Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-11-07

| and who had noticed the bow preceding
the wrestling match, here exercises
suavities before he proceeds practically
to throw down the rocky side of the
Acropolis the whole Parthenon of idola-
tries, Minerva and Jupiter smashed up
with the rest Of them. In this holy war
polished rifles will do more execution
than blunderbusses. Let our wrestlers
bow as they go into the struggle which
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 man that striveth for the
mastery is temperate in ali things.
The wrestlers were put under complete
cipline-bathing gymnastics, strug
| gle in sport with each other to develop
strength and give quickness to dodge of
! head and trip Of foot; STOPPING to lift
each other off the ground; suddenly
rushing forward; suddenly pulling
backward; putting the left 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 to 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 and the money
for that young man who is in prepare
ton for the ministry, spending two
years 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 man S 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 te
preach the gospel began the word
Good with small ''g." That kind
Of man is not called to preach the
gospel. Iliterate men. preaching the
gospel, quote for their own encourage
ment the Scriptural passage, "Open thy
mouth wide and I 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.
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 ycu have something to say that is
going to fit you for the struggle into
which you are to 90 with a smile on
your face and illumination on your
brow, but out Of which you will not
come until all your physical and men,
tai and moral and religious energies
have been taxed to the utmost and you
have not a nerve left, Or a thought IN
expended, or a prayer unsaid, or a SYM
pathy unwept In 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 a
sling on dogs and wolves and bandits,
and 1000 times had he swirled stone
around his head before he aimed at the
forehead of the giant and tumbled him
backward otherwise the big foot of Co.
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 we'll planted before he grappled
his opponent Much depends upon the
way the wrestler stands. Standing on |
an uncertain piece of ground or bearing |
all his weight on right foot Or all his |
weight on left foot, he is not ready. A
slight cuff of his antagonist will capsize I
him. A stroke of the heel of the other
wrestler will trip him. And in this
for God and righteousness, as
well as for our own souls, we want our
feet firmly planted in the gospel-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 al
.egory, and the epistle of James an in
and that the miracles of
Christ can be accounted for on natural