The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-12
SHAVING OF THE NATIONS.
DR.. Talmage Discourses Of Gods Judg-
ments and How They Are Executed.
Punishments with Which the Sons of Men
Should Not Meddle-The instruments
with Which Nations Are Punished.
Special to the Indianapolis Journal.


zor." The Brooklyn Tabernacle was crowded.
At all the services held there are present people
from all parts Of this land and from foreign
lands One characteristic-of the audience is the
great number of clergymen present Before the
sermon to-day DR.. Talmage read and expounded
the twenty fourth chapter of the First Book of
Samuel, the story of David allowing Saul, his
enemy, to escape, taking only piece of his robe
by which Saul might afterwards see that David
had him in his power. The opening hymn was:
'The morning light is breaking
The darkness disappears,
The sons of men waking
To penitential tears"
Dr. Talmage's text as from Isaiah vii, 20: SIN
the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor
that is hired, namely. by them beyond the
river, by the King of Assyria." He said:
The Bible is the boldest book ever written.
There are no simiitudes in Ossian, or the Iliad,
or the Odyssey so daring. It's imagery some
times seems on the verge of the reckless, but
only seems so. The fact is that God would
startle and arouse, and propel men and nations.
A tame and limping similitude would fail
to accomplish the object. While there are
times when He employs in the Bible the gentle
dew, and the morning cloud, and the dove. and
the daybreak, in the presentation of truth, we
often find the iron chariot, the lightning. the
earthquake, the spray. the sword. and, in my
text, the razor
This keen baded instrument has advanced in
usefulness with the ages In Bible times and
lands the beard remained uncut save in the sea-
sons Of mourning and humiliation, but the razor
was always suggestive symbol David says of
Doeg, his antagonist: "Thy tongue is a sharp
razor working deceitfuly;" that u.s. it pretends
to clear the face but is really used for deadly in
cision. In this mornings text this weapon of
the toilet appears under the following circum-
stances Judea needed to have some of its pros
perites cut off, and God sends against it three
Assyrian kings-frst Sennacherib, then Esra-
haddon, and afterward ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS These
three sharp invasions that cut down the glory of
Judea are compared to SO many sweeps of the
razor across the face of the land. And these cir
cumstances were called hired razor because
God took the kings of Assyria with whom He
had no sympathy, to do the work, and paid them
inpalaces, and spoils, and annexations These
kings were hired to execute the divine behests.
And now the text which on its first reading may
have seemed trivial inapt, is charged with
momentous import: 'In the same day shall the
Lord shave with razor that is hired namely
by them beyond the river. by the King Of AS
SYRIA
WEAPONS THAT SHOULD BE CAREFULLY USED.
Well, if Gods judgments are razors, we had
better be careful how we them on other PEG
pie In careful sheath these domestic weapons
are put away where no one by accident may
touch them. Such instruments must be
carefully handled, or not handled at
all. But how reeklessly some people
WELD the judgments of God! If man meet with
business misfortune, how many there are ready
to cry outs ''That Is a judgment of God upon
him because he was INSCRIPTIONS. arrogant,
overreaching, or misery. I thought he
would get cut down. What clean sweep of
everything! His city house and country house
gone. His stables emptied of all the fine bays,
and sorrels, and grays that used to prance by his
door. All his resources overthrown, and thst he
prided himself on tumbIed into demolition
Good FOR himl' Stop, my brother. Don't sling
around too freely the judgments of God, for they
are razors. Some of the most wicked business
men succeed. and they live and die in prosperity,
and some of the most honest and conscientious
are driven into bankruptcy. Perhaps his man
ner was unfortunate, and he was not really as
proud as lie looked to be. Some Of those who
carry their head erect and look imperial are hum
bic as child, while many man in seedy coat
and SLOUGH hat and unblacked shoes is as proud
as Lucifer.. You cannot tell by mans look.
Perhaps he was not INSCRIPTIONS in business,
for there are two sides to every story, and every
body that accomplishes anything for himself or
others gets industriously lied about Perhaps
his business misfortune was not punishment,
but the fathery discipline to prepare him for
heaven, and God may love him far more than He
loves you who pay dollar for dollar and are put
down in the commercial catalogue as AL. Whom
the Lord loveth He giveth four hundred thou
sand dollars and lets die on embroidered pillowY
No; whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth Bet
ter keep your hand off the Lords raZors, lest
they cut and wound people that do not deserve
it, If you want to shave off some of the bristing
pride of your own heart do SO; but be very
careful how you put the sharp edge
on others. How l do dislike the behavior of
those persons who, when people are unfortunate,
say: Il told you so-getting punished-served
him right" If those I-tod- y GU SOS got their de-
sert they would long ago have been pitched over
the battlements The mote in their neighbours
eyes, 80 small that it takes microscope to find
it, gives them more trouble than the beam which
obscures their own optics With air sometimes
supercilious and sometimes Pharisaical and
always blasphemous, they take the razor of di-
vine judgment and sharpen it on the hone of
their own hard hearts, and then go to work on
men sprawled out at full length under disaster
cutting mercilessly They begin by soft ex-
pressions of sympathy, and pity. and half
praise, and lather the victim all over before
they put on the sharp edge. Let us be caref ul
how we shoot at others, lest we take down the
wrong one, remembering the servant of King
William Rufus, who shot at deer. but the arrow
glanced against a tree and killed the king. In
stead of going out with shafts to pierce and ra-
zors to cut, we had better initiate the friend
of Richard Ceur de Lion, who in the war of the
Crusades was captured and imprisoned, but none
of his friends knew where. So his disciple
went around the land from penitentiary to peni-
Tertiary and sang at each window snatch of
song that Richard Cour de Lion had taught him