HEOH." T5LMAGE,
The Eminent New York Divine's Sun
day Sermon.
Subject: "Shamgar'i Oxgoad.
Text: "After him wa3 Shamgar, which
Blew of the Philistines 600 men with an ox
goad." Judge ill., 31.
One day while Shamgar, the farmer, 'was
plowing with a yoke of oxen, his command
of whoa haw gee was changed to the shoot
of battle. Philistines, always ready to make
tronble, march tip with sword and spear.
Shamgar, the plowman, had no sword and'
would not probably have known how to'
wield it if he had possessed one. But fight
he must or go down under the stroke of the
Philistines. He had an oxgoad a weapon
used to urge on the lazy team; a weapon
about eight feet long, with a sharp iron at
one end to puncture the beast and a "wide
Iron chisel or shovel at the other end with
which to scrape the clumps of soil from the
plowshare, let with the iron prong at one
nd of the oxgoad and the iron scraper at
the other it was not such a weapon as one
would desire to use in battle with armed
Philistines. But God "helped the farmer, and,
leaving the oxen to look after themselves he
charged upon the Invaders of his homestead.'
Some of the commentaries, to make It easier'
for Shamgar, suggest that perhaps he led a1
regiment of farmers into the combat, his
oxgoad only one of many oxgoads . 'But tho
Lord does not need any of you to help in
making the Scriptures, and Shamgar, with
the Lord on his side, was mightier than 600
Philistines with the Lord against them. ' The
battle opened. Shamgar, with muscle
strengthened by open air and plowman's and
reaper's and thrasher's toil, uses the only
weapon at hand and he swings the oxgoad
Up and down and this way and that, now
stabbing with the iron prong at one end of it
and now thrusting with the iron scraper at
the other, and now bringing down the whole
weight of the instrument upon the heads of
the enemy. The Philistines are In a panla
and the supernatural forces come in and a
blow that would not unaer other circum
stances have prostrated or slain, left its
victim lifeless, UDtil, when Shamgar
walked over the field he counted 100 dead,
200 dead, 303 dead, 400 dead, 500 .dead, 600
dead all the work done by an oxgoad with
iron prong at one end and an iron shovel at
the other. The fame of this achievement by
this farmer with an awkward weapon of war
spread abroad and lionized him. until he
was hoisted into the highest place of powef
and became the third of the mighty judges of
Israel. So you see that Cincinnatus was not
the only man lifted from plow to throne.
For what reason was this unprecedented
and unparalleled ictory of a farmer's ox
goad put into this Bible, where there was no
spare room for the unimportant and the
trivial?
It was, first of all, to teach you and to
teach me and to teach all past ages since
then, and to teach all ages to come, that in
the war for God and against sin we ought to
Eut to the best use the weapon we happen to
ave on hand. Why did not Shamgar wait
until he could get a war charger, with neok
arched and back comparisoned. and nostrils
sniffing the battle afar off. or until he could
' get war equipment or could drill a regiment,
and wheeling them into line command them
forward to the charge? To wait for that
, would have been defeat and annihilation.
So he takes the best weapon he could lay
hold of, and that is an oxgoad. We are
called into the battle for the right and
against wrong, and many of us have not just
the kind of weapon we would prefer. It may
not be a sword of argument It may not be
the spear of sharp, thrusting wit. It may
not be the battering ram of denunciation.
But there is something we can do and some
forces we can wield. Do not wait for what
you have not, but use what you have.
Perhaps you have not eloquence, but you
have a smile. Well, a smile of encourage
ment has changed the behavior of tens of
thousands of wanderers and brought them
back to God and enthroned them in heaven.
You cannot make a persuasive appeal, but
you can set an example, and a good example
has saved more souls than you could count
in a year if you counted all the time. You
cannot give $10,000, but you can give as much
as tne wiaow oi tne gospel, whose two mites,
the smallest coins of the Hebrews, were
bestowed in such a spirit as to make her more
famous than all the contributions that
ever endowed all the hospitals and uni
versities of all Christendom, of all time.
