A Cavalry Charge
2Ki_18:23 : ’93I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able to set riders upon them.’94
Up by the water-works, the upper reservoir of Jerusalem, the general of the besieging army and the generals of besieged Jerusalem are in consultation. Though General Rabshakeh had been liberally paid to stop the siege, he kept the money and continued the siege,’97the military miscreant! Rabshakeh derides the capacity of the city to defend itself, and practically says, ’93You have not two thousand men who can manage horses. Produce two thousand cavalrymen, and I will make you a present of two thousand cavalry horses. You have not, in all your besieged city of Jerusalem, two thousand men who can mount them, and, by bit and bridle, control a horse.’94 Rabshakeh realized that it is easier to find horses than skillful riders; hence he makes the challenge of the text, ’93I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able to set riders upon them.’94
Rabshakeh, like many other bad men, said a very suggestive thing. The world is full of great energies and great opportunities, but few know how to bridle them and mount them and manage them. More spirited horses than competent riders! The fact is that in the Church of God we have plenty of fortresses well manned, and plenty of heavy artillery, and plenty of solid columns of brave Christian soldiery, but what we most need is cavalry’97mounted troops of God’97for a sudden charge that seems almost desperate. If Washington, if New York, if London are ever taken for God, it will not be by slow bombardment of argumentation, or by regular unlimbering of great theological guns from the portholes of the churches, but by gallop of sudden assault and rush of holy energy that will astound and throw into panic the long lines of drilled opposition, armed to the teeth. Nothing so scares the forces of sin as a revival that comes, they know not whence, to do that which they cannot foresee, to work in a way they cannot understand. They will be overcome by flank movement. The church of God must double up their right or left wing. If they expect us from the north, we will take them from the south. If they expect us at twelve o’92clock at noon, we will come upon them at twelve o’92clock at night. The opportunities for this assault are great and numerous, but where are the men? ’93I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able to set riders upon them.’94
The opportunities of saving America and saving the entire planet were never so many, never so urgent, never so tremendous as now. Have you not noticed the willingness of the printing-press of the country to give the subject of evangelism full swing in column after column? Such work was formerly confined to tract distribution and religious journalism. Now the morning and evening newspapers, by hundreds and thousands of copies, give all the religious intelligence and print most awakening discourses. Never, since the world has stood, has such a force been offered to all engaged in the world’92s evangelization. Of the more than fifteen thousand newspapers on this continent, I do not know one that is not alert to catch and distribute all matters of religious information. I see a mighty suggestiveness in the fact that the first book of any importance that was ever published, after Johann Gutenberg invented the art of printing, was the Bible. Well might that poor man toil on, polishing stones and manufacturing looking-glasses, and making experiments that brought upon him the charge of insanity, and borrowing money, now from Martin Brether and now from Johann Faust, until he set on foot the mightiest power for the evangelization of the world. The statue in bronze which Thorwalsden erected for Gutenberg in 1837, and the statue commemorating him, by David D’92Angers in 1840, and unveiled amid all the pomp that military procession and German bands of best music could give the occasion, were insignificant compared with the fact, to be demonstrated before all the earth and all heaven, that Johann Gutenberg, under God, inaugurated forces which will yet accomplish the world’92s redemption. The newspaper press will yet announce nations born in a day. The newspaper press will report Christ’92s sermons yet to be delivered, and describe his personal appearance, if, as some think, he shall come again to reign on earth. The newspaper press may yet publish Christ’92s proclamation of the world’92s emancipation from sin and sorrow and death. Tens of thousands of good men in this and other lands have been ordained by the laying on of hands to preach the Gospel, but it seems to me that just now, by the laying on of the hands of the Lord God Almighty, the newspaper presses are being ordained for preaching the Gospel with wider sweep and mightier resound than we have ever yet imagined. The iron horses of the printing-press are all ready for the battle, but where are the men good enough and strong enough to mount and guide them? ’93I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able to set riders upon them.’94
