Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-10-22
THE SWORD OF ELEAZAR.
AsERMoN ON THE GOODNESS, DOUBT
AND UNBELIEF OF THIS AGE.

Sad Gases of Christians Who Believe bu
Part of the Bible, of Men Who Doubt
Everything and of Self Styled Chris
tians Who Shrink from the Conflict.
BROOKLYN, Oct I1.-Among the vast au-
diences which crowd the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle at every service are large numbers of
young men, many of whom are theological
students. DR.. Talmage's sermon this
morning had special interest for them.
At this time when so many are giving up
the Bible, or holding the truth less firmly
than before, the eloquent preacher put
himself on record so clearly and forcibly
that no one who heard him could have any
doubt as to his attitude. His text was II
Samuel xiii, 10. "And his hand clave unto
the sword"
A great general of King David was
Eleazar, the hero of the text. The Philis-
tines opened battle against him, and his
troops retreated. The towards fed. Eleazar
and three of his comrades went into the
battle and swept the field, for four men
with God on their side are stronger than
whole battalion with God against them.
Fall backP' shouted the commander of
the Philistine army. The cry ran along the
host, Fall backW Eleazar having swept
the field throws himself on the ground to
rest, but the muscles and sinews of his
hand had been so long bent around the hilt
of the sword that the hilt was imbedded in
the flesh, and the gold wire of the hilt had
broken through the skin of the palm of the
hand, and he could not drop this sword
which he had so gallantly welded. His
hand clave unto the sword" That is what
| call magnificent fighting for the Lord
God of Israel And we want more of it.
propose to show you this morning how
Eleazar took hold of the sword and how
the sword took hold of Eleazar look at
Eleazar's hand, and | come to the conclu-
sion that he took the sword with very
tight grip. The towards who fed had no
trouble in dropping their swords. AS they
fly over the rocks hear their swords clang-
ing in every direction. 1t is easy enough for
them to drop their swords. But Eleazar's
hand clave unto the sword.
Oh, my friends, in this Christian conflict
we want tighter grip of the Gospel
weapons, tighter grasp of the two edged
sword Of the truth. 1t makes me sad to
see these Christian people who hold only a
truth go, so that the Philistines, seeing the
loosened grasp, wrench the whole sword
away from them The only safe thing fol
us to do Is to put our thumb ON the book
of Genesis and sweep our hand around ths
book until the New Testament comes into
the palm, and keep on sweeping our HAND
around the book ';ntil the tips of the fingers
clutch at the w"r.is, I'm the beginning Goo
created the heavens and the earth" I like
an infidel great deal better than do one
!, , Of these namby-pamby Christians who hole
i part of the truth and let the rest go. By
J miracle God preserved this Bible Just as il
! is, and it is Damascus blade. The severes
. test to which a sword can be put in sworC
9 factory is to wind the blade around Il guI
barrel like ribbon, and then when tn,
sword is let loose it flies back to its owl
t shape So the sword of Gods truth ha!
been fully tested, and it is bent this wa.
and that way, and wound this way ant
that way, but it always comes back t,
its own shape. Think of It'll A book writ
ten eighteen centuries ago, and some of i
q thousands of years ago, and yet in our tim
Y the average sale of this book is more thai
twenty thousand copies every week. ant
T. more than million copies year. l sa,
now that book which is divinely inspired
and divinely kept and divinely scattered i
a weapon worth holding tight grip OF
Bishop Colenso will come along and try t.
# wrench out of your hand the five books o
c Moses, and Strauss will come along ant
try to wrench out of your hand the mil
acles, and Renan will come along and tr
r to wrench out of your hand the entire lif
, of the Lord Jesus Christ, and your assc
ciates in the store, or the shop, Or the fae
e tory, or the banking house will try t
p wrench out of your hand the entire Bible
a but in the strength of the Lord God G
e Israel, and with Eleazar's grip, hold on
a a it. You give up the Bible, you give up an
: part of it, and you give up pardon an
g peace and life and heaven.
u THE NoTHINGARIANs' CREED.
y see hundreds, perhaps thousands, Q
young men in this audience. Do not b
:! ashamed, young man, to have the worl
e know that you are friend of the Bible
}, This book is the friend of all that is goo
y and it is the sworn enemy of all that
>. bad An eloquent writer recently gives q
e incident of very bad man who stood i
:; the cell of western prison. This crimins
!. =. had gone through all styles of crime, an
l. he was there waiting for the gallows. Th
q convict standing there at the window {
'i the cell, this writer says, "looked out an
declared, I am an intidel.' He said tha
e. to all the men and women and childre
N N who happened to be gathered there I al
an infidel,'" and the eloquent writer say
EVERY man and woman there believe
him." And the writer goes on to say, {"
he had stood there saying, I am Chri
tian,' every man and woman would hay
A said He is liarp" This Bible is til
" sworn enemy of all this wrong, and it
the friend of all that is good. Oh, hold o
te to it. Do not take part of it and throw I'll
rest away. Hold on to all of it. There al
so many people now who do not know
You ask them if the soul is immortal, an
they say, II guess it is, don't know; pc
haps 1t is, perhaps it isn't" Is the Bib
,e ,r true2 "Well, perhaps it is, and perhaps
in isn't; perhaps it may be fguratively, an
perhaps it may be partly, and perhaps
may not be at ALL" They despise whs
e. they call the Apostolic creed; but if the
n- own creed were written out it would res
p like this; 81 believe in nothing, the make
of heaven and earth, and in nothing whie
1t hath sent, which nothing was born
e e nothing, and which nothing was dead an
e. e buried and descended into nothing, an
arose from nothing, and assembled to notl
- ing, and now sitteth at the right hand
'N nothing, from which 1t will come to judi
- nothing. / believe in the holy agnost
church and in the communion of nothin
garians, and in the forgiveness of nothin
and the resurrection of nothing, and in Il
life that never shall be- Amenn That
Ill the creed of tens of thousands Of people
&C this day If you have mind to ado
e, such theory will not. II believe in Gt
the Father Almighty, maker Of heav'
and. earth. and in Jesus Christ. and In t.