You have very limited vocabulary, but you
can say "yes'T or "no," and a flrm'"ye3" or
an emphatic "no" has traversed the cen
turies, and will traverse all eternity, with
good influence. You may not have the
courage to confront a large assemblage, but
you can tell a Sunday-school class of two
a boy and a girl how to find Christ, and!
one of them may become a William Carey, to
start influences that will redeem India, and
Jtheotheca Florence Nightingale, who will1
Illumine battlefields covered with the dying
and the dead;
That was a tough case in a town of Eng
land where a young lady, applying for a
Babbath-school class, was told by the super-1
lntendent she would have to pick up one out
of the street. The worst of the class brought
from the street was one Bob. He was fitted
out with respectable clothing by the superin
tendent. But after two or three Sabbaths he
disappeared. He was found with his clothes
in tatters, for he had been fighting. The sec
ond time Bob was well clad for school. After
coming once or twice he again disappeared,
and was found in rags, consequent upon
fighting. The teacher was disposed to give
him up, but the superintendent said, "Let us
try Mm again." and the third suit of clothes
was provided him. Thereafter he came until
he was converted, and joined the church, and
started for the gospel ministry, and became
a foreign missionary, preaching and trans
lating "the Scriptures. Who was the boy
ealled Bob? The illustrious Dj. Bobert Mor
rison, great on earth and greater in heaven.
Who is teacher was I know not, but she used
the opportunltv opened and great has been
her reward.. You may not be able to load an
Armstrong jjun; you may not be able to hurl
a Hotchktss shell; you may not be able to
shoulder a glittering musket; but use any-',
thing you can lay vour hands on. Try c.;
blacksmith's hammer or a merchant's yard
stick or a mason's trowel or a carpenter's
plane or a housewife's broom or a farmer's
oxgoad. One of the surprises of heaven
will be what grand results came from how
simple means. ; Matthias Joyce, the vile man,
became a great apostle of righteousness, not
from hearing John Wesley preach, but from
seeing him kiss a little child on the pulpit
stairs.
Again, my subject Eprings upon us the
thought that in calculating the prospects of
religious attempt wfmust take omnipotence
and omniscience ana omnipresence and all
the other attributes of God Into the calcula
tion. Whom do you see on that plowed field
of my text? One hearer says, "1 see Sham
gar." Another hearer says, "I see 600 Phil
istines." My hearer, you have missed the
chief personage on that battlefield of plowed
ground. I also see Shamgar and 600 Philis
tines; but, more than all and mightier than
all and more overwhelming than all, I see
God. Shamgar with his unaided arm, how
ever muscular, and with that humble Instru
ment made for agricultural purposes and
never constructed for combat, oould not have
wrought such a victory. It was omnipo
tence above and beneath and back of and
at the point of the oxgoad. Before that
battle was over the plowman realized this,
and all the 600 Philistines realized it, and all
who visited the battlefield afterward appre
ciated it. I want in heaven o hear the
story, for it can never be fully toM on earth
perhaps some day may be set apart for the
renearsaJ, wniieail heaven listens the story
of how God blessed awkward and humble in
strumentalities. ' Many an evangelist has
come into a town given up to worldliness.
The pastors say to the evangelist : "We are
glad you have come, but it is a hard field,
and we feel sorry for you. The mem
bers of our churches play progressive
euehre and go ro the theatre and bet
at the horse races, and gayety and
fashion have, taken possession of the
town. We have advertised your meeting?,
but are not very hopeful. God bless you."
This evangelist takes his place on platform
or pulpit. He never graduated at college,
and there are before him twenty graduates
of the best universities. He never took one
lesson in elocution, and there are before h'Tn
twenty trained orators. Many of the ladies
present are graduates of the highest female
seminaries,; and One slip in grammar or one
mispronunciation will result in suppressed
giggle. Amid the general chill that pre
vades the house the unpretending evangelist
opens bis Bible and takes for histext. "Lord,
that my eye3 may be opened." Opera glasses
In the gallery curiously scrutinize the
speaker. He tells in a plain way the story of
the blind man, tells two or three touching
anecdotes, and the generaJ chill gives way
before a strange warmth.
