The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-11-15
Vwere put upon such diet as would


MISUNDERSTANDING, gymnastics, strug- .
in sport with each other to develop |
strength and give q~uickness to dodge |
Of head and trip Of foot; STOPPING to |
each other off the ground; sudden
~ rushing forward; suddenly pulling
backward: putting the left foot behind
the others right foot and getting his
opponent off his balance; hard training
days and weeks and months so that
they met ii was giant clutching
giant. All, my friends, If We do not
want ourselves to be thrown in this
wrestle with the sin and error OF the
world, we had better get ready by
Christian principle, by holy self de-
nial. by constant practice, by submit
ting 10 divine supervisa1 and direction.
Do not begrudge the time and the
money for that young man who is in
preparation for the ministry, spending
two years in grammar school and four
wears in college and three years in
theological seminary. l know that nine
years are q big slice to take off of a
mans active life, but if you realized
the height and strength of the arch
angels Of evil in our time with which
that young man is going to wrestle.
you would not think nine years of pre-
paration were too much. An uneduca-
ted ministry was excusable in otner
days, but not in this time, loaded with
schools and colleges. A man who wrote
the other day a letter asking ad-
vice, as he felt called to preach the
gospel, began the word God" with a
small ''g." That kind of a man is not
called to preach the gospel. Illiterate
men, preaching the gospel. quote for
their own announcement the Scriptur-
al passage, open thy mouth wide and
/ fill it," Yes, 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. Other
wise Bringham Young, who was him.
self a giant in some things, woul 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 a Bagster's
Bible with flaps at the edges under
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
S1Att yCN i4"N ~ Soy SAA"S ~
going to fit you for the struggle into
which you are to go with a smile on
face and Illumination on your
brow, but out of which you will not
until all your physical and men
tai and moral and religious energies
been taxed to the utmost and you
have not a nerve left, or a thought I'M
expended, or a prayer unsaid, or a SYM
pathy unwep In this struggle be-
tween right and wrong accept no chal-
on the platform or in newspaper
unless you are prepared. Do not mis-
apply the story of Goliath the great,
and David the little. David had been
practicing with a sling on dogs and
wolves and bandits, and 200 times had
he swirled a stone around his head be-
fore he aimed at the forehead of the
otherwise the big foot of Goliath would
AVE covered up the crushed
form of the son of Jesse.
Notice also that the success of a
depended on his having his
feet we'll planted before he grappled
his opponent. Much depends upon the
the wrestler stands. Standing on
an uncertain piece of ground or bear
all his weight on right foot or all
his weight on left foot. he is not ready.
. slight cuff of his antagonist will cap
size him. A stroke of the heel of the
other wrestler will trip him And in
this struggle for God and righteous
ness, as well as for our own souls, we
our feet firmly planted in the
g~ospel-both feet on the Rock Of Ages.
1t will not do to believe the Bible in
spots, or think some of it true and some
of it untrue. You just make up your
mind that the story of the garden of
Eden is an allegory, and the epistle of
James an Interpolation, and that the
of Christ can be accounted
for on natural grounds, without any
belief in the supernatural, and the first
time you are interlOcked in a wrestle
with sin and satan you will go under
and your feet will be higher than your
head. 1t will not do to nave one foot
on a rock and the other on the sand.
The old ook would long ago have one
to pieces if it had been vulnerable.
But if the millions of Bibles nat IA
been printed within the last twenty
five years not one chapter has been
omitted, and the omission of chap
ter would have been the cause of the
rejection of the whole edition.
Alas for those who, while trying to
prove that Jonah was swallowed
of a whale, themselves get swallowed
of the whale of unbelief, which digests,
but never elects it's victims. The in
SEPARATION of the Bible is not more GER
tain than the preservation of the Bible
in it's present condition. After SO
many centuries of assault on the book
would it not be a matter of economy,
to say the least-economy of brain and
economy of stationery and economy of
printers ink-if the batteries now as
sailing hi boo would change their
aim and be trained against some other
books, and the world shown that Wal
ter Scott did not write THE Lady of
the Lake" nor Homer THE Had nor
Virgil The Georgics," nor Thomas
Moore "Lalla Rookh,' or thai WASH
ington's farewell address was written
by Thomas Paine. and that the war of
the American Revolution never occur
red. That attempt would be quite as
successful as this long timed .ttack
anti-Biblical. and then it would ,e new.
Oh. keep out of this wrestling bout
with the ignorance and the wretched-
ness of the world unless you feel thu
both feet are planted in the eternal
veracities of the book of Almighty
God,
THE FALLEN MAY RISE.
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