The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1900-02-10
THE FIGHT ON SATAN
Dr.. Talmage Says We Have Lost
Many of the Weapons.
a Warning TO the Christian Church
20 Protect Itself Against the As
snuIts of Unrighteousness
and UnbeIief.
copyright. 1900. by Louis Klopsch.I

~
10 be recaptured and put into effective
operation: text, /. Samuel xiii, 1921:
snow there is no smith found through
out all the land Of Israel, for the Phlis.
tines said: Lest the Hebrews make
them swords or spears. But all the
Israelites went down to the Philistines
TO sharpen every man his share, and
his coulter, and his AK, and his mat.
took. Yet they had a file for the mat
took, and for the coulters, and for the
forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen
the goads."
4 What CALLING subjugation for the
Israelites! The Philistines had carried
off all the blacksmiths and torn down
all the biacksmiths' shops and abol-
ished the backsmiths' 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.
There were only two swords left in
all the land. Yea, these Philisines 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 plow or his AK he had to
go over TO the garrison of the Philis-
tines 10 get it 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 the coulter, and the goad, and the
pickaX, save single file. Industry was
hindered and work practically dis
graced. The great idea of these Philis-
tines was to keep the Israelites un-
armed. They might get iron out of
the hills TO make swords of, but they
would not have any blacksmirhs to
weld this iron. If they got the iron
welded, they would have no grindstones
on which TO bring the instruments of
agriculture or the military weapons up
to an edge.
Oh, you poor, weaponless Israelites,
reduced to file, how pity you! But
these Ph!listines were not forever to
keep their heel on the neck of Gods
children. Jonathan, on his hands and
knees, climbs up great rock, beyond
which were the Philistines, and his ar
NOR bearer, on his hands and knees,
climbs up the same rock, and these two
unen, with their own swords. hew TO
pieces the Philistines, the Lord throw
ing great terror upon them. So ii
was then; so it is now. Two men of
God on their knees mightier than a
Philistine host on their feet!
learn, first, from this subject, that
ii is dangerous for the church OF God
to allow its weapons to stay in the
hands Of its enemies. These lsraelites
might again and again have obtained
a supply of swords and weapons, as,
for instance, when they took the spells
of the Ammonites, but these 1sraelites
seemed content to have no swords,
no spears, no blacksmiths, no grind
stones, no active iron mines, until ii
was too late for them to make any re-
,sistance. / see the farmers tugging
along with their pickaxes and plow,
and | say: where are you going with
these things?" They say: "Oh, we
are going to the garrison of the Phil
istines 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 but file"
So 1t is in the church of Jesus Christ
to-day. We are too willing to give up
our weapons to the enemy. The world
boasts that it has gobbled up the
schools and colleges and the arts and
the sciences and the literature and the
printing press. Infidelity is making
mighty attempt to get all our weapons
in it's 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 off as these Israel
ties, without any sharpening instru-
ments. l call upon the superintend-
ents Of literary institutions to see to
il that the men who go into the class
rooms to stand beside the Leyden jars
and the electric batteries and the mi
croscopes and telescopes be children of
God, not Philstines.
The Tyndallean thinkers of our times
are trying to get all the intellectual
WtdDOHs III o"b wv "oH'
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-
KEEL and Strauss and Renan n
Theodore Christleb of Bonn and
against the infidel scientists of to-day
n 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 sec
the morning star OF the Redeemer and
with neurological hammer discover
the Rock OF Ages and amid the flora
of all 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 u 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
-Lxn Ak ooo,nct C;earo Nh church