A classical hearer wno took the first honor
at Yale and who is a prince of proprieties
finds his spectacles becoming dim with a
moisture suggestive of tears. A worldly
mother, who had been bringing up her sons
and daughters in utter godlessness. puts her
handkerchief to her eyes and begins to weep.
Highly educated men who came to criticise
and pick to pieces and find fault bow on their
gold-headed canes. What is that sound
from under the gallery? It is a sob, and
eobs are catching, and all along the wall and
all up and down the audience there is deep
emotion, so that when at the close of the
service anxious souls are invited to especial
3eats or the inquiry room, they come up by
scores and ; kneel and repent and rise up
pardoned; the whole town is shaken and
places of evil amusement are ?-parsely at
tended and rum holes lose-4heir patrons, and
the Churches are thronged, and the whole
jommunity is cleansed and elevated and re
joiced. What power did the evangelist bring
to bear to capture, that, town for righteous
ness? Not one brilliant epigram did he ut
ter. Not one graceful gesture did he make.
Not one rhetorical climax did he pile up.
But there was something about him that peo
ple had not taken in the estimate when they
prophesied the failure of that work. They
bad not 'taken into the calculation the om
nipotence of the Holy Ghost. It was not the
flash of a Damascus blade. It was God, be
fore and behind and all around l.he oxgoad.
When peopie say that crime will tri
umph and the world will never be con
verted because of j the seeming insuffi
riency of the means I employed, they count
the 600 armed Philistines on one s'de and
Shamgar, the farmer, awkwardly e pped,
on the other side, not realizing th the
chariots of God are 30.000 and that all heaven,
cherubic, seraphic, archangelic, deific, is on
what otherwise would be the weak side."
Napoleon, the author of the saying, "God is
on the side of the heaviest artillery," lived
to find out his mistake, for at Waterloo the
160 guns of the English overcame the 250
guns of the French, j God is 03. the side of
the right, and one man in the right will
eventually he iound stronger than tou men
In the wrong. In all estimates of any kind
of Christian work do not make the mistake
every day made of leaving out the head of
the universe. !
Again, my subject springs upon us the
thought that in God's service it Is best to use
weapons that are particularly suited to us.
Shamgar had, like many of us, been brought
up on a farm. He knew nothing about jave
lins and bucklers and helmets and breast
plates and greaves of brass and catapults
and ballistaand iron scythes fastened to the
axles of chariots. But he was familiar with
the flail of the thrashing floor and knew how
to pound with that, and the ax of the woods
and knew how to hew with that, and the
oxgoad of the plowman and knew how to
thrust with that. And you and I will do
best to use those means that we can best
handle; those weapons with which we can
make the most execution. Some In God's
service will do best with the pen; some with
the voice; some by extemporaneous speech,
for they have the whole vocabulary of the
English language half way between tWr
brain and tongue, and others will do best
with manuscript spread out before them.
Some will serve God by the plow, raising
wheat and corn and giving liberally of what
they sell to churches and missions; some as
merchants, and out of their profits will dedi
cate a tenth to the Lord; some as physicians,
prescribing for the world's ailments; and
some as attorneys, defending Innocence and
obtaining rights that othewise would not be
recognized; and some as sailors, helping
bridge the seas; and some as teachers
and pastors. The kingdom of God
is dreadfully retardel by so many of us
attempting to do that which we cannot do;
reaching up for broadsword or falchion or
bayonet or scimeter or Enfield rifle or Paix
han's gun, while we ought to be content
with an oxgoad. I thank .God that there are
tens of thousands of Christians whom you
never heard of and never will hear of until
you see them in the high places of heaven,
who are now in a quiet way In homes and
schoolhouses and in praying circles and by
sick beds and up dark alleys saying the sav
ing word and doing the saving deed, the ag
gregation of their work overpowering the
most ambitious statistics.
