The weekly examiner., 1901-05-18
uNFLUENCESFORGOOD
pr. Ta1mage Calls the Roll of Those
 Once Antagonistic.
Ehristianity Now Using to Defend
 HeHself Weapons Once Used i- Axmima6 Her TemaDfmtaOma k. the Traveller.
ACopyright, 1901. by Louis Klopsch, N. Fl
 Washington, May 5.

In this discourse Dr. Talmage calls [Hhe roll of influences once antagonist ifc but now friendly to the Gospel and encourages Christian workers: Text, II 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- tng a good man. The country is try Ing to catch David and to slay him. David goes into le 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 eannot supply him but suddenly the priest thinks of an old sword that had been carefully wrapped up and laid away-the very sword that Go Hath formerly used-and he takes down that sword, and while he is un- wrapping the sharp, glittering, mem orable blade it flashes upon Davld'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 on it until the priest has unwound It. David stretches out his hand toward Shat old sword and says: There IS none like that; give it me-" In oth- CT words, "I want in my own hand Ehe sword which has been used against me and against the cause or God.'' So it was given him. We'll, my friends, that is not the first or Ghe last sword once used by giant and Philistine iniquity which is to come into the possession of Jesus Christ and of His glorious church. l want, as we'll as God may help me, to show you that many 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 I stretch out my hand toward that blade of the Philistine and cry: 'sThere is none like that; give it mel"
 I remark first that this is true in regard to all scientific exploration. You know that the first discoveries fin astronomy and geology and chro- nology were used to battle Chris ,tianity Worldly philosophy came out Of it's laboratory and out of it's ob- 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 tremb1ed. 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 Newton and Herschel and O. M. Mitch ell came forth and told the world that in their ransacking of the earth and Heavens they had found overwhe1m- 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 GOV 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 unharmed and unanswered, while the tower of the midnight heavens struck silvery chime in it's praise. Worldly philosophy said: Matter is eternal. The world always was. God did not make it.' Christian phi losophy plungesits crowbar into rocks and finds that the world was gradual ly 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 a magnificent truth when he said: sIn the beginning"
 Worldly philosophy said: "Your Bible is 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 Iocusts like an army. An army walks; locusts fly. An army goes in order and proces- sion, 1ocusts without order.'' "Wait, g said Christian philosophy, and in 1868 in the southwestern part of this coun- try Christian men went out to ex- anime the march of the 1ocusts. 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 . 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 same line of march, not varying foot. The old Bible is right every time when 1t speaks of locusts coming like an army; worldly philosophy wrong.
 Worldly philosophy said: "All that story about the light turned as clay to the seal is simply an absurdity." Old-time worldly philosophy said: ''The light comes straight" Christian philosophy says: Wait a little while" and it goes on and makes discoveries and finds that the atmosphere curves