Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-05-08
SERMON FOR WORKERS
rALMAeE BREACHES ELooUKNrLY
TO BUSINESS MEN.
Bis Text Taken from Jobs 81 Ana Escaped
with the skin OF MY Teeth" Weary
LabOrers Can find Peacs In Gods
Haven.

In the Academy OF Music, Brooklyn, N. Y,
on Sunday morning, Nay 4. sfter the Long
meter Doxology and appropriate hymns
had been sung by the congregation and
PRAYERS had been offered. DR.. Talmage
preached on Marrow Escapes taking as
his text job xix, 20: I am escaped with
the skin Of my tceth.' Following is his SER
mon in full:
Job had it hard What with boils and be-
reavement and bankruptcy. and fool of a
wife. he wished he was dead; and 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. Il am escaped with the skin
Of my teeth. There has been some differ
ence OF opinion ab0ht this passage. St
Jerome and Schultens. and Drs. Good and
Poole and Barnes. have all tried their for
ceps on Jobs teeth. You deny my interpre-
tation, and say. What did Job know about
the enamel of the teeth?" He knew every
thing about it. Dental surgery is almost as
old as the earth. The mummies of Egypt,
thousands OF years old. are found to-day
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,
think, has added an exasperating tooth
ache. and putting his hand against his in
famed face, he says, Il am escaped with
the skin OF my teeth"
A 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 tooth's enamel; but rs Job
finally escaped. so have they, Thank Godi
Thank Godl
Paul expresses the same idea by differ
ent figure when he says that some people
are saved as by fire." A vessel at sea is in
flames. Houigo to the stern OF the vessel.
The boats have showed off. The flames ad-
vance; 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 forked 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 pursued
by temptation until they are partially con-
sumed. but. after all. get off-"saved as by
fire." But like the figure of Job little
better than that of Paul, because the pulpit
has not worn it out; and I want to show you,
If God will help, that some men make mar
row escape for their souls, and are saved as
with the skin Of their teeth"
the cross as for you to look to this pulpit.
Mild. gentle, tractable. loving. you expect
them to become Christians. You go over
to the store and say: "Grandon Joined the
church yesterday" Your business COM
rades say: THAT is just what might have
been expected; he always was of that turn
of mind" In youth this person whom 1
describe was always good. He never broke
things. He never laughed when 1t was i'm
proper 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 fioated 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 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 manhood
reckless; his midlife very wayward. But
now he is converted. and you go over to the
store and say. Arkwright Joined the church
Your friends say. 1T is not
possiblel You must be joking" You say,
mo; / tell you the truth. He Joined the
church." Then they reply. There is hope
for any of us il old Arkwright has become a
Christianl" In other words, we will admit
that it is more difficult for some men to ac-
cept the Gospel than for others.
may be preaching to some who have cut
loose from churches and Bibles and Sun
days, and who have come in here with no
Of becoming Christians them
selves, 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 expect to waste this
hour. have seen boats go off from Cape
May or Long Branch, and drop their nets,
and after awhile come ashore pulling in the
nets, without having caught a single fish.
It was not a good day. or they had not the
right kind OF net But we expect no such
excursion to-day. The water is full Of fish,
the wind is in the right direction, the Cos
pei net is strong. Oh thou who didst help
Simon and Andrew to fish, show us to-day
how to east the net on the right side OF the
shipl
Some of you, In coming to God, will have
to run against skeptical notions. It Is use-
less for people to say sharp and cutting
things to those who reject the Christian
religion. l cannot say such things, By
what process of temptation or trial or be-
Erayal YOU have come to your present state,
know 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 archangel could
not break, but the gate OF your heart swings
easily on its hinges. If I 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 blood for blood; but If come
and knock at the door of your house. you
open it, and give nae the best seat in your
parlor. If / should come at you now with
an argument, you would answer me with an
ii with sarcasm, you would an
5wer me with sarcasm; blow for blow,
stroke for stroke; but when I come and
knock at the door of your heart, you open
It and say, Come in, my brother, and tell
me all you know about Christ and heaven"
Listen to two or three questions: Are
you as happy as you used to be when you
believed in the truth OF the Christian re-
igion2 Would you like to have your chill
iren travel on in the road in which YOU are
now travelling? You had a relative who
professed to be Christian. and was thor
oughly consistent. living and dying in the
,aith of the Gospel. Would you not like to
i've the same quiet life, and die the same
peaceful death? / have letter, sent me by
,ne who has rejected the Christian religion.
It says: Il am old enough to know that the
Joys and pleasures Of life are evanescent.
thu W rodh10 JIG ltct tubG IL luuSI Do cOm-
'ortable in old age TO believe in something
relative to the future, and to have faith in
some system that proposes to save. am
rec to confess that would be happier II
could exercise the simple and beautiful
aith that is possessed by many whom
know. / am not willingly out of the church
,r out of the faith. My state of uncertainty
IS one OF unrest. Sometimes / doubt my
and look upon the death-bed
rs the closing scene. after which there is
nothing. What shall do that / have not
done" I
Ali skepticism is a dark and doleful land.