In the grand review of heaven, when the
regiments pass the Lord of Hosts, there will
be whole regiments of nurses and Sabbath
school teachers and tract distributors, and
unpretending workers, before whom as they
passthe kings and queens of God and the;
Lamb will lift flashing coronet and bow
down in recognition and reverence. The
most of the Christian work for the world's
reclamation and salvation will be done by
people of one talent and two talents, while
the ten talent people are up in the astronom
ical observatories studying other worlds,
though they do little or nothing for the re
demption of this world, or are up in the
rarefied realms of "higher criticism" trying
to find out that Moses did not write the
Pentateuch or to prove that the throat of
the whale was not large enough to swallow
the minister who declined the call to Nine
j vah and apologizing for the Almighty for
, certain inexplicable things they have found
I in the Scriptures. It will be found out at
(the last that the Krupp guns have not done
jso much to capture this world for God as the
j oxgoads.
j Years ago I was to summer in the Adiron-
dacks, and my wealthy friend, who was a
! great hunter and fisherman, said, "I am not
', going to the Adirondacks this season, and
'you can take my equipment and I will send
it up to Paul Smith's.'' Well, it was thre
!when I arrived in the Adirondacks, a splen
,did outfit, that cost many hundreds of dol
lars, a gorgeous tent, and such elaborate
'fishing apparatus; such guns of all styles 01
exquisite make and reels and pouches and
bait ' and torches and lunch baskets and
many more things that I could not
even guess the use of. And my
friend of the big soul had even writ
ten on and engaged men who should ac
company me into the forest and carry home
the deer and the trout. If the mountains
could have seen and understood it at the
time there would ' have been panic among
the antlers and the fins through all the
"John Brown's Tract." Well, I am no
hunter, and not a roebuck or a game fish
did I injure. Bat there were hunters there
that season who had nothing but a plnin
gun and a rug to sleep on and a coil of fish
ing line and a bo,x of ammunition and bait,
who came in ever and anon with as many ot
the captives of forest and stream as they
and two or three attendants could
carry. Now. I fear that many Chris
tian workers who have most elabo
rate educational and theological and profes
sional equipment, and most wonderful . wea
ponry, sufficient, you would think, to cap
ture a whole community or a whole Nation
for God. will in the last day have but little
except their fine tackling to show, while
I some who had no advantage except that
wnicn tney got in prayer ana consecration
will, by the souls they have brought to the
shore of eternal safety, prove that they have
been gloriously successful as fishers of men,
and in taking many who, like the hart, were
panting after the water brooks.
;What made the Amalekites run before
Gideon's army? . Each one of the army knew
how much racket the breaking of one pitcher
would make. So SCO men that night took
300 pitchers and a lamp inside the pitcher,
and at a given signal the lamps were lifted
and the pitchers were violently dashed
down. The flash of light and the racket ot
the 300 demolished pitchers sent the enemy
! into wild flight. Not much of a weapon.
I you would say. Is a broken pitcher, but
j the Lord made that awful crash of
crockery the means of triumph for His
j-eople. And there is yet to be a battle
with the pitchers. The night of the
world's dissipation may get darker and
darker, but after awhile, in what watch of
the night I know not. all the ale pitchers,
and the wine pitchers, and the beer pitcners,
and the whisky pitchers of the earth will be
hurled into demolition by converted inebri
ates and Christian-reformers, and at that
awful crash of infernal crockery the Amade
kitisb host of pauperism and loaferdom and
domestic quarrel and cruelty and assas
sination will fly the earth. . Take- the
first weapon you can lay. your hands, on.
Why did David choose the sling when
he went at Goliath and Goliath went
at him? Brought up in the country, like
every other boy, he knew how to maa
age a sling. Saul's armor was first put oa
him. but the giant's armor was too hear
The helmet was clapped on him as an exl
tinguisher, and David said, "I cannot go
with these, for I have not proved them
And the first wise thing David did after
ting on Saul's armor was to put it off. Then
the brook Elah, the bed ot which was dry
when I saw it and one vast reach of pebbta
furnished tne nve smootn stones ot tne brook
with which Goliath was prostrated. Whether
it be a boy's sling or a broken pitcher or aa
oxgoad, take that which you can manage
and ask God for help, and no power on eait
or in hell can stand before you.
Go out. then.l 1 charge you, against th
Philistines. We must admit the odds are
against us 600 to one. In the matter of
dollars, those devoted to worldliness aad
sin and dissipation, when compared with the
dollars devoted to holiness and virtue-600
to one. The houses set apart for vice and
despoliation and ruin, as compared with
those dedicated to good 600 to one. Of
printed newspaper sheets scattered abroad
from day to day, those depraving as ccm
pared with those elevating are 600 to one.
