GRACELESS GIANTS | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Feb 3, 1887

GRACELESS GIANTS.

ONE of the most popular preachers of the day, and one especially blessed to young men, is the Rev. Thain Davidson, of London. Preaching from the giants of the early days (Gen. 6:4) he says:—

“It is a grand thing, no doubt, to have a stalwart frame, a robust physique; but there is just a little tendency in certain quarters to worship mere animal force, and to go in for what is called a muscular Christianity. A gymnasium is an excellent thing, but it won't do much for the soul.

“You want to be developed all round. A broad chest, a tall figure, and a stalwart arm are excellent in their way; but I have in my mind's eye certain young fellows whose ambition seems to reach no higher; and, therefore, I think it as well to remind you that, amongst the biggest giants that have trod the earth, have been some of the most depraved and unmitigated scoundrels ever known.

“I want to know what those giants of the olden time did for the human race? In what respect was the world the better for their existence? What memorials have they left behind them on the earth to awaken our gratitude? I know of none. Where mere corporal magnitude and animal strength have been worshiped, there has generally been a corresponding short-coming as regards mental and moral proportions; even as the fabled Titans of Grecian and Egyptian mythology were not more distinguished for their stature than they were for their imbecility and cruelty.

“‘Were I so tall to reach the pole, Or grasp the ocean with my span, I must be measured by my soul; The mind's the standard of the man.’

“Behold Goliath of Gath, with terrific form and swaggering mien, stepping forth to defy the armies of the living God: and lo! a pebble hurled by a shepherd boy lays the monster low. ‘Fling but a stone, the giant dies!’ And then look at Paul, a little, feeble man, pale and puny in physique, but grand in moral majesty and intellectual strength, causing the Roman Procurator Felix to tremble in his presence!

“Saul of the Old Testament, the first king of Israel, was a man of goodly physical proportions—standing head and shoulders above all his fellows, he must have had a portly and commanding presence. Yet who can read his history without perceiving that in character, in all that constitutes real manhood, he was a poor weakling? Jealous, pusillanimous, and irresolute, he was kingly in nothing but in bodily figure. Why, little Zaccheus, of Jericho, turned out a better man than he.

“Now the Christian church should be a manufactory of men. Here all the elements of a true and noble manhood should be developed. The normal type of manhood can never be reached except in Christ Jesus. I assert that no man can be a man, in the full sense of that splendid and magnificent monosyllable, who is not a Christian. Till you come to this you are dwarfed, you are pinched, you are belittled; only from the moment of conversion do you really begin to grow up towards perfect men, and the stature of the fullness of Christ.”—N. Y. Observer.