The Dickinson press., 1891-10-24
A STOUT GRASP
sHleaxar's Hand Cleaving to His
Sword" Serves DR.. Talmage as a
Subject for a Sermon.
Yhe Good Doctor Likes an lnfidel Far
Better Than He Does a Mandy
Panty Christian.

usl XIII, 10, "And his hand clave ,
to the sword"
Agreat general OF King David was
Eleazar, the hero Of the text. The
Phlistines opened battle against him,
and his troops retreated. The cow
ards fed. Eleazar and three OF his
comrades went into the battle and
swept the field, for four men Will! God
an their side are strongertha n whole
battalion with God against them.
"Fall back" shouted the commander
of the Philistine 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 thesword
that the hilt was imbedded in the
Assh, 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 calamity
welded. 'His hand clave unto the
sword" That is what l call magniti-
cent fighting for the Lord God OF Israel.
And we want more Of it.
my friends, in this Christian con-
Aict we want tighter grip OF the Cos
pol weapons, a 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 go,
20 that the Philistines, seeingtheloos
sned grasp. wrench the whole sword
sway 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" 1 like an infidel a great deal
better than l do one OF these
NAMBY-PAMBY CHRISTIANS
who hold a part OF the truth and let
the rest go. Bymiracle Gcd preserved
the Bible just as it is, and it is Il Dn-
mascus blade. The severest test to
which a sword can be put in q sword
factory is to wind the blade around q
gun barrel like q ribbon, and then
when the sword 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, and
wound this way and that way, but it
always comes bank to it's own shape.
Think OF It'll! A book written Is cent
uries ago and some OF it thousands of
years ago, and yet i'll our time the av-
erage sale OF this book is more than
10000 copies every week, and more
than 1000 600 copies Il year. say
now that a book which is divinely in
spired and divinely kept and divinely
scattered is a weapon worth holdings
tight grip Of.
I see hundreds, perhaps thousands,
Of young mon in this audience. Donot
be ashamed, young man, to have the
world knowthat you are afriend ofthe
Bible. This book is the friend of all
that is good and i, is the sworn
enemy OF all that is bad. Oh, hold on
&. 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 al
guess it is, I don't know; perhaps it
Il, perhaps it isn't" Is the Bible true?
DWELL, perhaps it is, and perhaps it
isn't; perhaps it may be fguratively,
End perhaps it may be partly, and
perhaps. it may not be at ALL" They
dsspise 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 dccended
into nothing, and arose from nothing,
aud assembled to nothing, and nov
stitch at the right hand of nothing
1eom which it will come to Judge moth
Ing. l believe in the holy agnostis
church. and in the communion O
nothingarians, and in the forgiveness
Of nothing, and in the life that nevel
shall be. Amen!"
That is tho creed of ten thousand.
q people in this day. If you have
mind to adopt such a theory l will
not.
A. l look at Eleazar's hand | alst
notice his spirit of
SELF ToRGETFULNEss.
He did not notice that the hilt of tn
sword was eating through the palm o
his hand, he did not know it hurt him
Ao hn u,ar+ ant ,,,+0 kho o-,>n;.4 l.
was SO anxious for the victory he fol
got himself and that hilt might g
ever SO deeply into the palm OF hi
hand, it could not disturb him. Oh
my brothers and sisters, let us go in
10 the Christian conflict with tn
spirit Of self a%bnegation. Who care
whether the world praises US or de
ounces US? What do we care TO
MISREPRESENTATION or abuse or perse
cution in a conflict like this? Let u
forget ourselves. That man who j
afraid of getting his hand hurt wi
never kill a Philistine. Who care
whether you get hurt or not if 20
got the victory?
We see how men forget themselve
u worldly achievement. just ate
the battle Of Yorktown, in the Amer
san revolution, a musician, wounded
vas told that he must have his link
Anputatsd, and they were about t
1esten him to the surgeons table-tc
II was long before the merciful disco,
cry of anasthetics. He said, "N,
don't fasten me to that table; get n
q VIOLIN" A violin was brought t
him and he said: "Now 60 to VOL
as 1 begin to play" and for 40 mi
utes, during the awful pangs OF amp
t%ation, he moved not a muscle n,
dropped a note, while he played son
sweet tune. Oh, is it not strange tn,
with the music of the gospel Of Jes,
christ. and with this grand march
the church militant on the way
become the church triumphant,
cannot forget ourselves and forget
papg and all sorrow and all persec
ton and all perturbation.