Bactriana. Josephus says that when
the Israelites escaped from Egypt $4,000
cavalrymen rods through the parted Red
Sea. Three hundred and seventy-one years
before Christ Epaminondas headed his troops
at full gallop. Alexander, on a horse that
no other man could ride, led his mounted
troops Seven thousand horsemen decided
the struggle at Arbela.
Although saddles were not invented until
the time of Constantine and strrups were
unknown until about $50 years after Christ,
you hear the neighing and snorting of war
chargers in the greatest battles Of the ages.
Austertz and Marengo and Solferino were
decided by the cavalry. The mounted Cos
sacks REINFORCED the Russian snowstorms in
the obiteration of the French army. Napo-
leon said if he had only had sufficient cav
airy at Baut2en and Lutzen his wars would
have ;rumphantly ended. do not wonder
that the Duke of Wellington had his old war
horse Copenhagen turned out in best pasture,
and that the Duchess of Wellington wore a
bracelet of Copenhagen hair. Not one drop
OF my blood but tlngles as | look at the
arched neck and paving hoof and painting
nostril of Jobs cavalry horse. "Hast thou
clothed his neck with thunder? He paweth
in the valley; he goeth on to meet the armed
men. The culver against him, the glittering
spear and the shield. He saith among the
trumpets, Ha. ha! and he smelleth the battle
afar off. the thunder of the captains and the
shouting"
l think it is the cavalry of the Christian
hosts. the grand men and women who. with
bold dash and holy recklessness and spurred
on energies, are to take the world for God.
To this army of Christian service be-
long the evangelists. 1t ought to be the
business of the regular churches to multiply
them, to support them, to cheer them, to
clear the way for them. Some of them you
like; some of them you do not like. You say
some are too sensational, and some of them
are not enough learned, and some of them
are erratic, and some of them are too vehe-
ment, and some of them pray too loud.
oh, fold up your criticism and let them do
that which we, the pastors, can never do.
l like all the evangelists have ever seen
or heard. They are busy now; they are busy
every day of the week. While we, the pastors,
serve God by holding the fortress of right
eousness and drilling the Christian soldiery
and by marshaling anthems and sermons and
ordinances on the right side, they are out
fighting the forces of darkness chip and
thigh, with great slaughter All success to