The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1898-11-11
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
THE WRESTLERS THE SUBJECT
SUNDAY.
we Wrestle Not Against Flesh and
Blood but Against PrincipaIities,
Against Powers, Against the Rulers
of Darkness"

Squeamishness and fastidiousness
were never charged against Paul's
rhetoric. In the war against evil he
took the first weapon he could lay his
hand on. For illustration, he en-
ployed the theater, the arena, the foot
race, and there was nothing in the
lsthmian game, with its wreath of
pine leaves; or Pythian game, with its
wreath of laurel and palm; or Nemean
game, with it's wreath of parsley; or
any Roman circus, but he felt he had
right to put it in sermon or epistle,
ana are you not surprised that in my
text he calls upon a wrestling bout
Tor suggestiveness? Plutarch says
that wrestling is the most artistic and
cunning of athletic games. We must
make a wide difference between pugil-
Ism, the lowest Of spectacles, and
wrestling, which is an effort in sport
to put down another on floor or ground,
and we, all of US, INDUCED in 1t in
our poyhood days, if we were health
ful and plucky. The ancient wrestlers
were first bathed in oil, and then
sprinkled with sand. The third throw
decided the victory, and many a man
who went down in the first throw or
second throw, In the third throw was
on top, and his opponent under The
Romans did not like this game very
much, for it was not savage enough,
no blows or kicks being allowed in the
game. They preferred the foot of
hungry panther on the breast of fallen
martyr.
In wrestling, the opponents would
bow in apparent suavity, advance face
to face, put down both feet solidly,
take each other by the arms, and push
each other backward and forward I'M
til the work began in real earnest, and
there were contortions and strangula-
lions and violent strokes of the foot
of one contestant against the foot of
the other, tripping him up, or with
struggle that threatened apoplexy or
death, the defeated fell, and the shouts
of the spectators greeted the victor. I
guess Paul had seen some such con-
test, and it reminded him of the strug-
gle of the soul with temptation, and
the struggle of truth with error, and
the struggle of heavenly forces against
apollyonic powers, and he dictates my
text to an amanuensis, for all his let
tiers, save the one to Philemon, seem
to have been dictated, and as the
amanuensis goes on with his work l
hear the groan and laugh and shout
of earthly and celestial belligerents:
1--WE wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of
the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places"
I notice that as these wrestlers ad
vanced to throw each other they bowed
one to the other. 1t was a civility, not
only in Grecian and Roman games, but
in later day, in all the wrestling bouts
at Clerkenwell, England, and in the ia
nous wrestling match during the reign
OF Henry Ill, in st. Giles Field, be-
tween men of Westminster and people
of London. However rough a twist
and hard pull each wrestler contem-
plated giving his opponent, they ap-
preached each other with politeness
and suavity. The genuf1exions, the af-
liability, the courtesy in no wise him
dered the decisiveness of the contest.
Well, Paul, I see what you mean. In
this awful struggle between right and
wrong, we must not forget to be gen
tlemen and ladies.
We are in the strength of God to
throw fiat on its back every abomina-
ton that curses the earth, but let us
approach our mighty antagonist with
suavity. Hercules, son of Jupiter and
Alemene, will by precursor Of smiles
be helped rather than damaged for the
performance of his twelve labors.
Let us be as wisely strategic in reli-
gious circles as attorneys in court-rooms,
who are complimentary to each other
in the opening remarks, before they
come into legal struggle such as that
which left Rufus Choate or David Paul
Brown triumphant or defeated. Peo-
pie who get INTO rage III relormd-
tory work accomplish nothing but the
depletion of their own nervous system.
There is such thing as having gun
so hot at the touch-hole that it ex-
plodes, killing the one that sets it off.
There are some reformatory meetings
to which l always decline to go and
take part, because they are apt to be-
come demonstrations of bad temper.
I never like to hear man swear, even
though he swear on the right side.
The very Paul who in my text en-
Moved in illustration the wrestling
match. behaved on a memorable occa-
sion as we ought to behave. The
translators of the Bible made an unin-
territorial mistake when they repre-
sented Paul as insulting the people of
Athens by speaking of "the unknown
god whom We ignorantly worship"
Instead of charming them with ig-
norance, the original indicates he com
plimented them by suggesting that
they were very religious; but IS they
confessed that there were some things
they did not understand. about God. he