The Penn's Grove record., 1900-02-09
DR.. TALMAGES SERMON,
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: A Warning sounded-The Talent
of the Church OF Christ Is Unde-
veloped and It's Energy Dormant
The Enemy Profits by This.
h Icopyright iaool
WASHINGTON, D. C.-In this discourse DR..
Talmage shows how the cause of right
eOusneBs has lost many OF its weapons and
how they are to be recaptured and put into
effective operation, text, l. Samuel kill;
1921: NOV there wa 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, n his mattock. Yet they
had q ME for the mattock, and for the coul-
tiers, and for the forks, and for the axes,
and to sharpen the goads."
What a CALLING subjugation for the Is
r~aelitesl The Philistines had carried of all
the b~lacksmiths and torn down all the
blacksmiths' shops and abolished the black
smiths trade in the land of Israel. The
Phflistines wouldnot even allow these par
ties to work their valuable minss of brass
and iron, nor might they make any swords
or spears. There were only two swords
left In all the land. Yea, these Philistines
went on until they had taken all the grind
stones from the land OF Israel, SO that IL an
Israelitish farmer wanted to sharpen his
pillow or his axe he had 20 20 over to the
garrison OF the Philistines to get it done.
There was only n 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 a simple 1le. Industry was
hindered and work practically dfsRraced.
The great ides of these Philistines was to
keep the Israelites disarmed, They might
getiron out OF the hills to make swords OF,
but they would not AVE any blacksmiths
to weld this iron. II they got the iron
welded, they would lave no grindstones
on which 10 bring the instruments OF agri-
culture or the military weapons up to an
edge.
dueed to q file, o I pity Youl But these
Philistines we're not forever to keep their
heel on thu neck of Gods children. Jona-
than, on his hands and knees, climbs up
a great rock, beyond which were the Phil
istfnes, and his armor bearer, on his hands
and knees, climbs up the same rock, and
these " men. with their two swords, hew
to pieces the Philistines, the Lord throw
ing a great terror upon them. So 1t was
then; so 1t Is now. Two men OF God on
their knees mightier than q Philistine host
on their feetl
1 learn, first, from this subject that it is
dangerous for thechurch OF God to allow
its weapons to stay In the hands of its enc
mics. These Israelites 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 Israelites seemed content to have no
swords, no spears. no blacksmfths, no
grindstones, no active iron mines, un-
til 1t was too late for themto make any re-
sistance. / see the farmers Juggling along
with their pickaxes and pillow, and : say,
They say, ooh, we are going over to the
garrison Of the Phiiistines to get these
things sharpenedl" say, sYou foolish
menl Why don't you sharpen them at
homer" "Oh," they say, s'the black
smiths shops are all torn down, and we
have nothing left us but a filei''
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 1t has gobbled up the schools, and the
colleges. and the arts, n the sciences,
and the literature, and the printing press.
lnf1delity 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
bAO sAOdt RAbltO 70 O6A Sla f1Uu IikusCOuS~
ness has opened, ii we do not look out we
will be as badly of as these Israelities,
without any swords to fight with ard with
out any sharpening instruments. I call
upon the superintendent Of literary insti-
buttons to see to it that the men who go in
&c the ciassrooms to stand beside the Ley
den jars, and the electric batteries, and the
microscopes and telescopes, be children Of
God, not Philistines.
The Tyndallean thinkers of our times
arc trying to get NIL the intellectual
weapons in their own grasp. We want
scientific Christians to capture the science,
and scholastic Christians to capture the
scholarship, and philosophic 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 a Theodore Christiieb
Of Bonn and against the infdel scientists
Of the day q 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 wan 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, "the stones
Of the field shall be in league with the
truth and the stars in their course shall
Eight 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
snemy be recaptured for God, and the re-
porters, and the typesetters, and the ed
ttors, and the publishers swear I'LL al
iQOfqnoa fa ito Lord God of fr1fb All ~
friend, that day must come, and 1t the
great body Of Christian men have not the
faith or courage or the conservation to do
1t, 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. II these men
will not be converted TO God, then they
must be ~overthrown.
ikAKain, / learn from this subject what q
large amount of the church's is
actually hidden and buried and undevei-
oped. The Bible intimates that that was a
very rich land, this land of Israel. It
says, ssThe stones are iron, and out OF the
hills hot shalt dig brass" and yet hun
this metal was kept under the hills. Well,
that is the difficulty with the church of
God at this day. Its talent Is not devel-
oped. II one-haif Of its energy could be
brought out, 1t might take the public in
Equities OF the day by the throat and make
them bite the dust. II human eloquence
were consecrated to the Lord Jesus Christ,
it would In a few years ~persuaderhe whole
earth to surrender to God. There is
enough undeveloped energy in this city to
bring all the United States to Christ,
enough OF undeveloped Christian energy
In the United States to bring the whole
world to Christ, but It is buried under
strata of Indifference and under whole
mountains OF sloth. Now, is it not time
for the mining to begin and the pickaxes
to plunge and for this buried metal to be
brought out and put into the furnaces and
turned into howltzers and carbines for the
Lords host?
The vast majority OF Christians In this
day are useless. The most OF tile Lords
battalion belong to the reserve corps. The
most OF the crew are asleep in the ham.
mocks. The most OF the metal is underline
hills. Oh, is 1t not time for the church Of
God to rouse up and understand that we
want all the energies. all the talent n all
the wealth enlisted for Christ's sake? I
like the nickname that the English SOL
dters gave to Butcher, the commander.
fRt.nxx r. IT. tfAfI xrx