The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-05-29
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE By THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: Christian Maladl oitness-work-
ers For the Lord Who Are Religious
Blunderers-Howt to Be Skillful in Spir-
itual Archery-More Backbone Needed.
Copyright la1.l

ftual Archery-More Backbone Needed.
copyright 1911
WASHINGTON, ID. C.-In this discourse
to increased fidelity and shows how much
effort at doing good fails through lack Of
adroitneSs; text, Genesis y, 9, "He was
mighty hunter before the Lord"
In our day hunting is sport, but in the
lands and the times infested of wild beasts
1t was matter of life or death with the
people. 1t was very different from going
out on a sunshiny afternoon with patent
breechloader to shoot reed birds on the
flats when Pollux and Achilles and Do
medes went out to clear the land OF lions
and panthers and bears. Xenophon grew
eloquent in regard to the art Of hunting.
chased the tiger. Francis |. was called the
father of hunting. And Moses, in my text,
sets forth Nimrod as a hero when it pre-
sents him with broad shoulders and shaggy
apparel and sun-browned face and arm
punched with muscle-"a mighty hunter
before the Lord" ! think he used the
bow and the arrows with great success
practicing archery.
I have thought if it is such grand
thing and such brave thing to clear wild
beasts out of country If it is not bet.
ter and braver thing to hunt down and de-
stroy those great evils Of society that are
stalking the land with fierce eye and
bloody paw and sharp tusk and quick
spring. I have wondered if there is not
such thing as gospel archery, by which
those who have been flying from the truth
may be captured for God and heaven. The
Lord Jesus Christ in His sermon used the
art of angling for an illustration when He
said, II will make you fishers of men,"
And so I think have authority for using
hunting as an illustration of gospel truth,
and ! pray God that there may be many a
man enlisted in the work who shall begin
to study gospel archery. of whom it may,
after awhile, be said, He was mighty
hunter before the Lord"
How much awkward Christian work
there is done in the world! How many
GOOD people there are who drive souls
away from Christ instead OF bringing
them to Him! All their fingers are thumbs
religious blunderers who upset more
than they right. Their gun has crooked
barrel, and kicks as it goes off. They are
like clumsy ccmrade who goes along with
skillful hunters. At the very moment he
ought to be most quiet he is cracking an
alder or falling over log and frightening
away the game How few Christian people
have ever learned how the Lord Jesus
Christ at the well went from talking. about
. cup of water to the most practical rehg..
ious truths, which Won the .woman's soul
for God Jesus in the wilderness was
breaking bread to the people. I think it
was very good bread. 1t was very light
bread, and the yeast had done its work
thoroughly. Christ, after He had broken
the bread, said to the people. Beware OF
the yeast or of the leaven of the Phari-
Sees" So natural transition it was, and
how easily they all understood Him! But
how few Christian people there are who
understand how to fasten the truths of
God and religion to the souls of men!
The archers of oldea time studied their
art. They were very precise in the mat
as to how an archer should 60 and as to
what an archer should do. He must stand
erect and firm, his left foot a little in ad.
vance of the right foot. With his left hand
he must take hold of the bow in the mid.
die, and then with the three fingers and
the thumb of his right hand he should lay
hold the arrow ard affiX it to the string,
so precise was the direction given. But
how clumsy We are about religious work!
How little skill and care we exercise! How
often our arrows miss the mark! l am
glad that there are institutions estab-
lished in many of the cities of our land
good-studyng spiritual archery and be-
come known as mighty hunters before
the Lord"
In the first place if you want to be ef-
fectual in doing good you must be very
sure of your weapon. There was some
thing very fascinating about the archery of
oiden times. Perhaps you do not know
what they could do with the bow and ar
row. Why, the chief battles fought by the
English Plantagenets were with the long
bow. They would take the arrow of pol
ished wood and feather it with the plume
of bird, and then it would fly from the
bowstring of plated silk. The bloody
fields of Agincourt and Solway Moss and
Neville's Cross heard the loud thrum Of
the archer bowstring. Now, my Chris
than that. 1t is the arrow of the gospel.
1t is a sharp arrow; it is feathered from
the wing OF the dove of Gods Spirit; it
flies from bow made out of the wood of
the cross. AS far as / can estimate or cal
culate, it has brought down 4O0000,000 of
souls. Paul knew how to bring the notch
of that arrow on to the bowstring, and its
whir was heard through the Corinthian
theatres and through the courtroom until
the knees of Felix Knocked together.
It was that arrow that stuck in Luther's
neart "Hen ne crieu OUT: On, my sins:
Oh, my sins!" If It strike man in the
head it kills his skepticism; if it strike
him in the heel it will turn his step; if it
strike him in the heart he throws up his
hands, as did one of old when wounded in
in the battle, crying, 20 Galilean, Thou
hast conquered"
In the armory of the Earl of Pembroke
there are old corselets which show that
the arrow of the English used to go
through the breastplate, through the body
of the warrior and out through the back
plate. What symbol of that gospel which
is sharper than a two-edged sword, pierc.
ing to the dividing asnder of soul and
body and of the joints and marrow! Would
to God we had more faith in that gospel:
The humblest man in the world, if he
had enough faith in it, could bring a hun
dred souls to Christ-perhaps 500. Just in
proportion as this age seems to believe
less and less in it believe more and more
in it. What are men about that they will
net accept their own deliverance! There
is nothing proposed by men that can do
anything like this GOSPEL.
The religion of Ralph Waldo Emerson
was the philosophy of icicles; the religion
OF Theodore Parker was sirocco of the
desert, covering up the soil with dry sand (;
the religion of Renan was the romance of
believing almost nothing; the religion OF
the HuXleys and the Spencers is merely a
pedestal on which human philosophy sits
sbivering in the night of the soul, looking
up to the stars, offering no help to the ma
tions that crouch and groan at the base.
Tell me where there is one man who has
rejected that gospel for another who is
thoroughly satisfied and helped and con-
tented in his skepticisrr. ard will take
the car tomorrow and ride 500 miles to see
him.
Tine full power of the gospel has not yet
been touched. As sportsman throws up
his hand and catches the ball flying
through the air, just so easily will this gos-