Connecticut western news., 1900-02-08

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 Copyright. Louis klopsch, ls0o.l
 WAsHINGroN, Feb. 4.-In this dis rourse Dr. Talmage shows how the cause of righteousness has lost many of It's weapons and how they are to be recaptured and put into effective operation: text, l Samuel Xiii, 1921: Now there was no smith found throughout all the land If Israel, for the philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears But all the ISraelites went down to the philiS- tines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter. and his ax, and his mattock. Yet they had a file for the mattock. and for the coulters, and for sharpen the goads."
 What galling subjugation for the tsraelites! The Philistines had carried 0n all the blacksmiths and torn down all the blacksmiths' shops and abolish ed the blacksmiths' trade in the land of Israel. The Philistines would not even allow these parties to work their valuable mines of brass and iron, nor might they make any swords or spears. the land. Yea, these Philistines went on until they had taken all the grind stones from the land of Israel, so that If an Israelitish farmer wanted to sharpen his blow or his ax he had to go over to the garrison of the Philistines to get, 1t done. There was only one sharpening instrument left in the land, and that was a file, the farmers and mechanics having nothing to whet up ax save . simple file. Industry was hindered and work practically dis graced. The great idea of these Philis- tines was to keep the Israelites disarm- ed. They might get iron out of the hills to make swords of, but they would not have any blacksmiths to weld this iron. If they got the iron welded, they would have no grind stones on which to bring the instru- weapons up to an edge.
 Oh, you poor. weaponless Israelites, reduced to Q file. how pity you! But these Philistines were not forever to keep their heel on the neck of Gods children. Jonathan, on his hands and knees, climbs up a great rock, beyond which were the Philistines, and his armor bearer, on his hands and knees, climbs up the same rock, and these two men, with their two swords, hew to pieces the Philistines, the Lord throwing a great terror upon them. So 1t was then; so 1t Is now. Two men of God on their knees mightier than Philistine host on their feet.
 Dangerous For the Church..
 learn, first, from this subject that 1t is dangerous for the church of God to allow it's weapons to stay in the hands of It's enemies. These Israelites might again and again have obtained . supply of swords and weapons-as, for instance. when they took the spells of the Ammonites-but these Israelites seemed content to have no swords, no spears, no blacksmiths, no grindstones, no active Iron mines, until it was too late for them to make any resistance. I see, the farmers. tugging along with their .pickaxes and blow, and I say, Where are you going with those thingsf" They say, 'Oh, we are going over to the garrison of the Philistines to get these things sharpened" I say: ''YOu foolish men! Why don't you sharpen them at homer "Oh," they say, ''the blacksmiths' shops are all torn, down. and we have nothing left US hut . filer'
 So 1t is in the church of Jesus Christ today. We are too willing to give up our weapons to the enemy. The world boasts that 1t has gobbled up the schools, and the colleges, and the arts, and the sciences. and the literature, and the printing press. Infidelity is making a mighty attempt to get all our weapons in its hand and then to keep them. You know it Is making this boast all the time, and after awhile, when the great battle between sin and righteousness has opened, if we do not look out we will be as badly off as these Israelites, without any swords to fight with and without any sharpening instruments. I call upon the superin- tendents of literary institutions to see to It that the men who go into the classrooms to stand beside the Leyden jars, and the electric batteries, and the microscopes and telescopes. be chil- dren of God, not Philistines.
 The Tyndallean thinkers of our times are trying to get all the intellectual weapons in their own grasp. We want scientific Christians to capture the sci ence, and scholastic Christians to cap ture the scholarship, and philosophiC Christians to capture the philosophy and featuring Christians to take back the featuring platform. We want to send out against Schenkel and Strauss and Renan a Theodore Christlieb of Bonn and against the infdel scientists of the, day God worshiping Sillimar and Hitchcock and Agassiz. We want to capture all the philosophical appa ratus and swing around the telescopes on the swivel until through them we can see the morning star of the Re deemer and with meteorological ham mer discover the Rock of Ages, ant amid the flora of all realms find tho Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Val ley. We want some one able to ex pound the first chapter of Genesis bring to it the geology and the astron omy of the world. until, as Job sug gested, ''the stones of the field shall b. in league" with the truth and the star in their course shall fight against Sis era. Oh, church of God, go out ant recapture these weapons!
 Let men of God go out and take pos session of the platform. Let any print ing presses that have been captured b. the enemy be recaptured for God, and the reporters, and the typesetters, and the editors, and the publishers swear allegiance to the Lord God of truth An. my friend, that day must come and if the great body of Christian meI have not the faith or the courage ol