The Progress., 1898-04-02

| able to ENQUIRE Ill stress OF weather,
yet swinging idly at the docks, when
| these men ought to be crossing and
and recrossing the great ocean of hu-
man suffering of sin with Gods sup
| plies of mercy. How often it is that
physical strength is used in doing pos
| tive 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 sunxen wreck of 3
world.
It is q most shameless fact that much
of the business of the church and of
the world must be done by those COM
paratively invalid. Richard Baxter,
by reason 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 we'll day, yet how he
preached. and how he wrote, helping
thousands of dying souls like himself
to ''swim in sea of gloryw And Rob-
ert McCheyne, a walking skeleton, yet
you know what he did in Dundee, and
how he shook Scotland with zeal for
God. Philip Doddridge, 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.
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
ness--achievements of patience, achieve
ments of Christian endurance call
upon men of health to-day, men of
muscle, men of nerve, men of physical
power, to devote themselves to the
Lord. Giants in body, you ought to
be giants in soul.
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 n great deal of |
his time in doing evil-this Samson of !
my text. To pay bet which he had |
lost by guessing of his riddle he robs |
and kills thirty people. He was 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 their
strength for Ubiquitous purposes.
It is not the small, weak men of the
day who do the damage. These small
men who go swearing and loafing
about your stores and shops and bank
ing houses, assailing Christ and the BIZ
bic End the church-they do not do the
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
power, or giants in mental
acumen, Or giants in social position, or
giants in wealth, who do the damage.
The men with sharp pens that stab re-
li2ion and throw their poison all
through our iterature; the men who
use the power of wealth to sanction
iniquity, and 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 in Paris and
Edinburgh and London who hated | ,
God and hlasnhQmad tho a.