Connecticut western news., 1890-05-07
A SERMON FOR WORKERS
REV. DR. TALMAGE BREACHES ELO- QUENTLY TO BUSINESS MEN.

QUENTLY TO BUSINESS MEN.
 His Text Taken from Job: ''I Am Es-
 capped with tho Skin of My Teeth.''
 Weary Laborers Can Find Peace in
 Gods Haven.
 BROOKLYN, May 4-After the Long meter Doxology and appropriate hymns had been sung by the congre- gation, in the Academy of Music, and prayers had been offered, Dr. Talmage preached on "Narrow Escapes, taking as his text Job xix, 20: II 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 fool of a wife, he wished he was dead; and I 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, 1T 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, ssWhat did Job know about the en- amel of the teeth2" 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 filling in their teeth. Ovid and Horace and Solomon and Moses wrote about these important factors of the body. To other provoking complaints, Job, I think, has added an exasperating toothache, and putting his hand against the infamed face, he says, II am escaped with the skin of my teeth" NARROW ESCAPES.
 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 time when the partition between them and ruin was no thicker than a tooth's enamel; but as Job finally es- caped, so have they. Thank God! | Thank God! ... | Paul expresses the same idea by different figure when he says that some people are "saved as by fire" A vessel at sea is Ill 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 l fingers until the forked tongue of the l 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. l you are saved. So some men are pur- sued by temptation until they are par tially consumed, but, after all, get off -"saved as by fre." But I like the 1 figure of Job little better than that of Paul, because the pulpit has not worn it 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 for some people to look to the cross as for you to look to this pulpit. Mild, gentle, tractable, lov- ing, you expect them to become Chris tians. You go over to the store and say: Brandon joined the church yes terday" Your business comrades say |: ''That is just what might have been expected; he always was of that turn of mind" In youth this person whom I 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 decrees. 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 uncontrollab. rit 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 wayward. But now he is converted, and you go over to the store and say, "Arkwright joined the church yester- day." Your friends say, Ut 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 Arkwright has become Christian p 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 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. I 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 single fish. Ii was not good day, or they had not the right kind of 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. Oh thou who didst help Si mon and Andrew to fish, show us to- day how to cast the net on the right