Go out to the Soldiers’92 Home, and talk with the men who have been in the wars, and they will give you right appreciation of the importance of the cavalry service in battle. You hear the clatter of the hoofs, the whirr of the arrows, the clash of the shields and the bang of the carbines as they ride up and down the centuries. Clear back in time, Osymandyas led twenty thousand mounted troops in Bactriana. Josephus says that when the Israelites escaped from Egypt, fifty thousand cavalrymen rode through the parted Red Sea. Three hundred and seventy-one years before Christ, Epaminondas headed his troops at full gallop. Alexander, on a horse that no other man could ride, led his mounted troops. Seven thousand horsemen decided the struggle at Arbela. Although saddles were not invented until the time of Constantine, and stirrups were unknown until about four hundred and fifty years after Christ, you hear the neighing and snorting of war chargers in the greatest battles of the ages. Austerlitz, and Marengo, and Solferino were decided by the cavalry. The mounted Cossacks reinforced the Russian snowstorms in the obliteration of the French army. Napoleon said if he had only had sufficient cavalry at Bautzen and Lutzen, his wars would have triumphantly ended. I do not wonder that the Duke of Wellington had his old war horse, Copenhagen, turned out in the best pasture, and that the Duchess of Wellington wore a bracelet of Copenhagen’92s hair. Not one drop of my blood but tingles as I look at the arched neck and pawing hoof and panting nostril of Job’92s cavalry horse: ’93Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? He paweth in the valley: he goeth on to meet the armed man. The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.’94
Well, I think it is the cavalry of the Christian hosts, the men and women who, with bold dash and holy recklessness and spurred-on energies, are to take the world for God. To this army of Christian service belong the evangelists. It ought to be the business of the regular churches to multiply them, to support them, to cheer them, to clear the way for them. Some of them you like, and some of -them you do not like. You say some are too sensational, and some of them are not enough learned, and some of them are erratic, and some of them are too vehement, and some of them pray too loud. Oh, fold up your criticism, and let them do that which we, the pastors, can never do. I like all the evangelists I have ever seen or heard. They are busy now; they are busy every day of the week. While we, the pastors, serve God by holding the fortress of righteousness and drilling the Christian soldiery, and by marshaling anthems and sermons and ordinances on the right side, they are out smiting the forces of darkness ’93Hip and thigh, with great slaughter.’94 All success to them! The faster they gallop, the better I like it. The keener the lances they fling, the more I admire them. We care not what conventionality they infract, if they only gain the victory. Needham and Chapman, and Jones and Harrison, and Munhall, and Major Cole, and Crittenden, and a hundred others are now making the cavalry charge, and they are this moment taking New York and Philadelphia and Cincinnati for God, and I wish they might take our nation’92s capital. Hear the tremendous facts: There are now in this country nearly one hundred and eighty-six thousand church congregations, with nearly twenty-six million communicants, and seating capacity in church for more than forty-three million people; in other words, room in the churches for three-fourths of the population of this country, and about one-third of the population of this country Christian. In other words, each of us will have only to average bringing two souls to God during the next three years and our country is redeemed. Who cannot, under the power of the Holy Ghost, bring two souls to God in three years? As so many will bring hundreds and thousands to God, most of you will have to bring only one soul to him and the Gospel campaign for this continent will be ended. If you cannot bring one soul to God, or two souls, or three souls, you are no Christian, and deserve yourself to be shut out of heaven. The religious pessimists of this country are all the time depicting the obstacles as so great and our forces as so small, that half of the time we feel that we are attempting an impossibility. Take out of your prayers and preaching some of your stuffing of groans, and put in something of acclamation and triumph, and the United States will be Gospelized, and if the United States be Gospelized, America will be Gospelized, and, America Gospelized, we will take Asia from the Pacific beach, and Europe from the Atlantic beach, and not far from now, the lost star we live on will take its place among the constellations that never fell.
What two men can do for good or evil is impressed upon me by the fact that two Scotchmen, going to California, each took something that would remind him of his native country. The one took a thistle, the national emblem of Scotland; the other took a hive of bees. Years went by, and the work of those two Scotchmen is widely seen. The curse of the Pacific slope is the thistle, and the blessing of the Pacific slope is the honey found everywhere in the woods and fields. In your life, are you responsible for honey or thistles? If one man can do so much good, and another so much evil, how much could be done for the ransom of this country by the twenty-one million people, all consecrated?
