The Iola register., 1891-10-23
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Ffrmness and Earnestness Es-
sential in Battle.
Too Much Worry About the worlds opin-
icn-Christian Ease Not the Way TO
Win Souis-An Example OF
EarnestnesG

BROOKLYN. October B.-Rev. Tai
mage discoursed to vast audience to-
day at the tabernacle. He took for his
text II Samuel, xiii, 10: And his
hand cIave unto the sword
A CREST general Of King David was
Eleazar, the hero of the text. The
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
back!" shouted the commander of the
Philistine army. The cry ran along
the host: "Fall backm Eleazar, hav-
ing 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
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 God of Israel. And we want more
Of 1t. propose to show you this morn
ing how Eleazar took hold of the sword
I'D lry h. 1,,a1l nf
Ear. look at Eleazar's hand, and |
come to the conclusion 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
changing in every DIRECTION. 1t is easy
enough for them to drop their swords.
But Eleazar's hand clave unto the
sword.
o, my friends, in this Christian con-
fiict we want tighter grip Of the goS-
pei weapons, 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 60, so that the Philis
tines, seeing the loosened grasp, wrench
the whole sword away from them. The
thumb on the Book of Genesis and
sweep our hand around the book until
the New Testament comes into the
palm, ans keep on sweeping our hand
around the book until the tips of the
fingers clutch at the words: ''In the be-
ginning God created the heavens and
the earth" | like an infdel great
deal better than l do one of these nam
-I., -
the truth and let the rest go. BY mir
acle God preserved the Bible just as it
is. and it is Damascus blade. The Sc
verest test to which a sword can be
put in a sword factory is to wind the
blade around a gun barrel like ribbon,
and then when the sword is let loose ii
flies back to its own shape. So the
sword of Gods ruth has been fully
tested, and it is bent this way and that
way, and wound this way and that way,
but il always comes back to its own
shape. Think of it. A book written
eighteen centuries ago, and some of it
thousands Of years ago, and yet in our
time the average SUE of this book is
more than 1900 copies every week, and
more than a million copies year. l
say now that book which is divinely
inspired and divinely kept and divinely
scattered is a weapon worth holding a
tight grip Of. Bishop Colenso will come
along and try to wrench out of your
hand the five books of Moses, and
Strauss will come along and try to
wrench out of your hand the entire life
OF the Lord Jesus Christ, and your asso-
ciates 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 up
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 friend OF all that
is good, and it is sworn enemy of all
that is bad. An eloquent writer recent
ly 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 window
of the cell, this writer says ''looked
out and declared, I am an irfdel,' 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 wo-
man there believed him." And the
writer goes on to say. IF be had stood
there saying, I am Christian every
man and woman would have said, He is
a liar!'" This Bible is the sworn
enemy of all this wrong, and it is the
friend of all that is good. o, hold on
it Do not take part of it and throw
the rest away. Hold onto all o. it.
There are so 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; perhaps it is, perhaps
it isn't" Is the Bible true? ''Weil.
perhaps it is, and perhaps it isn't; per-
haps it may be fguratively: 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 ii
would read like this: 81 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 ascended to nothing and now sit
teth at the right hand of nothing, from
which it will come to judge nothing. /
believe in the holy agnostic church and
In the communion of nothingarians, and
In the forgiveness of nothing, and the
resurrection of nothing, and in the life
that shall never be, Amen
This is the creed of tens of thousands
of people in this day. If you have a
mind to adopt such theory, will not.
81 believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth, and in Je-
sus Christ, and in the holy Catholic