Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1891-10-16
THE SWORD OF ELEAZAR
A SERMON ON THE GOODNESS, DOUBT
AND UNBELleF OF THIS AGE.

Sad Cases of Christians who Believe blu
q Part of the Bible, of Men who Doubt
Everything and of Self Styled Chris
tians who Shrink from the Conflict.
BROOKLYN, Oct. u.-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. DIR. 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 rs to his attitude. His text was III
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. EleazaI
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 backp shouted the commander OF
the Philistne army. The cry ran along the
host, Fall back" 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 CALAMITY welded. His
hand clave unto the sword" That is what
/ call magnificent fighting for the Lord
cd Of A,,1 mt of
propose to show you this morning how
Eleazar took hold of the sword and how
the sword took hold of Eleazar l look at
Eleazars hand, and l come to the conclu-
sion that he took the sword with a 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 a 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
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
the palm, and keep on sweeping our hand
around the book until the tips of the fingers
clutch at the words, I'm the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth" ] like
an inlidel a great deal better than do one
of these namby pamby Christians who hold
part of the truth and let the rest GO By
miracle God preserved this Bible just as it
is, and 1t is a Damascus blade. The severeSt
test TO which sword can be put in sword
factory is to wind the blade around a gun
barrel like ribbon, and then when the
gword is let loose it flies back to its own
shape. So the sword of Gods truth has
been fully tested, and it is bent this way
and that way, and wound this wav and
that way, but it always comes back to
its own shape. Think of It'll \ book writ
ten eighteen centuries ago, and some of it
thousands of years ago, and yet i'll our time
the average sale of this book is more than
twenty thousand copies every week, and
more than million copies "A year | say
now that n book which is diviuely inspired
and divinely kept and dvinely scattered is
n weapon worth holding tight grip Of
Bishop Colenso will come along and try to
wrench out of your hand the five books OF
try to wrench out of your hand the mir
acles, aud Renan will come along and try
to wrench out of your hand the entire lfe
OF the Lord Jesus Christ, and your asso-
ciates in the store, or the shop or the fac
tory or the banking house will try to
wrench out of your hand the entire Bible;
but in the strength of the Lord God Of
Israel, and with Eleazar's grip, hold on 10
it. You give up the Bible, you give up any
part OF 1t, and you give up pardon and
peace and life and heaven.
THE NoTHINGARIANs' CREED.
l see hundreds, perhaps thousands, Of
young men in this audience. Do not be
ashamed, young man, to have the world
know that you are friend OF the Bible
This book is the friend of all that is good
and 1t Is the sworn enemy of all that is
bad. An eloquent writer recently gives an
incident of very bad man who stood in
the cell of western prison. This criminal
had gone through all styles of crime, and
he was there waiting for the gallows. The
convict standing there at the window of
the cell, this writer says Cooked out and
declared, i am an inidel.' He said that
to all the men and women and children
who happened TO be gathered there, 4 am
an lnfdel,'" and the eloquent writer says,
him" And the writer goes on TO say, "If
he had stood there saying, i am a Chris
tan, every man and woman would have
said, He is "A liarp" This Bible is the
sworn enemy of all this wrong, and it is
the friend of all that is good. Oh, hold on
TO it, DO not take part of it and throw the
rest away. Hold on to all of it. There are
30 many people now who do not know.
You ask them if the soul is immortal, and
they say, 81 guess it is, | don't know; per-
haps it is, perhaps it isn't" Is the Bible
trueS well, perhaps it is and perhaps it
Isn't; perhaps it may be fguratively, and
perhaps 1t 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; 81 believe in nothing, the maker
OF heaven and earth, and in nothing which
II hath sent, which nothing was born of
nothing, and which nothing was dead and
buried and descended into nothing, and
arose from nothing and assembled to moth
ing, and now sitteth at the right hand of
nothing, from which it will come TO judge