Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-05-08
Discourse of Rev. DR.. Talmage in
the City of Brooklyn,
His Text: 81 Am Escaped with the Skin
OF Ny Teeth"-He Explains Some
Differences of Opinion.
You VIII Never be Saved Until You Hoist Some
Signal of Distress, However Weak
and Feeble It May Be.
Special to the Gazette.

long-meter doxology and appropriate
hymns had been sung by the congrega-
ton, in the Academy of Music, and
prayer had been offered, Dr.. Talmage
preached on ''Narrow Escapes, - taking
as his text Job xix. 20. 81 am escaped
with the skin of my teeth. - Following
is his sermon in full:
Job had it hard. What with boils and
bereavements and bankruptcy land a fool
of a wife, he wished he was dead; and
do not blame him. His flesh was gone,
and HE bopes were dry. His teeth
wasted away until nothing but the
enamel seemed left. He cries out, 81
am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
There has been some difference OF
opinion about this passage. st. Jerome
and Schultens, and Drs. Good and
Poole and Barnes, have all tried their
forceps on Jobs teeth. You deny my
Interpretation, and say, "What did JOB
know about the enamel of the teethY -
He knew everything about 1t. Dental
surgery is almost as old as the earth.
The mummies of Egypt, thousands of
years old, are found to-day with gold
nliing In their teeth. Ovid and Horace
and Solomon and Moses wrote about
these important factors Of the body. To
other provoking complaints, JOB, l
think, has added an exaspersting tooth
ache, and putting his hand against the
inflamed face, he says: 81 am escaped
with the skin of my teeth.
A very narrow escape you say, for
Jobs body and soul; but there are thou
sands of men who make just as narrow
escape for their soul. There was time
when the partition between them and
ruin was no thicker than tooth's en-
amel; but as Job finally escaped, SO have
they. Thank God thank Godl
Paul expresses the same idea by a diff
ferent figure when he says that some
people are "saved as by fre.' A YES
sci at sea is in flames. You go to the
stern of the vessel. The boats have
showed off. The flames advance; you
can endure the heat no longer on your
face. You slide down on the side OF the
vessel and hold on with your fingers I'M
til the forked tongue of the fire begins to
lick the back of your hand, and you feel
that you must fail, when one of the life
boats come back and the passengers say
they think they have
ROOM FOR ONE MORE.
The boat swings under You-You drop
into it-you are saved. So some men are
pursued by temptation until they are
partially consumed, put, after all, get
Off saved rs by fire. But like the
figure of Job little better than that of
Paul, because the pulpit has not worn 1t
out; and / want TO show you, If GOD will
help, that some men make narrow escape
for their souls, and are saved as "with
the skin Of their teeth. -
It is as easy foF'some people to look to
the cross as for you 10 look to this pull
pit. Mid, gentle, traotsble, loving,
you expect them to, become Christians.
You go over to the store and say:
"Grandon joined the church yester-
day. - Your business comrades say:
''That is Just what might have been ex-
pected; he always was Of that turn of
mind. a" In youth, this person whom l
describe was always good. He never
broke things. He never laughed when
st was improper to laugh. At seven, he
could sit an hour in church, perfectly
quiet, looking neither TO the right hand
nor TO the left, but straight into the eyes
of the minister, as though he understood
the whole discussion about the eternal
DEGREES. He never upset things nor lost
them. He foated into the kingdom of
God SO gradually that it is uncertain just
when the matter was decided.
Here is another one, who started in life
with an uncomfortable spirit. He kept
the nursery in an uproAr. His mother
found him walking on the edge Of the
heuse-roof TO see If lie could balance
himself There was 10 horse that he
dared not ride-no tree he could not
climb. His boyhood was long series of
predioaments; his manhood was reck-
less: his mid-life very hayward. But
now he is converted, and you go over to
the store and say, cartwright joined
the church yesterdey.' Your friends
say: ''It is not possiblel You must be
Joking You say: "No; tell you the
truth. He joined the church. - Then
they reply: ''There is hope for any of US
If old Arkwright has become Chris
tianl" In other words, we will admit
that il is more difficult for some men to
accept the Gospel than for others.
/ may be preaching to some who have
cut loose from churches and Bibles and
Sundays, and who have come in here
with no intention of becoming Christians
themselves, but
JUST TO SEE WHAT is GOING on;
and yet you may find yourself escaping,
before you leave this house, as with
the skin of your teeth" do not ex-
pect to waste this hour. have seen
boats go of from Cape May or Long
Branch, and drop their nets, and
after awhile come ashore, pull
ing in the nets, without having
caught single fish. It was not good
day, or they had not the right kind Of
G net. But We expect no such excursion
to-day. The water is fun Of fish, the
wind is in the right direction, the Gospel
net lie strong. oh thou who dIdst help
Simon and Andrew to fish, show Us to-
day how to cast the net on the right side
OF the ship!
Some OF you, in coming to God, will
have 70 run against soeptical notions. 1t
Is useless for people to say sharp and
cutting things to those who reject the
Christian religion. I cannot say such
things. BY what process of temptation
or trial or betrayal you have come to
your present state, know not. There
are two gates to your nature; the gate
OF tbs head and the gate of the heart.
The gats of your head is locked with
bolts and bars that an Rrchangel could
not break, but the gate OF your heart
swings easily on its hinges. II / as
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