Milford chronicle., 1891-10-16

Sad Cases 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. ll-Among the vast au-
dienees which crowd the Brooklyn Taber-
naele at every service are large numbers OF
I young men, many Of whom are theological
students. DR. Talmage's sermon this
morning had a 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 fled. 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 a
whole battalion with God against them
Fall back" shouted the commander Of
the Philistine army. The cry ran along the
host, Fall backp 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 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
4 fr,fN Il
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 a very 1
tight grip. The towards who fled 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 Eleazars
hand clave unto the sword.
Oh, my friends in this Christian conflict
we want a tighter grip of the Gospel
weapons, tighter grasp Of the two edged
sword Of the truth. It makes me sad to
see these Christian people who hold only
part of the truth and let the rest of the
truth 90, so that the Philistines, seeing the
loosened grasp. wrench the whole sword
away from them. The only safe thing for
us to do is to put our thumb on the book
Of Genesis and sweep our hand around the
book until the New Testament comes into
he palm, and keep on sweeping our hand
lround the book until the tips of the fingers
dutch at the words, "In the beginning God
treated the heavens and the earth" like
IN iniidel a great deal better than do one
# these namby-pamby Christians who hold !
part of the truthsand let the rest go. By
miracle God preserved this Bible Just as it
s. and it is a Damascus blade. The severest
est to which a sword can be put in sword
actory is to wind the blade around gun
'arrel like ribbon, and then when the
word is let loose it flies back to its own S
hape. So the sword of Gods truth has l
'een fully tested, and it is bent this way t
nd that way, and wound this way and q
hat way, but it always comes back to v
Is own shape Think of It'll book writ
en- eighteen centuries ago, and some Of it b
thousands of years ago, and yet in our time i
he average sale of this book is more than b
wenty thousand copies every week. and $
lore than a million copies year say
ow that book which is divinely inspired C
nd divinely kept and divinely scattered is b
weapon worth holding tight grip Of 81
,ishop COlensO will come along and try to q
-rench out of your hand the five books of J.
loses, and Strauss will come along and h
y to wrench out of your hand the mir el
,les, and Renan will come along and try el
wrench out of your hand the entire life t.
the Lord Jesus Christ, and your assO- o.
ates in the store. or the shop, or the fac c.
Try, or the banking house will try to 81
rench out of your hand the entire Bible; st
At in the strength of the Lord God of al
rael, and with Eleazar's grip, hold on to al
You give up the Bible, you give up any 81
lrt OF it, and you give up pardon and Il
'ace and life and heaven III