Get out of the way, with your dolorous foreboding, and change your dirges for what we have not done, for the grand march of what we may do and will do. The woman at Sedan, in whose house Napoleon the Last was waiting to make surrender of himself and his army, said to the overthrown French Emperor, ’93What can I do for you?’94 And the despairing monarch replied, ’93Nothing, but draw down the blind so that I cannot be stared at.’94 In this Gospel campaign we have plenty to draw down the blinds. In God’92s name I say, pull up the blinds, and let the morning sun of the coming victory shine upon us. What we want in this campaign for God is the self-abnegation and courage of the men of Sir Colin Campbell who, as Lord Bishop Cowie of New Zealand, once chaplain of his army, told me, said to the troops: ’93Men, no retreat from this place. Die right here.’94 And they shouted: ’93Yes, Sir Colin; we will do it.’94 And they did.
Temporary defeats ought not to dishearten. What is Bunker Hill monument? Monument of defeat. But from that bloody mount, American independence started for its grandest achievement, and all the defeats of the cause of God are incipient victory.
Thy saints in all this glorious war
Shall conquer, though they die.
They see the triumph from afar
And seize it with their eye.
And now, standing as I do, in this National Capital, let me say that what we want in the Senate and House of Representatives and the Supreme Court is a pentecostal blessing that will shake the continent with divine mercy. There recently came into my hands the records of two Congressional prayer meetings, on the rolls of which were the names of the most eminent Senators and Representatives, who then controlled the destinies of this republic’97the one Congressional prayer meeting, held in 1857, and the other in 1866. The record is in the handwriting of the philanthropist, William E. Dodge, then a member of Congress. There are now more Christian men in the National Legislature than ever before. Why will they not band together in a religious movement which before the inauguration of the next President, shall enthrone Christ in the hearts of this nation? They have the brain, they have the eloquence, they have the influence. God grant them the grace sufficient! Who in Congressional circles will establish the next Capitoline prayer-meeting? Let the evening of the last year of this century be irradiated with religious splendor. There are the opportunities for a national and international charge, all bridled and saddled. Where are the riders to mount them?
Here also are opportunities all ready for those who would enter the kingdom of God. Christ said that the kingdom of heaven was to be taken by violence. By one flash you may enter. Quicker than any equestrian ever dashed through castle gate you may pass into the pardon and hope of the Gospel. As quickly as you can think ’93Yes’94 or ’93No,’94 as quickly as you can make a choice, so quickly may you decide the question of eternal destiny. No one was ever slowly converted. He may have been thinking about it forty years, but not one inch of progress did he make until the moment of assent, the very second in which he said ’93I will.’94 That instant decided all. Bring out the worst two thousand men in all the earth, and here are two thousand opportunities of immediate and eternal salvation. ’93I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able to set riders upon them.’94
The cavalry suggests speed. When once the reins are gathered into the hands of the soldierly horseman, and the spurs are stuck into the flanks, you hear the rataplan of the hoofs. ’93Velocity’94 is the word that describes the movement’97acceleration, momentum’97and what we want in getting into the kingdom of God is celerity. You see the years are so swift, and the weeks are so swift, and the days are so swift, and the hours are so swift, and the minutes are so swift, we need to be swift. For lack of this appropriate speed many do not get into heaven at all. Here we are in the last Sabbath of the year. Did you ever know twelve months quicker to be gone? The golden rod of one autumn speaks to the golden rod of the next autumn, and the crocus of one springtime to the crocus of another springtime, and the snowbanks of adjoining years almost reach each other in unbroken curve. We are in too much hurry about most things. Business men in too much hurry rush into speculations that ruin them and ruin others. People move from place to place in too great haste and they wear out their nerves, and weaken the heart’92s action. But the only thing in which they are afraid of being too hasty is the matter of the soul’92s salvation. Yet did any one ever get damaged by too quick repentance or too quick pardon or too quick emancipation? The Bible recommends tardiness, deliberation, and snail-like movements in some things, as when it enjoins us to be slow to speak, and slow to wrath, and slow to do evil, but it tells us, ’93The King’92s business requireth haste,’94 and that our days are as the flight of a weaver’92s shuttle, and ejaculates, ’93Escape for thy life. Look not behind thee; neither stay thou in all the plain.’94 Other cavalry troops may fall back, but the mounted years never retreat. They are always going ahead, not on an easy canter, but at full run. Other regiments hear the command of ’93Halt!’94 and pitch their tents for the night. The regiments of the years never hear the command of ’93Halt!’94 and never pitch tent for the night.
