The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1900-02-09
THE FIGHT ON SATAN
DR.. Talmage Says We Have Lost
Many CT the Weapons.
A warning to the Christian Church
to Protect Itself Against the As
saults of Unrightcousness
and Unbelief.
copyright, 1900, by Louis Klopsch.l
Mnahinninn Ifnh 4

In this discourse DR. Talmage shows
| how the cause of righteousness has lost
many of its weapons and how they are
to be recaptured and put into effective
operations: text, |. Samuel xiii, 1921:
"Now there is no smith found through
! out all the and of Israel. for the Philis-
tines said: Lest the Hebrews make
| them swords or spears. But all the
! lsraelitcs went down TO the Philistnes,
to sharpen every man his share, and
his coulter, and his AK, and his mat
| took. Yet they had file for the mat
took, and for the coulters, and for the
forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen
the goads."
What a calling subiugation for the
Israelites! The Phiiistines had carried
Off all the blaclismiths and torn down
all the backsmiths' shops and abol-
ished the blacks miths' trade in the land
of Israel. The Phlistines 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
] y
stones from the land of Israel. so that
| if an lsraelitish farmer wanted to
! sharpen his p,ow or his AK he had to
| go over to the garrison of the Philis-
tines to grt it done. There was only
one sharpening instrument left in the
| land, and that was file. the farmers
and mechanics having nothing to whet
up the coulter, and the goad, and the
| picliaN. save a single file. Industry was
hindered and work practically dis
graced. The great idea of these Philis-
tines was to keep the lsraelites un-
armed. They might get iron out of
the hills TO make swords Of but they
would not have any backsmiths 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, sou poor, weaponless lsraelites,
! reduced TO file. how pity YOU! But
these Phlistincs 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
men, with their own swords. heW TO
pieces the Philistines, the Lord throw
ing u great terror upon them. So il
was then; so ii is now. Two mon of
God on their knees mishtier than
Philistine host on their feet!
/ learn. first, from this subject, that
il is dangerous for the church Of God
to allow its weapons to stay in the
hands of its enemies. These lsraclites
might again and again have obtained
II supply of swords and weapons, as,
for Instance, when they took the spoils
of the Ammonites. but these Israelites
seemed content to have no swords,
no spears, no blacksmiths, no grind
stones, no active iron mines, until il
was too late for them to make any re-
sistmce. | see the farmers Juggling
along with their pickaxcs and pillow,
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."
| say: you foolish men, why don't
you sharpen them al home?" oh"
they say, the blacksmths' shops are
all torn down. and we have nothing
left us but file
SO it is in the church OF Jesus Christ
| to-day. We are too willing 10 give up
our weapons TO the enemy. The world
boasts that it has gobbied up. the
schools and colleges and the arts and
the sciences and the literature and the
| printing press. lnfdelity 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 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. | call upon the superntend-
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 Philistnes.
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-
KEEL and Strauss and Renan a
| Theodore Christlieb of Bonn and
against the infdel scientists of to-day
IA 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 meteorological hammer discover
the Rock of Ages and amid the fora
of all realms find the Rose of sharon