The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1891-10-23
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Refinement Supplanting Conflict In
the Church Of God
The Tendency OF the Age TO let Go Of the
Elblc and Take UP with Isms More
Conducive to Personal
Ease and Comfort.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered the
following sermon I'm the Brooklyn Tab
ernacle, taking for his text:
And his hand cIave unto the sword-IL
Samuel. xiii.
A great general of King David was
Philistines opened battle against him.
and his troops retreated. The towards
fed. Eleazar and three of his COM
rades 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
bacl1!'' shouted the commander of the
Phlistine army. The cry ran along
the host: "FaIl bacl5r' 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 hiIt was imbedded
i'm the flesh, and the gold +, wire
of the hilt had broken through
the skin OF the palm of the
haRd, and he could not drop the sword
which he had so CALAMITY welded.
Husband elave unto the sword" That
Is what call magnificent fighting for
the Lord God of Israel. And we want
more of il. propose to show you this
morning how Eleazar took hold of the
sword, aud how the sword took hold of
Eleazar. look at Eleazar, and come
20 the, conclusion that he took the
sword with a very tight sgrip. The
towards who fed had no trouble in
dropping rtheir swords As they fly
over the rocks ] ehear their swords
changing i'm every direction. 1t is easy
enough for them to drop their swords.
But Eleazer's hand clave unto the
sword. Ee 1850,
Oh. my friends, in this Christian con-
fiict we want a tighter grip of the Cos
elrweapons, 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 go,
so .tlsat tire, Philistmes, 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
ON sweeping our hand around the book
until the tips of our. fingers clutch at
the words: I'm the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth"
like an infidel great deal better than
i do one of these Mandy PANTY
Christians who hold part of
the truth, and let the rest go. by
miracle God preserved this Bible Just
as 1T Is, and il is a Damascus blade
The severest test to which a sword can
be put in the sword factory is to wind
the blade around a gun barrel like a
ribbon, and when the sword is let loose
IL 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, but it always comes back to its
own shape. Think of it! A book writ
ten eighteen centuries ago, and some
of il thousands of years ago, and yet in
our time the average sale of this book
is more than twenty thousands copies
every week, and more than n million
copies year. / say now that
a book which is evidently in
spired and divinely kept and
divinely scattered is weapon worth
holding tight grip of. Bishop Colen-
so will come along and try to wrench
cut of your hand the five books of
Moses, and Strauss will come along and
try to wrench out of Your hand the
miracles, and Renan will come along
and try to wrench out of your hand the
entire life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
your associates in the store, or the
shop, or the factory, 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 it. You
give up the Bible, you give mp any part
of it. and you give up pardon and
peace. and life and Heaven.
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 il is the sworn
enemy of all that is bad. An eloquent
writer recently gives an incident of a
very bad man who stood in the cell of a
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 wind
ow, the writer says, looked out and
declared: Il am an infidel.' He said
that TO all the men and women and
children who happened to be gathered
there: i am an infidel,'" and the elo-
quent writer says: Every man and
woman there believed him." And the
writer goes on to say: IF he had
stood there saying. i am Christian
every man and woman would have
said: Hes liarr' This Bible
is the sworn enemy of all this wrong.
and it is the friend of all that is good.
Oh, hnld on to it. Do not take part of
it There arc so many people now who
do not know. You ask them if the
soul is immortal, and they say: II
guess il is; don't know; perhaps it is,
perhaps it isn't Is the Bible true?
Well, perhaps il is, and perhaps il
isn't; perhaps il may be figuratively,
and perhaps il may be partly, and per-
haps il may not be at ALL" They de-
spise what they call the Apostolic
creed; but if their own creed were writ
ten out il would read like this: 81 be-
lieve in nothing, the Maker of Heaven
and earth, and i'm nothing which it
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 nothing, and now sitteth at the
right hand of nothing, from
n n. -