The century leads on its troop of a hundred years, and the year leads on its troop of three hundred and sixty-five days, and the day leads on its troop of twenty-four hours, and the hour leads on its troop of sixty minutes, and all are dashing out of sight. Perhaps there are two years in which we are most interested’97our first and our last. Held up in our mother’92s arms, we watched the flight of the first. With wondering eyes we all watch the coming of the last. The name of that advancing year we cannot call. It may be in the nineties of this century, it may be in the tens or twenties or thirties of the next century, but is coming at full gallop. With what mood will we meet it. In jocosity? as did Thomas Hood, in the last moment saying, ’93I am dying out of charity to the undertaker, who wishes to earn a lively Hood.’94 Or in fear? as did Thomas Paine, saying in his last moment, ’93Oh, how I dread this mysterious leap in the dark.’94 Or in boastfulness? as did Vespasian, saying in his last moment, ’93Ah! Methinks I am becoming a god.’94 Or in frivolity? as did Demonax, the infidel philosopher, saying in his last moment, ’93You may go home; the show is over.’94 Or conscience-stricken? as did Charles IX of France, saying in his last moment, ’93Nurse! Nurse! What murder! What blood!’94 Or shall we meet it in gladness of Christian hope? like that of Julius Charles Hare, who said in his last moment, ’93Upwards! Upwards!’94 Or like that of Martin of Tours, saying in his last moment, ’93I go to Abraham’92s bosom’94? Or like that of polished Addison, who said in his last moment, ’93See with what ease a Christian can die’94? Or like that of George Whitefield, who felt that he had said all that he could of Christ, declaring in his last moment, ’93I shall die silent’94? Or like that of Mrs. Schimmelpennich, who said in her last moment, ’93Do you not hear the voices? And the children’92s are the loudest’94? Or like that of Dragonnatti, saying in his last moment, ’93Stand aside! I see my father and my mother coming to kiss me’94? Or as did the dying girl who, having a few evenings before sat on a bench in a London mission, was seen to have tears of contrition rolling down her cheek, and who, departing from the room, had put in her hand by a Christian woman, a Bible, with the passage marked, ’93The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin’94? Though having promised to be at the next meeting, she did not come. The Christian woman who gave her the Bible was visiting the hospital, and the nurse said to her, ’93I wish you had been here a little while ago. We had a young woman here who had been run over by a wagon. Poor thing! She was fearfully crushed, and died almost at once. She had a Bible in her hand, with your name in it, and she said when she was brought in, ’91Thank God! I found Christ my Saviour last night. The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.’92’93 Oh, my friends, if all right for the next world, the years cannot gallop past too rapidly. If it were possible for the centuries to take the speed of the years, and the years the speed of the days, and the days the speed of the hours, they could do us no harm. The shorter our life, the longer our heaven. The sooner we get out of the perils of this life, if our work be done, the better. No man is safe till he is dead. Better men than we have been wrecked, and at all ages. Lord and Lady Napier were on horseback on a road in India. Lord Napier suddenly said to Lady Napier, ’93Ride on and fetch assistance, and do not ask me why.’94 She sped on and was soon out of sight. The fact was a tiger’92s eyes glared on them from the thicket, and he did not dare to tell her, lest affrighted, she fall in the danger and perhaps lose her life. From all sides of us, on this road of life, there are perils glaring on us, from tigers of temptation, and tigers of accident, and tigers of death, and the sooner we get out of the perils of this life the better. Let each year take the place of its predecessor, and our souls will be landed where there shall be ’93nothing to hurt or destroy in all God’92s holy mount.’94 ’93No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.’94
Autor: T. De Witt Talmage