Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-03-01
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE By THE NOTED
DIVINE.

Subject: A Warning Sounded-The Talent
veloped and Its Energy Dormant
The Enemy Profits by This.
Copyright 1901
WAsHINGToN, D. Gin this discourse DR.
Tamuge shows how the cause OF right
eonsness has lost many or its weapons and
how they are to be recnptured and put into
effective operations; text, 1. Samuel Kill,
1921: ''Now there WAS no smith found
throughout all the land OF Israel, for the
Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make
them swords or spears. But all the Israel
ties went down to the Philistines, to
sharpen every man his share, and his coul-
ter, and his AK, and his mattock. Yet they
had file for the mattock and for the coul-
tiers, and for the forks, and Tor the axes,
and to sharpen the goHds.''
What CALLING subjugation for the Is
raelltes! The Philistines had carried off all
the blacksmiths and torn down oil the
blacksmiths' shops and abolished the black
smiths trade il the land of Israel. The
Philistines would not even allow these par
ties to work their valuable minss of brass
and iron, nor mightthey make any swords
or spears. There were only two swords
left in all the land. Yea, these Philistiues
went on until they had taken all the grind
stones from the land of Israel, so that IL an
IsraeIitish farmer wanted to sharpen his
garrison OF the Philistines to get 1t DONE
There was only one sharpening instrument
left in the land, and that was IL file, the
farmers and mechanics having nothing to
whet up the coulter and tho goad and the
| pickax save u simple file. Industry was
liinde red and work practically disgraced.
! Tho great idea Of these Philistnes was to
keep the Israelltes disarined, They might
get iron out of the hills to make swords of,
but they would not have any blacksmiths
to weld this iron. IT they got the iron
welded, they would have no grndstones
| on which TO bring the instruments OF agri-
culture or the military weapons up to an
! edge.
! Oh, you poor, weaponless Israelites. re-
| dueed to file, how pity you But these
! Philistines were not forever to keep their
! heel on the neck of Gods children. Jona-
than, on his hands and knees, climbs up
| n great rock, beyond which were the Phil-
| istines, and his armor bearer, on his hands
| and knees, climts up tho same rock, and
these two men, with their two swords, hew
to pieces the Philistines, the Lord throw
| ing a great terror upon them. SO it was
! then; so 1t is now. Two men of God on
their knees mightler than IL Philisline host
! on their feet!
! learn, first, from this subject that it is
| dangerous for the church of God to allow
| its weapons to stay in the hands of its enc
mics. These Israelites might again and
!
and weapons-as, for instance, when they
took the spoils of the Ammonites--b but
| these Israelites seemed content to have no
| swords, 10 spears. no blacksmiths, no
! grindstones, no active iron mines, un-
| til 1t was too late for them to make any re-
| sistnnce. l see the farmers tugging along
| with their pickaXes and plow, and saw.
where are you going with those things?'
/ They say, "Oh, we are going over to the
garrison of the Philistines to get these
things sharpened! ] say, ''You foolish
menl Why don't you sharpen them ut
homer" Oh they say, "the black
smiths shops are all torn down, and we
have nothing left us but II hle!''
| SO it is in the church Of Jesus Christ to-
! day. We nre too willing TO give up our
| weapons to the enemy. The world boasts
I that it has gobbled up the schools, and the
colleges, and the arts, and the sciences,
| and the literature, and the printing press.
lniidelity is making a mighty attempt to
| get ali 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 righteous
ness has opened If we do not look out we
| Will be aS badly oil as these Isrueitts,
without any swords to light with and with.
out any sharpening instruments. / call
| upon the SuperintendeDtS OF literary insti-
| tutions to see to it that the men who go in
| tc the c.assrooms to stand beside the Ley
den jars, and the electric batteries, and the
! microscopes and telescopes, be children oil
God not Phillstines.
The Tyndailean thinkers OF our times
are trying to get all the intellectual
weapons in their own grasp. We want
| scientific Christians to capture the science,
| and scholastic Christians to capture the
scholarship, and philosophc Christians to
| capture philosophy, and lecturing Chris
tians to take back the lecturing platform.
| We want to send out against Schenkel and
Strauss and Renan Theodore Christieb
OF Bonn and against the infldel scientists
OF the day u God -worshiping Silliman and
Hitchcock and Agassiz. We want to cap
ture all the philosophical apparatus and
swing around the telescopes on the swivel
| until through them We can see the morn
ing star Of the Redeemer, and with miner
! illogical hammer discover the Rock of
| Ages, and amid the flora OF all realms find
the Rose OF Sharon and the Lilly of the
| Valley. We want some one able to ex-
! pound the first chapter Of Genesis, bring to
1t the geology and the astronomy of the
world, until, AS Job suggested, 1.-The stones
Of the field shall be in league" with the
| truth and the stars in their course shall
fight against Sisera. Oh, church OF God,
! go out and recapture these weapons!
let men OF God go out and take possess
! sion of the platform. Let any printing
presses that have been captured by the
enemy be recaptured for God, and the re-
| porters, and the typesetters, and the ed
itors, and the publishers swear all al
legiance to tie Lord God OF truth. All, my
friend, that day must come, and II the
great body of Christian men have not the
faith or courage or the conservation to do
| it, then let some Jonathan on his busy
hands and on his praying knees climb up
on the rock of hindrance and in the name
OF the Lord God of Israel, slash to pieces
| those literary Philistines. If these men
| will not be converted TO God, then they
must be overthrown.
| ufAgain, learn from this subject what n
| large amount of the church's resources is
actually hidden and buried and undevel-
| oped. The Bible intimates that that was n
very rich land, this land of Israel. Il
says, ''The stones are iron, and out of the
| hills thou shalt dig brass" and yet hun
dreds and thousands of dollars worth Of
| this metal was kept under the hills. Well
| that is the difficulty with the church of
1 God at this day. Its talent is not devel-
| oped. Ii one-half of its energy could be
brought out, it might take the public iu-
| EQUITIES OF the day by the throat and make
them bite the dust. III human eloquence
we're consecrnted to the Lord Jesus Christ,
| it would in a few years persuade tho whole
| n. .t.aH % H@1