The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-11-11

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would not think nine years of prepare
tion were too much. An uneducated
ministry was excusable in other days,
but not in this time, loaded with schools
and colleges Many years ago DR.
Newman and DIR. Sunderland on the
platform of Brigham Young's taber-
nacle at salt Lake City, Utah, gained
the victory because they had so long
been skillful wrestlers for God.
Otherwise Brigham Young, who was
himself n 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.
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 1t 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 go with n 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 thought
unexpended, or a prayer unsaid, or a
sympathy unwept In this struggle
between right and wrong accept no
challenge on platform or in newspaper
unless you are prepared. Do not mis-
apply the story of Goliah the Great,
and David the Little. David had been
practicing with sling on dogs and
wolves and bandits, and a thousand
times had he swirled a stone around
his head before he aimed at the fore
head of the giant and tumbled him
backward. Otherwise the big foot of
Goliath would almost have covered up
the crushed form of the son of Jesse.
Notice also that the success of
wrestler depended on his having his
feet well planted before he grappled
his opponent. Much depends upon
the way the wrestler stands. Stand
ing on an uncertain piece of ground,
or bearing all his weight on right foot
or all his weight on left foot, he is not
will capsize him. A stroke of the heel
of the other wrestler will trip him.
And in this struggle 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 allegory, and the
Epistle Of James an interpolation, and
that the miracles of Christ can be ac-
counted for on natural grounds, with
out any belief in the supernatural, and
the first time you are interlocked
in wrestle with sin and satan
you will go under and your feet will
be higher than your head. 1t will not
do to have one foot on a rock and the
other on the sand. The old book would
long ago have gone to pieces IL it had
been vulnerable. But of the millions
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
edition. Alas! for those who while
trying to prove that Jonah was never
swallowed of whale, themselves get
swallowed of the whale of unbelief,
which digests but never elects its vic
Tins. The inspiration Of the Bible is
not more certain than the preservation
of the Bible in its present condition.
Oh, keep out of this wrestling bout
with the ignorance and the wretched.
ness of the world unless you feel that
both feet are planted in the eternal
veracities of the Book of Almighty
God!
Notice also that in this science of
wrestling, to which Paul refers in my
text, it was the third throw that de-
cided the contest. A wrestler might
be thrown once and thrown twice, but
the third time he might recover him
self and, by an unexpected twist of
arm or curve of foot, gain the day.
Well, that is broad, smiling, unmistak.
able gospel. Some whom / address
through ear or eye, by voice or printed
page, have been thrown in their wres.
tie with evil habit. Aye! you have been
thrown twice; but that does not mean,
oh! worsted soul, that you are thrown
forever | have no authority for say
ing how many times a man may
sin and be forgiven, or how many
times he may fall and yet rise again;
but | have authority for saying that
he may fall 400 times and 400 times get
up The Bible declares that God will
forgive seventy times seven, and if you
will employ the rule of multiplication
you will find that seventy times seven
is 400. Blessed be God for such u
gospel of high hope and thrilling en-
couragement and magnificent rescued
A gospel of lost sheep brought home
on a shepherds shoulder, and the
prodigals who got into the low work
of putting husks into swine's troughs
brought home to jewelry and banquet
ing and hilarity that made the rafters
ring.
But notice that my text suggests
that the wrestlers on the other side in
the great struggle for the worlds re.
demption have all the forces OF demon
olOgy to help them: ave write not
| AGAINST flesh and blood lint auain AZ