The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1900-05-04

II tnat the men VINO go INTO the class-
rooms 10 stand beside the Leyden jars
and the electric batteries and the mi
croscopes and telescopes be children 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 lecturing Christians to take
back the lecturing platform. We
want TO send out against Schen-
kel and Strauss and Renan
Theodore Christlieb of Bonn and
against the infidel scientists of to-day
a God-worshiping Silliman and Hitch
cock 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 morning star Of the Redeemer and
with mineralogical hammer discover
the Rock Of Ages and amid the fora
Of al realms find the Rose Of Sharon
and the Lily of the Valley. We want
some one able TO expound the first
chapter of Genesis. bring to it the ge-
ology and the astronomy Of the world
until. as Job suggested, "the stones OF
the fields shall be in league" with the
truth. and the stars in their course
shall fight against Sisera. Oh, church
of God 20 out and recspture these
weaponsl
Let men of God 90 out and take pos
session OF the platform. Let any print
ing presses that have been captured
by the enemy be recaptured for God
and the reporters, and the typesetters,
and the editors, and the publishers
swear allegiance 10 the Lord God Of
truth. All, my friend, that day must
come, and il the great body of Chris
lian men have not the faith, or the
courage. or the conservation TO do il,
then let some jonathan on his busy
hands and on his praying knees climb
ND on the rock of Hindrance and in
the name Of the Lord God of Israel slash
to pieces these literary Philistines! If
these men will not be converted to God,
then they must be overthrown.
Again, l learn from the subject what
a large amount of the church's re-
sources is actually hidden and buried
and undeveloped The Bible intimates
that that was very rich land, this
land of Israel. 1t says: The stones
are iron. and out of the hills thou shalt
dig BRASS" and yet hundreds and thou
sands OF dollars worth of this metal
was kept under the hills. Well, this is
the difficulty with the church Of God
at this day. Its talent is not developed.
If one-half of its energy could be
brought out, it might take the public
iniquities of the day by the throat and
make them bite the dust. If human
eloquence were consecrated to the Lord
Jesus Christ. it would in few years
persuade this whole earth TO surrender
TO God. There is enough undeve,oped
energy in this city to bring all the
United States to Christ-enough OF un-
developed Christian energy in the Unit
ed States to bring the whole world to
Christ. but it is buried under strata
of Indifference and under whole noun
tains of sloth. Now, is it not time for
the mining TO begin, and the pickaxes
10 plunge. and for this buried metal to
be brought out and put into the fur
naces and be turned into howitzers and
carbines for the Lords host?
The vast majority of Christians in
this dav are useless. The most OF the
Lords battalion belong to the reserve
corps. The most of the crew are asleep
in the hammocks. The most of the
metal is under the hills. Oh, is II not
time for the church of God to rouse up
and understand that we want all the
energies. all the talent and all the
wealth enlisted for Christs sakeY l
like the nickname that the English sol
diers gave to Blucher the commander.
They called him "Old Forwards" We
have had enough retreats in the church
of Christ; let US have a glorious ad-
vance. And / say TO you as the general
said when his troops were affrighted-
rising up IN his stirrups. his hair flying
In the wind, he lifted up his voice until
10000 troops heard him crying out;
Forward. the whole line!" We want
all the laymen enlisted. Ministers are
numerically too small. They do the
best they can. They are the most over
worked class on earth. Many Of them
die of dyspepsia because they cannot
get the right kind Of food TO eat, or,
getting the right kind, are so worried
that they take it down in chunks. They
die from early and late exposure
If novelist or a historian publishes
one book q year. he js considered in