Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1900-02-15

thnn one dizzy with pcrpctual vertigo, IT
muscles with the play of health In them
are worth more than those drawn up in
chronic "rheumatics," If an eye quick to
catch passing objects is better than one
with vision dim and uncertain, then God
will require Of us efficiency just in pro-
portion to what he has given us. Physic-
al energy ought to be a type of moral
power. We ought to have as good dlges-
ton of truth ms we have capacity to as
simulate food. Our spiritual hearing ought
to he as good rs our physical hearing.
Our spiritual taste ought to be as clear as
our tongue. Samsons in body, we ought
&c be giants in moral power.
But while you find a great many men
who realize that they ought to use their
money Alright and use their intelligence
Alright how few men you find aware OF
the fact that they ought to use their
physical organism Alright, With every
thump of the heart there is something
saying, Work, work" and lest we
should complain that we have no tools to
work with God gives us our hands and
feet, with every knucklc and with every
joint and with every muscle saying to us,
Lay hold and do something"
But how often it is that men with phys
ical strength do not serve Christ. They
are like ship full manned and full rig
gcd capable of vast tonnage, able to en-
durc all stress of weather, yet swinging
idly at the docks, when these men ought
to he crossing and recrossing the great
ocean Of human suffering and sin with
Gods supplies of mercy. How often it
is that physical strength is used in doing
positive damage or in luxurious ease,
when, with sleeves rolled up and bronzed
bosom. fearless OF the shafts of opposi-
ton it ought to be laying hold with all
its might and Juggling away to lift up this
suuken wreck Of a world.
It is most shameful fact that much Of
the business OF the church and of the
world must be done by those compare
lively invslid. Richard Baxter, by rca-
son of his diseases, all his days sitting in
the door of his tomb, yet writing more
than 100 volumes and sending out an in
flueuce for God that will endure as long
as the Saints Everlasting Rest" Ed
ward Payson, never knowing a well day,
yet how he preached and how he wrote,
helping thousands OF dying souls Ike
himself to swim in sea Of glory. And
Robert McCheyne, a walking skeleton,
yet you know what he did in Dundee and
how he shook Scotland with zeal for
God. Philip Doddridge advised by his
friends because OF his illness not to enter
the ministry, yet you know what he did
for the Rise and Progress of Religion"
in the church Of the world.
Chants In Body and Soul.
Wherefore was told by his doctors
that he could not live a fortnight, yet at
that very time entering upon philanthropy
ic enterprises that demanded the great
est endurance and perseverance. Robert
Hall, suffering eXcruciations so that often
in his pulpit while preaching he would
stop and lie down on a sofa, then getting
up again to preach about heaven until the
glorics of the celestial city dropped on the
multitude, doing more work perhaps than
almost any well man in his day.
Oh, how often it is that men with great
physical endurance are not as great in
moral and spiritual stature. While there
are achievements for those who are bent
all their days with sickness-achieve-
mcnts of patience. achievements of Chris
tian endurancc-1 call upon men Of
health, men of muscle, men of nerve, men
of physical power, to devote themselves
to the Lord Giants in body, you ought
to be giants in soul.
Behold also in the story of my text il
ustration of the fact of the damage that
strength can do If it be misguided. 1t
seems to me that this man spent great
deal of his time in doing evil-this Sam
son of my text. To pay bet which he
had lost by the guessing of his riddle he
rObs and kills 80 people He was not
only gigantic in strength, but gigantic in
mischief and a type of those men in all
ages OF the world who, powerful in body
or mind or any faculty of social position
or wealth, have used their strength for
iniquitous purposes.
1t is not the small weak men of tho
day who do the damage. These small
men who 20 swearing and loaiinG about
your stores and shops and banking
houses, assaling Christ and the Bible and
the Church-they do not do the damage.
They have no influence. They are vermin
that you crush with your foot. But it is
the giants Of the day, the misguided 81
ants, giants in physical power, or giants
in mental acumen or giants in social po-
sition, or giants in wealth. who do the
damage-the men with sharp pens that
stab religion and throw their poison all
through our literature, the men who use
the power Of wealth to sanction iniQuity
and bride justice, and make truth and
honor bow to their golden sccpter. Mis-
guided giants-look out for them, In the
middle and latter part of the last cen
fury no doubt there were thousands OF
men in Paris and Edinburgh and London
who hated God and blasphemcd the nams
of the Almighty; but they did but little
Unsatisfactory were small men, insignif
cant men. Yet there were giants in those
days. Who can calculate the soul havo,
of a Rousseau, going on with very en-
thusasm OF iniquity, with fiery magma
ton Selling upon all the impulsive ma
lures of his day, or David Hume, whC
employed his life as spider employs il
summer, in spinning out silken webs t.
trap the unwary, or Voltaire, the mos
learned man of his day, marshnling
great host of skeptics and leading then
out in the dark land OF intidelity, or Glib
bon, who showed an uncomfortable
grudgc against religion in his history o
one Of the most fascinating periods of thu
worlds existence-"The Decline and Fal
of the Roman Empire"a book in which
with all the splendors of his genius, h
mRgnifed the errors of Christian dsci
pies, while with a sparsencss of motto
the Christian n.yoes of whom the worl
was not worthy
Understanding Cre's Power.
Oh, men OF stout physical health, me
of great mental stature, rer of high SC
cial position, men of great power of an
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