The agencies' for making the world
worse compared with the agencies for
making the world better, 600 to one. But
Moses In his song, chants, "How should on&
.1 . J J A.H.v-k t 4 A AAA
cnase a inoustmu, uuu. iwv pui iu,wu 10
flight?" and In my text one oxgoad con
quers 600 uplifted battle-axes, and the dayaf '
universal victory is coming, unless the Bible
be a fabrication and eternity a myth and the
chariots of God, are unwheeled on the golden
streets, and the! last regimeut of the celestial
hosts lies dead on the plains of heaven.
With us or without us the work will
be done. Oh, get into the rank
somewhere, armed somehow; you with
a needle, you with a pen, you with
a good book, you with a loaf of
bread for the hungry, you with a vial of
medicine for the sick, you with a pair of
shoes for the barefooted, you with word of
encouragement for the young man trying to
get back from evil ways, you with some story
of the Christ jwho came to heal the worst
wounds and pardon the blackest guilt, and
call the farthest wanderer home. I say to
you as the watchman of London used to t&j
at night to the householders before the time
of street lamps came; "Hang out your light!'
"Hang out your light!"
TEMPERANCE.
.1 , '
SATAN'S "WANT AD. '
Johhson, the drunkard, is dying to-day.
With traces of sin on his face;
He'll be missed at the club, at the bar at the
play; I
Wanted: A boy for his place.
Simons, the gambler, was killed in a fight,
He died without pardon of grace,
Some one must train for his burden aal
blight; -Wanted:
A boy in his place.
j ' -
The scoffer, the idler, the convict, the thief.
Are lost; and jwithout any noise
Make it known, that there comes to my in
stant relief -
Some thousand or more of the boys.
I .
Boys from the fireside, boys from the'fars.
Boys from the home and the school.
Come, leave your misgivings, tnere cn b
no harm i
Where "drink and be merry's" the rule.
Wanted: For every lost servant of mine.
Someone to live without grace,
Some one to die without pardon divine
Will you be the boy for the place?
Hattie Horner Loutnaa.
WHO PATSJTHl . KILLS.
Who pays the Idlls? Who feeds the draafc-
nru s cmiuren: 1 v no proviues ior me uruu
aid's wife? Who supports the beggarly
tramps, who having wasted their inoueyin,'
drink, wander about the country? Who re-
nrfirQ th Incsc- mifH Viv th f.i!'irft nf ic-
temperate merchants and reckless and half
intoxicated business men? Who mttkes good
the damages caused by the blunders ol
drunken workmen, and the hindrances of
business caused by the sprees of intemperate
employes? Who pays for the railroad wrecks
oaused by drunken conductors and engineers?
Who builds the jasylums where crazy drunk
ards are keptVj Who supports the idiotic
children of drunken men? Who pays the at
torneys and juries and judges who try drunk
en criminals? ( Who pays the expenses
trials and commitments and executions oc?a
sioned by the crimes of drunken men? D
pays for the property destroyed and turned
by drunken men? Who builds and supports
almshouses, which but for drink might re
main unoccupied? Who endures the suffer
ing and losses and brutality, which are due
to the recklessness and insanity of drunken
husbands and fathers? Who pays for th it
quest held on drunkard found dea l by tne
wayside? Who pays for & pauper's clCj.
and for digging a gravein rotter's field.'. vaeu
the last glass has been drunk?
Who pays the: bills? The drunkard caano.
for he has wasted his substance in hi cap.
wiii the rumseller pay them? 1 no
you and I and the sober and industrious
toiling portion bf the community must aw-
all these biUs.-&ew England Evangelist.
I . - . :
DISSIPATION IN THE AK3IT.
The Globe of Council Bluffs, Io-xa. ?ays
that dissipation in the army has great iy in
creased since the canteen was estaoli---!- a?
nearly .every post or fort being located at
some distance from the town in its lo-ty,
where liquor was to be, obtained, tke
bauches of the soldiers formerly ocurr-'d
only on occasion of periodical v.-r.5
cuxrence.