Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1901-05-13
FRIENDLY INFLUENCES.
DR.. TaImage Says Influences Once Hostile
Are Now Friendly TO Christ.
Weapons Formerly Used Against the Lords
Armies Captured and Put to
His Service.

Ecopyrighi 1911
I WASHINGTON, ID. C.--In this discourse
/ DR.. Talmage calls the roll Of influences
once antagonistic but now friendly to the
| gospel and encourages Christian workers;
! that; give it me-"
/ David fed from his pursuers. The world
runs very fast when IL is chasing good
man. The country is trying to catch David
and to slay him. David goes into the
| house of priest and asks him for a sword
4 or spear with which 10 defend himself.
| The priest, not being accustomed 10 use
/ deadly weapons, tells David that he can
not supply him, but suddenly the priest
4 thinks of an old sword that had been care
| fully wrapped up and laid away-the very
sword that Goliath formerly used-and
! he takes down that sword, and while he is
unwrapping the sharp, glittering, memoir
able blade it flashes upon David's mind
! that this is the very sword that was used
! against himself when he was in the fight
/ with Goliath, and David can hardly keep
his hand of 1t until the priest has un-
/ wound It. David stretches out his hand
! toward that old sword and says, "There
! is none like that; give il me"-in other
I words, Il want in my own hand the
/ sword winch 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
4 giant and Philistine iniqHity 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
I many a weapon which has been used
against the armies of God is yet to be cap
! tured and used on our side, and / only imi-
tate David when / stretch out my hand
| toward that blade of the Philstine and
| cry, "There is none like that; give it mel"
| remark, first, that this is true in regard
to all scientific exploration. You know
Il
! geology and chronology were used to battle
/ Christianity. Worldly philosophy came out
! of its laboratory and out of its observatory
! and said, Now we viii prove, by the very
structure of the earth and by the move
| ment of the heavenly bodies, that the
! Bible is lie, and that Christianity, as we
/ have it among men, Is positive imposi-
/ ton" 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, hap
! pened to see the very old sword that these
| atheistic Phihstines had been using against
/ the truth and cried out, "There is none
/ like that; give it met" And Copernicus
and Galilel and Kepler and Isaac Newton
! and Herschel and o. NJ. Mitchell came
/ forth and told the world that in their
ransacking OF the earth and heavens they
| found overwhelming presence of the God
| whom we worship. and this old Bible be-
gan to shake itself from the Koran and
| Shaster and Zendavesta, with which it had
\ been covered up, and lay on the desk OF
| the scholar and in the laboratory of the
I chemist and in the lap of the Christian I'M
/ harmed and unanswered, while the tower
! of the midnight heavens struck a silvery
| chime in its praise.
| Worldly philosophy said, GAN that story
about the light turned as clay to the seal.
is simply an absurdity;". Old time worldly
I ,.I sffTbo lsohf straight ~
! Christian philosophy says, Wait little
| while" And it goes on and makes discov'
cries and finds that the atmosphere curves
| and bends the rays of light around the
! earth literally "as the clay to the seal
/ The Bible right again; worldly philosophy
| wrong again. "Ah," says worldly philoso-
ply, ''aIl that allusion to Job about the
/ foundations of the earth is simply an alb
( surdity. Where vast thou, says God,
| when / set the foundations of the earth?
| The earth has no foundation. Christian
! philosophy comes and finds that the word
| as translated foundations" may be better
/ translated Sockets" So now we see how
! it will read if it is translated right.
''Where vast thou when | set the sockets
| of the earth?" Where is the socket? 1t
is the hollow of Gods hand-a socket large
enough for any world to turn IN:
| Worldly philosophy said: What an alb
| surd story about Joshua making the sun
/ and moon stand still. If the world had
! stopped an instant, the whole universe
would have been out of gear. stop,
said Christian philosophy, mot quite so
! ouiclx!" The world has two motions-one
] on its own axis and the other around the
! sun. 1t was not necessary, in making them
! stand still, that both motions should be
| stopped-only the one turning the world
! on its own axis. There was no reason why
the hating of the earth should have Jared
| and disarranged the whole universe.
| Joshua right and God right; infidehty
wrong every time. / knew it would be
/ wrong.
thank God that the time has come
/ when Christians need not be scared at any
scientific exploration. The fact is that re-
/ ligion and science have struck hands in
eternal friendship, and the deeper down
geology can dig the higher up astronomy
! can soar all the better for us.
| The armies of the Lord Jesus Christ
| have stormed the observatories of the
| worlds science, and from the highest tow
! ers have flung out the banner of the cross
I les at Albany and Washington, stretches
/ out its hand toward the opposing scien-
tfc weapon, crying, There is none like
! that; give it mel"
| / was reading of Herschel, who was
looking at a meteor through telescope,
, and when it came over the face of the tel
! escope it was so powerful he had to avert
| his eyes. And it has been just so that
many an astronomer has gone into an OBJ
! servatory and looked up into the midnight
( heavens. and the Lord God has, through
some swinging world, famed upon his
/ vision, and the learned man cried out:
"Who am L? Undonel Unclean! Have
| mercy, Lord Godi'
Again, / remark, that the travelling dis
| position of the world, which was adverse
! to morals and religion, is to be brought on
our side. The man that went down to
| Jericho and fell amid thieves was type
/ of a great many travellers. There is many
| a man who is very honest at home who
| when he is abroad has his honor flched
and his good habits stolen. There are but
| very few men who can stand the stress or
an expedition. Six weeks at a watering
place have ruined many man. In the
/ olden times God forbade the travelling OF
Ven for the purposes of trade because OF
| the corrupting influences attending It. A
J good many men now cannot stand the
| transition from one place to another.
/ Some men who seem 10 be very consistent
! here in the way of keeping the Sabbath
when they get into Spain on the Lord
/ day always go to see the bullhyhts. Plato
! said that no city ought to be built nearer
/ to the sea than ten miles lest it be tempted
TO commerce. But this travelling DISPOSE
4 A. I'D IN