Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-11-11

will leave all perdition under and all
heaven on top.
Strength From Discipline.
Remember also that these wrestlers
went through severe and continuous
course of preparation for their work.
They were put upon such diet as would
best develop their muscle AS Paul
says, Every nan that striveth for the
mastery is temperate in all things.
The wrestlers were put under complete
discipline-bathing, gymnastics, strug
gle in sport with each other to develop
strength and give quickncss to dodge of
head and trip Of foot; STOPPING to lift
each other off the ground; suddenly
rushing forw&ls suddenly pulling
backward; put,s%g the LETT foot behind
the others right foot and getting his
opponent off his balance; hard training
for days and weeks and months so that
when they met it was giant clutching
giant And, my friends, if we do not
want ourselves 10 be thrown IN this
wrestle with the sin and error Of the
world, we had better get ready by
Christian discipline, by holy self de-
NAL, by constant practice, by submit
ting to divine supervisal and direction
Do not begrudge the time aud the money
for that young man who is in prepara-
tion for the ministry, spending two
wears in grammar school and four years
in college and three years in theological
seminary know that nine years are
big slice to take off Of mans active
life. but if you realized the height and
strength of the archangels Of evil in
our time with which that young man is
going to wrestle, you would not think
nine years of preparation were too
much. An uneducated ministry was ex-
cusable in other days but rot in this
time loaded with schools and colleges.
A man who wrote me the other day
letter asking advice. as he felt called to
preach the gospel, began the word
"God" with small "g." That kind
Of a man is not called to preach the
gospel. Illiterate men. preaching the
gospel, quote for their own encourage
ment the Scriptural passage, "Open thy
mouth wide and | fill it," Yesl He
will fill it with wind Preparation for
this wrestling is absolutely necessary.
Many years ago DR.. Newman and DR..
Sunderland, on the platform Of Brigham
Young's tabernacle at Salt Lake City
gained the victory because they had so
long been skillful wrestlers for God.
Otherwise Brigham Young, who was
himself a giant in some things, would
have thrown them out Of the window
Get ready in Bible classes. Get ready
in Christian EndeavOr meetings Get
ready by giving testimony in obscure
places, before giving testimony in con-
spicuous places.
The silent Worker.
Your going around with Bagster's
Bible with flaps at the edges under
your arm does not qualify you for the
work of an evangelist In this day Of
profuse CAB remember that it is not
merely capacity TO talk, but the fact
that you have something to say that is
going to fit you for the struggle into
which you are to 20 with smile on
your face and illumination on your
brow, but out Of which you will not
come until.all your physical and mem
tai and moral and religious energies
have been taxed 20 tire utmost and you
have not a nerve left. or thought un-
expended, or a prayer unsaid, or a sym
pathy unwept Ii this struggle between
right and wrong accept no challenge on
platform or in newspaper unless You are
prepared Do not misapply the story OF
Goliath the great, and David the lit
tie. David had been practicing with
sling on dogs and wolves and bandits,
and | 900 times had he swirled a stone
around his head before he aimed at the
forehead Of the giant and tumbled him
backward, otherwise the biz foot Of Go
Hath would almost have covered up the
crushed form Of the son OF Jesse.
Notice also that the success OF a
wrestler depended on his having his
feet well planted before he grappled
his opponent. Much depends upon the
way the wrestler stands Standing on
an uncertain piece of ground OF bearing
all his weight OH right foot or all his
weight on left foot. he Is not ready A
slight cuff of his antagonist Will capsize
him A stroke OF the heel 0i the other
wrestler will trip him And IN this
struggle for God and Righteousness a.
well as tor our own souls. we want om
feet firmly planted IN the go.pcl-both
feet on the Rock Of Ages Il vill nC'
do tq believe the Blble IN spots, or tllnh
some of it true and some ot It unuue
You Just make up your mind that the
story of the garden oI Eden Is an al
legory, and the epistle Of James an III
teruolation, and that the miracles oi
Christ can be accounted tor on natural
grounds. without any belief III tue su-
pernatural, and the first time you are
ipterlocked IN a wrestle with sin ana
satan you will 90 under and your teet
will be higher than your head. IL VIII
not do to have one foot on rock ana
the other on the sand The old book
would long ago have gone TO pieces II
it had been vulnerable But OF the mil
lions of Bibles that have been printed
within the last 25 years not one chap
ter has been omitted, and the omission
of one chapter would have been the
cause of the rejection of the whole edi-
tion
Alas for those who, while trying to
prove that Jonah was never swallowed
of a whale. themselves get swallowed OF
the whale OF unbeief, which dlgests,
but never elects its victims. The inspi-
ration of the Bible is not more certain
than the preservation of the Bible in It's
pressNt condition After so many cen
turies of assault on the beck would u
not be matter Of economy, to say the
least-economy of brain and economy OF
stationery and economy Of printers lax
If the batteries now aseailing the book
would change their aim and be trained
AGAINST some other books, and the world
shown that Walter Scott did not write
1.-THE Lady Of the Lake" nor Homer