CHAPTER XXX.

THE BLACKSMITHS' CAPTIVITY.

Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears. But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock. Yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads.-I. Samuel xiii: 19-21.

What a scalding subjugation for the Israelites! The Philistines had carried off all the blacksmiths, and torn down all the blacksmiths' shops, and abolished the blacksmith's trade in the land of Israel. The Philistines would not even allow these parties to work their valuable mines of brass and iron, nor might they make any swords or spears. There were only two swords left in all the land. Yea, these Philistines went on until they had taken all the grindstones from the land of Israel, so that if an Israelitish farmer wanted to sharpen his plough or his axe, he had to go over to the garrison of the Philistines to get it done. There was only one sharpening instrument left in the land, and that was a file. The farmers and the mechanics having nothing to whet up the coulter, and the goad, and the pickaxe, save a simple file, industry was hindered, and work practically disgraced. The great idea of these Philistines was to keep the Israelites disarmed. They might get iron out of the hills to make swords of, but they would not have any blacksmiths to weld this iron. If they got the iron welded, they would have no grindstones on which to

bring the instruments of agriculture or the military weapons up to an edge. Oh, you poor, weaponless Israelites, reduced to a file, how I pity you! But these Philistines were not for ever to keep their heel on the neck of God's children. Jonathan, on his hands and knees, climbs up a great rock beyond which were the Philistines; and his armor-bearer, on his hands and knees, climbs up the same rock, and these two men, with their two swords, hew to pieces the Philistines, the Lord throwing a great terror upon them. So it was then; so it is now. Two men of God on their knees, mightier than a Philistine host on their feet.

I learn first from this subject, how dangerous it is for the Church of God to allow its weapons to stay in the hands of its enemies. These Israelites might again and again have obtained a supply of swords and weapons, as for instance when they took the spoils of the Ammonites; but these Israelites seemed content to have no swords, no spears, no blacksmiths, no grindstones, no active iron mines, until it was too late for them to make any resistance. I see the farmers tugging along with their pickaxes and ploughs, and I say: "Where are you going with those things?" They say: "Oh, we are going over to the garrison of the Philistines to get these things sharpened." I say: "You foolish men, why don't you sharpen them at home?" "Oh," they say, "the blacksmiths' shops are all torn down, and we have nothing left us but a file."

So it is in the Church of Jesus Christ to-day. We are too willing to give up our weapons to the enemy. The world boasts that it has gobbled up the schools, and the colleges, and the arts, and the sciences, and the literature, and the printing press. Infidelity is making a mighty attempt to get all our weapons in its hand, and then to

keep them. You know it is making this boast all the time; and after a while, when the great battle between ain and righteousness has opened, if we do not look out we will be as badly off as these Israelites, without any swords to fight with, and without any sharpening instruments. I call upon the superintendents of literary institutions to see to it that the men who go into the classrooms to stand beside the Leyden jars, and the electric batteries, and the microscopes and telescopes, be children of God, not Philistines. The Carlylian, Emerson, and Tyndallean thinkers of this day are trying to get all the intellectual weapons of this century in their own grasp. What we want is scientific Christians to capture the sci.ence, and scholastic Christians to capture the scholarship, and philosophic Christians to capture the philosophy, and lecturing Christians, to take back the lecturing platform. We want to send out against Schenkel and Strauss and Renan, a Theodore Christlieb of Bonn; and against the infidel scientists of the day, a God-worshiping Silliman and Hitchcock and Agassiz. We want to capture all the philosophical apparatus, and swing around. the telescopes on the swivel, until through them we can see the morning star of the Redeemer, and with mineralogical hammer discover the "Rock of ages," and amid the flora of the realms find the "Rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley." We want a clergy learned enough to discourse of the human eye, showing it to be a microscope and telescope in one instrument, with eight hundred wonderful contrivances, and lids closing 30,000 or 40,000 times a day; all its muscles and nerves and bones showing the infinite skill of an infinite God, and then winding up with the peroration: "He that formed the eye, shall he not see?" And then we want to discourse about the human ear, its wonderful integuments, mem

branes, and vibration, and its chain of small bones, and its auditory nerve, closing with the question: "He that planted the ear, shall he not hear?" And we want some one able to expound the first chapter of Genesis, bringing to it the geology and the astronomy of the world, until, as Job suggested, "the stones of the field shall be in league" with the truth, and "the stars in their course shall fight against Sisera." Oh, Church of God, go out and recapture these weapons. Let men of God go out and take possession of the platform. Let the debauched printing-press of this country be recaptured for Christ, and the reporters, and the type-setters, and the editors, and publishers be made to swear allegiance to the Lord God of truth. Ah, my friend, that day must come, and if the great body of Christian men have not the faith, or the courage, or the consecration to do it, then let some Jonathan, on his busy hands and on his praying knees, climb up on the rock of hindrance, and in the name of the Lord God of Israel slash to pieces those literary Philistines. If these men will not be converted to God, then they must be destroyed.

Again, I learn from this subject what a large amount of the Church's resources is actually hidden, and buried, and undeveloped. The Bible intimates that that was a very rich land—this land of Israel. It says: "The stones are iron, and out of the hills thou shalt dig brass," and yet hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of this metal was kept under the hills. Well, that is the difficulty with the Church of God at this day. Its talent is not developed. If one-half of its energy could be brought out, it might take the public iniquities of the day by the throat and make them bite the dust. If human eloquence were consecrated to the Lord Jesus Christ, it could in a few years persuade this whole earth to sur

render to God. There is enough undeveloped energy in this one Church to bring all Brooklyn to Christ-enough undeveloped Christian energy in the City of Brooklyn to bring all the United States to Christ-enough undeveloped Christian energy in the United States to bring the whole world to Christ; but it is buried under strata of indifference and under whole mountains of sloth. Now is it not time for the mining to begin, and the pickaxes to plunge, and for this buried metal to be brought out and put into the furnaces, and be turned into howitzers and carbines for the Lord's host? The vast majority of Christians in this day are useless. The most of the Lord's battalion belong to the reserve corps. The most of the crew are asleep in the hammocks. The most of the metal is under the hills. Oh, is it not time for the Church of God to rouse up and understand that we want all the energies, all the talent, and all the wealth enlisted for Christ's sake? I like the nickname that the English soldiers gave to Blucher, the Commander. They called him "Old Forwards." We have had enough retreats in the Church of Christ; let us have a glorious advance. And I say to you to-night, as the General said when his troops were affrighted. Rising up in his stirrups, his hair flying in the wind, he lifted up his voice until 20,000 troops heard him, crying out: "Forward, the whole line!"

Again: I learn from this subject, that we sometimes do well to take advantage of the world's sharpening instruments. These Israelites were reduced to a file, and so they went over to the garrison of the Philistines to get their axes and their goads, and their ploughs sharpened. The Bible distinctly states it-the text which I read at the beginning of the service that they had no other instruments now with which to do this