The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-10-22
STOUT GRASP.
"Eleazar's Hand Cleaving to His
Sword Serves DR.. Talmage as a
" Subject for Sermon.
The Good Doctor Likes an mfdel Far
Better Than He Does a Mandy
Panty Christian.

BROOKLYN, N. Y, Special.-Dr. Tai
IMAGES text this morning was:I Sam
uel xiii, 10, "'And his hand clave I'M
to the sword" # IA
A great general OF King David was
Eleazar, the hero of the text. The
Phllistines opened battle against him,
and his troops reiterated. The cow
ards fled. Eleazar and three of his
comrades went into the battle and
swept the field, for four men with God
an 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 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
his sword which he had so gallantly
welded. His hand clave unto the
sword" That is what I call magnifi-
cent fighting for the Lord God OF Israel.
And we want more of it.
0 my friends, in this Christian con-
flict we want a tighter grip OF the Cos
pei weapons, a tighter grasp OF the
two-edged sword Of the truth. 1t
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 loos-
ened 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 the palm, and
keep on sweeping our hand around
the Book until the tips OF our fingers
clutch at the words: "In the beginning
God created the heavens and the
earth" I like an infdel great deal
better than do one of these
NAMBY-PAN1BY CHRISTIANS -.
who hold a part of the truth and let
the rest go. By miracle God preserved
the Bible just as it is, and it is Da-
mascus blade. The severest test to
which q sword can be put in a sword
factory is to wind the blade around
gun barrel like ribbon, and then
when the sword is let loose it flies
back to it's own shape So the sword
OF Gods truth has been fully tested,
and it is bent this way and that, and
! wound this way and that way, but it
always comes bank to it's own shape.
Think ofit! A book written 18 cent
uries ago and some of it thousands of
years ago, and yet in our time the av-
erage sale of this book is more than
10000 copies every week, and more
than 1 ,OOO,OOO copies year.. I say
now that a book which is divinely in
spired and divinely kept and divinely
scattered is a weapon worth holding a
tight grip of. -. 80.
I see hundreds, perhaps thousands,
OF young men in this audience. Donot
be ashamed, young man, to have the
world know that you are afriend of the
Bible. This book is the friend of all
that is good and it is the sworn
enemy of all that is bad. Oh, hold on
it. Do not take part of it and throw
the rest away. Hold on to all of it.
There are so many people now who
do not know. You ask them if the
soul is immortal, and they say, II
guess it is, don't know; perhaps it
is, perhaps it isn't" Is the Bible true?
"Well, perhaps it is,. and perhaps it:
isn't; perhaps it may be figuratively,
and perhaps it may be partly, and,
perhaps it may not be at ALL" They
despise what they call the Apostolic
creed: but if their own creed were
written out it would read like this:
II believe in nothing, the maker of
heaven and earth, and in nothing
which it hath sent, which nothing was
born of nothing, and which. nothing
was dead and buried and decended
into nothing, and arose from nothing,
and assembled to nothing and now
siUteth at the right hand of nothing;
from which it will come to Judge moth
ing. | believe in the holy agnostic
church and in the communion of
nothingarians, and in the forgiveness
of nothing, and ia the life that never
shall be. Amen!"s ( 9sg& & rs Il u
That is the creed of ten thousands
of people in this day. If you have a
mind to adopt such a theory will
not.
AS I look at Eleazar's hand also
notice his spirit OF
SELF FoRGETFULNEss.
He did not notice that the hilt of the
sword was eating Through the palm of
his hand, he did not know it hurt him.
As he went out into the conflict he
was SO anxious for the victory he for
got himself and that hilt might go
ever SO deeply into the palm OF his
hand, it could not disturb him. Oh,
my brothers and sisters, Let us 60 in
to the Christian conflict with the
Z spirit of self abnegation. Who cares
whether the world praises us or de-
nounces us? What do we care for
misrepresentation or abuse or perse-
cution in q conflict like this7 Let us
forget ourselves. That man who is
afraid Of getting his hand hurt will
never kill Philistine. Who cares
whether you get hurt or not II you