The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-02-23

But while you find a great many men
who realize that they ought TO use
their money Alright and use their intel
ligence 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 oul complain that We
have no tools to work with God gives
US our hands and feet, with every
knuckle and with every joint and with
every muscle, saying to US, Lay hold
n do something"
But how often it is that men with
physical strength do not serve Christ.
They are like a ship manned and full
rugged, capable OF vast tonnage, able
to endure all stress of weather, yet
swinging idly at the docks, when these
men ought to be crossing and recross-
ing the great ocean of human suffer-
ing and sin with Gods supplies of mer-
cy- o often IL Is that physical
strength is used in doing positive dam
age or in luxurious ease. when, with
sleeves rolled up and bronZed bosom,
fearless Of the shafts Of opposition, it
ought to be laying hold with all its
might and tugging away to lift up this
sunken wreck of a world.
1t is a most shameful fact that much
OF the business Of the church n OF
the world must be lone by those COM
paratively invalid. Richard Baxter,
by reason of his diseases, all his days
sitting in the door of his tomb, yet
writing more thar 100 volumes and
sending out an influence for God that
will endure as long as the Saints Ev-
erlasting Rest" Edward Payson new
er knowing a well day, yet how he
preached n To- he wrote. helping
to swim in a 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 them MINISTRY, yet you know what
he did for the Rise and Progress of
Religion in the church of the world.
GIANTS IN BODY AND SOUL.
Wilberforce was told by his doctors
that he could not live a fortnight, yet
at that very time entering upon phil
anthropic enterprises that demanded
the greatest endurance and perSever-
ance. Robert Hall, suffering e~xcrucia-
tions 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 glories
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 ent all their days with sick
ness achievements of patience,
achievements of Christian endurance
1 call upon men of health, men of mus
Gle, 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
illustration of the act of the damage
that strength can do If it be misguided.
1t seems to me that this man spent a
great deal of his time in doing evil
this Samson of my text. To pay a
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 age Of the world who,
powerful in body or mind or any facu1-
ty of social position or wealth, have
used their strength for Ubiquitous pur-
poses.
1t is not the small, weak men of the
day who do the damage. These small
men who go swearing and loafing
about your stores n shops and bank
ing houses. assailing Christ and the
Bible n the church-they dc not do
the damage. They have no influence.
They are vermin that o crush with
your foot. But it is the giants of the
day, the misguided giants, giants in
physical power, or giants in menta
acumen or giants in social position,
or giants in wealth, who do the dam
age-the men with sharp pens that
stab religion and throw their poison
all through our literature, the men who
use the owe of wealth to sanction
iniquity and bride justice, and make
truth and honor bow to their golden
scepter. Misguided giants-look out
for fh0mf In fhn p,il91a a- -
part of the last century no doubt there
were thousands of men in Paris and
Edinburgh and London who hated
God and blasphemed the name of the
Almighty; but they did little mis-
chief-they were small men, insignii-
cant men, Yet there were giants in
those days. Who can calculate the soul
havoc of a Rousseau, going on with a
very enthusiasm of iniQuity, with fiery
imagination Selling upon all the impul-
sive natures of his day, or David Hume
who employed his life as a spider en-
ploys Its summer. in spinning out silk
en- webs to trap the unweary, or Vol
taire. the most learned man Of his day,
m~arshaling a great host of skeptics
and leading them out in the dark land
OF inf1delity, or Gibbon, who showed an
uncomfortable grudge against religion
In his history OF one Of the most fasci-
mating periods Of the worlds existence
oho u LII INOlIld
Empire"@a book in which, with all
the splendors of his genius, he magni1-
ed the errors of Christian disciples,
while with a sparseness of notice tina
never can be forgiven he treated Of the
Christian heroes Of whom the world
was not worthy?
UNDERSTANDINGS ONES POWER.
oh, men of stout physical health,
men of great mental stature, men of
high social position. men of great pow
er of any sort, / wants you to under
stand your power. and 1 want you to
know that that power devoted to God
will be a crown on earth. to you typi-
cal of a crown in heaven, but misguid-
ed, b~edraggled In sin, administrative
of evil, God will thunder against you
with his condemnation in the day when
millionaire and pauper. master and
slave. king n subject, shall stand
side by side in the judgment and
money bags and judicial ermine and
royal robe shall be riven with the light
nings.
Behold also how a giant may be slain
of a m Delilah started the train
~ frn 49,