St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1901-06-01
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Dr.. Talmage Calls the Roll of Those
Once Antagoaistic.

Christianity Now Uslng to Defent
Herself Weapons Once Used
Against Her Temptations
Of the Traveller.
Washington.
In this discourse DIR. Talmage calls
the roll of influences once antagonist
ic but now friendly to the Gospel and
encourages Christian workers. Text,
Samuel, 21:9, There is none like
that; give it me-"
David fled from his pursuers. The
world runs very fast when it is chas-
ing good man. The country is try
ing to catch David and to Stay him.
David goes into lie house of priest
and asks him for a sword or spear
with which to defend himself. The
priest, not being accustomed to use
deadly weapons, tells David that he
cannot supply him but suddenly the
had been carefully wrapped up and
laid away-the very sword that Co
Hath formerly used-and he takes
down that sword, and while Re is I'M
wrapping the sharp. glittering. MEM
orable blade it flashes upon David's
mind that this is the very sword that
was US d against himself when he
was in the fight with Goliath, and
David can hardly keep his hand of
i ~ until tho vriocf hos ppnVCnnnd If
David stretches out his hand toward
that old sword and says: There is
none like that; give it me-" In 9TH
er words, II want in my own hand
the sword which has been used
against me and against the cause OF
God" So it was given him. Well.
my friends, that is not the first or
the last sword once used by giant
and Philistine iniquity which IS to
come into the possession of Jesus
Christ and of His glorious church.
want, as well as God may help me.
to show you that many a weapon
which has been used against the ar
mics of God Is yet to be captured and
used on our side, and only initiate
David when l stretch out my hand
toward that blade of the Philistine
and cry: There is none like that;
give it mel"
1 remark first that this is true in
regard to all scientific exploration.
You know that the first discoveries
in astronomy and geology and chro-
nology were used to battle Chris
tianity. Worldly philosophy came out
of its labora" DRY and out of its OBJ
servatory and said: "Now, we will
prove by the very structure of the
earth and by the movement of the
heavenly bodies that the Bible is a
lie and that Christianity as we have it
among men is positive imposition"
Good men trembled. The telescope,
the Leyden jars, the electric batteries,
all in the hands of the Philistines.
But one day Christianity, looking
about for some weapon with which to
defend itself, happened to see the
very old sword that these atheistic
Philistines had been using against the
truth. and cried out: "There is none
like that; give it mel" And Coperni-
Gus and Galilei and Kepler and Isaac
AVG" tou anu O1SCuC1 anu ". W. N1ItCu~
ell came forth and told the world that
in their ransacking of the earth and
heavens they had found overwhelm-
ing presence of the God whom we wor-
ship. and this old Bible began to shake
itself from the Koran and Shaster and
Zendavesta with which it had been COW
cred up and lay on the desk of the
scholar and in the laboratory of the
chemist and in the lap Of the Chris
tian unframed and unanswered, while
the tower of the midnight heavens
struck a silvery chime in its praise.
Worldly philosophy said: Matter
Is eternal. The world always was.
God did not make it." Christian phi
losophy plunges its crowbar into rocks
and finds that the world was gradual
" made, and if gradually made there
must have been some point at which |
the process started. Then who started
it? And SO that objection was over
come. and in the first three words of |
the Bible we find that Moses stated
magnificent truth when he said: I'm
the beginning"
Worldly philosophy said: "Your
Bible is a most inaccurate book. All |
that story in the Old Testament, again |
and again told. about the army of the |
locusts-it is preposterous. There is |
nothing in the coming of the locusts |
like an army. An army walks: locusts
fly. An army goes in order and process
sion, locusts without order" "Wait."
said Christian philosophy, and in 1865 |
in the southwestern part Of this coun-
try Christian men went out to ex-
anime the march of the locusts. There |
are men right before me who must
have noticed in that very part of the
country the coming up of the locusts
like an army, and it was found that all
the newspapers unwittingly spoke Of
them as an army. Why? They seem
to have commander. They march like
a host. They halt like host. No ar
row ever went in straighter flight than
the locusts come, not even turning
aside for the wind. If the wind rises,
the locusts drop and then rise again
after it has gone down, taking the