FLINT vs. PEWTER by J. Clarke

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 10, 1860

FLINT vs. PEWTER.

By J. Clarke

"For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed." Isa. l, 7.

There was not much pewter in the composition of the ancient prophets, or they would have been ashamed in the presence of kings, who disdained their messages, and threw their communications into the fire, or cut them up with their pen-knives. See Jer. xxxvi, 23.

A flint! You may strike it with the hardest steel, and all the effect produced, is sparks of fire emitted; and the harder and swifter the blows, the more fire; so the inflexible prophet, you cannot move him.

But not so with all. Some try to serve the Lord who are so largely mixed up with pewter, that their edge is battered up at the least temptation, and all the efforts of brethren cannot keep them sharp and even-tempered.

One is enamored of fashion, and away she goes for the bloated fashions of the times; another is after the world, and the prayer-meeting is forgotten, and his family are allowed to run untrained, uncultivated, with books and teachers close at hand, who love the truth so much as to offer freely to train the young in the path of truth; another is bent on this and that, until the head and front of the image of God in man is defaced, even as an axe of pewter would be blunted, in contact with the hard and knotty oak.

Men of pewter! They had better at once cease trying to serve God in these times, when all the force of law and opinions are brought to bear upon them, to beat down their edge. O how bad, how pitiful they look as they bend to this breeze, then to that; now leaning hither, next thither; now wanting to please this friend, now that; now they are determined to go through with God's people, and everything must bend to this; next their inclinations draw them to make a concession to stubborn wives or graceless sons, or silly daughters. Thus the man of pewter repents, comes back, vetoes former concessions, storms, resolves, breaks his resolutions, next keeps them, now breaks them again, like the reeling drunkard who stands still, as he thinks, while the earth comes up and strikes him in the face.

Pewter! no, give us men of flint, who are right there. Strike them, batter their edge, can you do it? Try to sway them this way or that, influence them, control them, pull them down, can you do it? Could Ahab or Jezebel control Elijah? Could Jeremiah lay down his armor at the command of a court, or council? Would Peter and John stop speaking in Jesus' name?

But, says Bro. Pewter, this matter is so small about fashions, &c., let our children be a little free and easy; or says sister Pewter, it is so inconvenient I do not think God will be offended. Says another, It is not dishonest to do this little business transaction, God does not notice such things. Ah! says Bro. Flint, may you be purged from your sins, or may the church be purged of its clogs; and so says the Spirit, if I mistake not.