Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-11-11
THE POWER TO FIGHT
Or. TALMAGE TELLS HOW TO WREC-
TILE WITH EVIL.

We Must he Trained For the Strug-
gle - silence ana Discipline - One
Fall Is Not the End-The Strength
That Comes From God.
( Copyright 1893 by American Press Asso-
ciationl
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6.-In this dis
course DR.. Talmage selects one Of the
boldest figures of the Bible to present
most practical and encouraging truths
text Ephesians vi II, 1--WE wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against
principalities. against powera against
the rulers Of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high
places.
Squeamishness and fastidiousness
were never charged against Paul's rhet-
oric In the war against evil he took
the first weapon he could lay his hand
on For illustration, he employed the
theater, the arena, the foot race, and
there was nothing in the Isthmian game.
with its wreath of pine leaves, or Pyth-
ian game, with its wreath of laurel
and palm, or Nemean game, with its
wreath Of parsley, or any Roman circus,
but he felt he had a right to put it in
sermon or epistle, and are you not sur
prised that in my text he calls upon a
wrestling bout for suggestivenessf
Plutarch says that w1estlingis the most
artistic and cunning Of athletic games
We must make a wide difference be-
tween pugilism, the lowest Of spectacles,
and wrestling, which is an effort in
sport 20 put down another on floor or
ground, and we, all Of u, INDUCED in
it in our boyhood days if we were
healthful and plUchy. 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 hun
cry panther on the breast Of fallen
martyr
In wrestling the opponents would
bow in apparent suayity, advance face
to face. put down both feet solidly, take
each other by the arms iaI push each
other backward and forward until the
work began in real earnest, and there
were contortions and ,lngulatious and
violent strokes Of the foot of one con
testant against the foot Of the other
tripping him up, or, with struggle that
threatened apoplexy or death, the de-
feated fell, and the shouts Of the spec
tators greeted the victor guess Paul
had seen some such contest, and it re
minded him of the struggle Of the soul
with temptation, and the struggle OF
heavenly forces against Apollyonic pow
ers. and he dictates my text to an
amanuensis, for all his letters, save the
one to Philemon, seem to have been die
tated, and as the amanuenSis goes on
with his work / hear the groan and
laugh and shout Of earthly and celestial
belligerents, I'VE wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principali-
ties, against powers, against the rulers
Of the darkness Of this world, against
spiritual wickednessin high places. "
The Amenities of Life.
| notice that as these wrestlers ad-
vanced to throw each other they bowed
one to the other Ii was "A ciyility, 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 between
men of Westminster and people Of Lon
don. However rough a twist and bard
pull each wrestler contemplated giving
his opponent, they approached each oth-
or with politeness and suayity The
genufexions, the atTability, the courtesy
IN no wish hindered the decisiveness OF
the contest. Well, Paul, see what you
mean In this awful struggle between
right and wrong we must not forget to
be gentlemen aud ladies Ahability new
er hinders, but always helps. You are
powerless as soon as you get mad. DO
not call rumsellers murderers. Do not
call infdels fools Do not call higher
critics reprobates Do not call all card
plavers and theater goers children Of the
devil Do not say that the dance breaks
through into hell Do not deal in vitu-
peration and billingsgate and contempt
]
side can beat us at that. Their dictlon-
aries have more objurgation and brim-
stone.
We are in the strength Of God to
throw fat on its back every abomina-
tion that curses the earth. but let us
approach our mighty antagonist with
suavity Hercules, son of Jupiter and
Alcmena, will by precursor Of smiles
be helped rather than damaged for the
performance of his "l2 labors Let us
be as wisely strategic in religious cir
cles as attorneys in cOurtTOoms, who are
complimentary to each other III the
opening remarks, before they come into
legal struggle such as that which left
Rufus Choate or David Paul Brown
triumphant or defeated People who get
into rage in reformatory work accom-
plish nothing but the depletion OF their
own nervous system There is such a
thing as having a gun SO hot at the
touchhole that it explodes, killing the
one that sets it of There are some re-
formatory meetings to which l always
decline TO go and take part, because
they are apt 60 become demonstrations
of bad temper never like to hear
man swear, even though he swear on
the right side The very Paul who in
my text employed IN illustration the
wrestling match, behaved on a memora-
bic occasion as we ought to behave. The
translators Of the Bible made an unin-
territorial mistake when they represent
ed Paul as insulting the people OF Ath-
ems by speaking Of 1.-THE unknown goa
whom We ignorantly worship " Instead
Of charging them with ignorance the
original indicates he complimented
them by suggesting that they were very
religious. out as they confessed that
there were some things they did not un'
Il Na..n