News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-05-08
A SERMON FOR WORKERS
REV. DR.. TALMAGE breaches ELO-
oUENTLY TO BUSINESS MEN.

Ills Text Taken from job: ST Am Es-
caped with the Skin of My Teeth"
Weary Laborers Can Find Peace in
Gods Haven.
BROOKLYN, May AFTER the Long
meter Doxology and appropriate
hymns had been sung by the congre-
CATION, in the Academy of Music, and
prayers had been offered, DR.. Talmage
preached on Marrow Escapes, " taking
as his text Job xix, 20: L am escaped
with the skin of my teeth" Following
is his sermon in full:
Job had it hard. What with boils
and bereavement and bankruptcy, and
a fool of a wife, he wished he was
dead; and l do not blame him. His
flesh was gone, and his bones were dry.
His teeth wasted away until nothing
but the enamel seemed left. He cries
out, I am escaped with the skin of
my teeth. There has been some diff
ference 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,
''XNhat did Job know about the en-
amel Of the teeth?'' He knew every
thing about it. Dental surgery is al
most as old as the earth. The mum
mics Of Egypt, thousands of years old,
are found today with gold filing in
their teeth. Ovid and Horace and
Solomon and Moses wrote about these
important factors of the body. To
other provoking complaints, Job, 1
think, has added an exasperating
toothache, and putting his hand
against the inhamed face, he says, 4
am escaped with the skin Of my teeth. )"
NARROW ESCAPES.
\ very narrow escape, you say, for
Jobs body and soul; but there are
thousands of men who make just as
narrow escape for their soul. There
was a time when the partition between
them and ruin was no thicker than a
tooth's enamel; but as job finally es-
capped, 50 have they. Thank Godl
Thank God!
Paul expresses the same idea by a
different figure when he says that some
people are saved as by fire." A vessel
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 until the forbed tongue of the
fire begins to lick the back of your
hand, and you feel that you must fall,
when one of the lifeboats comes 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 pur-
sued by temptation until they are par
TALLY consumed, but. after all, get off
saved as by FIRE" But l like the
figure of Job little better than that
Of Paul, because the pulpit has not
worn it out; and l 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 for some people to look
to the cross as for you to look to this
pulpit Mild, gentle, tractable, low
ing, you expect them to become Chris
tians. You go over to tie store and
say: 'Grandon Joined the church yes
terday" Your business comrades say:
That is just what might have been
expected: he always was Of chat turn
of mind In youth this person whom
describe was always good. He never
broke things. He never laughed when
it was improper to laugh. At 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.
THE GOSPEL NET.
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 house roof to see if he could
balance himself. There was no horse
that he dared not ride-no tree he
could not climb. His boyhood was a
long series of predicaments; his man
hood was reckless; his midlife very
Bat now he Is converted,
and you go over to the store and say,
'Arkwrigit joined the church yester-
day" Your friends say, 1T is not
possible! 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
has become a Christian
In other words, we Will admit that it
is more difficult for some men to &C
cePt the Gospel than for others
I 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 be-
coming Christians themselves, but
just to see what IS going on; and yet
you may find yourself escaping, be
fore you leave this house, as with the
skin of your teeth. | do not expect
to waste this hour. l have seen boats
go off from Cape May or Long Branch,
and drop their nets, and after awhile
come ashore pulling in the nets, with
out having caught a single fish. 1t
was not a good day, or they had not
the right kind of a net. But we ex-
pect no such excursion today. The
water is full of fish, the wind is in the
right direction, the Gospel net is
strong. On thou who didst help ST.
mon and Andrew to fish, show US to-
day how 80 cast the net on the right
side of the ship!
Some of you, in coming to God, will
have to run against skeptical notions.
1t IS useless for people to say sharp and
cutting things to those who reject the
Christian religion. cannot say such
things. By what process of tempta-
ton or trial or betrayal you have come
to your present state, | kn.v not.
There are two gates to your nature;
the gate of the head, and the gate Of
the heart. The gate OF your head is
locked with bolts and bars that an arch
angel could not break, but the gate Of
your heart swings easily ON its hinges.
II 1 assaulted your body with weapons,
you would meet me with weapons. and
it would be sword stroke for sword
stroke. and wound for wound. and