The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1891-10-14
A TIGHT GRIP.
Rev. DR.. Talmage breaches @ Ser
mon to Young Men. Il
To Urges Them to TaIse q Tighter Grip
on Gospel Weapons : Tho Bible .
y rwo-Edged Sword OF Truth in
III the Right Hands.


Rev. DR.. Talmage's sermon at the
Brooklyn Tabernacle last Sunday had
special interest for the large number of
young men, many Of them theological
students, who crowd the edifce at |
every service. His text was II. Samuel
xiii, 10: "And his hand clave unto the
sword" The eloquent divine spoke as
follows;
A great 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 comrades
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 Philis-
tine army. The cry ran along the host
Fall backl'' Eleazar having swept the
field threw 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 inn
bedded 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
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 II. /
propose TO show you this morning how
Eleazar took hold Of the sword and
how the sword took hold Of Eleazar.
look At Eleazar's hand, and come 70
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.
Omy friends, in this Christian con-
flict we want tighter grip Of the gos-
pei weapons, tighter grasp Of the
two-edged sword of the truth. II
makes me sad to see these Christian peo-
pie who hold only part of the truth,
and let the rest Of the truth go, 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 un-
til the tips Of the fingers clutch at the
words: sin the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth" like an
infdel great better than do one Of
these namby-pamby Christians who
hold part of the truth and let the rest
90. By miracle God preserved this
Bible Just as It is, and II is Damascus
{. blade. The severest test TO which a
sword can be put In sword factory Is
to wind the blade around gun barrel
like q ribbon, and then when the sword
Is let loose II flies back TO its own shape.
SO the sword Of Gods truth has been
fully tested, and II 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 III A book writ
ten eighteen centuries ago, and some oi
II thousands Of years ago, andyet in our
time the average sale Of this book Il
more than twenty thousand copies
every week, and more than q million
copies year. say now that book
which Is divinely inspired and divinely
kept and divinely scattered is weapon
worth holding tight grip Of Bishop
Colenso will come along and try tc
wrench out OF your hand the five book
Of Moses, and Strauss will come along
and try TO wrench out Of your hand tn,
miracles, and Renan will come along
andtry 10 wrench out Of your hand the
entire life OF the. Lord Jesus Christ, an6
your associates in the store, or tn,
shop, or the factory, or the banking
house will try to wrench out Of you
hand the entire Bible; but in thu
strength Of the Lord God of Israel, anC
with Eleazar's grip, hold on TO IL Yol
give up the Bible, you give up any par
Of II, and you give up pardon and peace
and life and heaven.
see hundreds, perhaps thousands, o.
young men In this audience. Do not b
ashamed, young man, 10 have the worl'
know that you are friend Of the Bible
This book Is the friend Of all that
good, and II Is the sworn enemy Of al
that Ia bad An eloquent writer recent
ly gives an incident of a very bad maj
who stood in the cell Of western pris
.cn;. This criminal had gone through al
styles Of crime, and he was there wait
ing for the gallows The convict stand
Ing there at the window of the cell
this writer says, "looked, out and de
clared, I am an infidel' He said tina
TO all the men and women and ehildrei
who happened 10 be gathered there,
am an infdel, and the eloquent write
says, every man and woman there be
lieved him." And the writer goes on b
say, III he had stood there saying,
am Christian every man and womal
would have said, He Is q liarp" Thi
Bible Ia the sworn enemy Of all that !
wrong, and II is the friend Of all that
good. O. hold on TO IL Do not talk
part Of Il and throw the rest away
Hold on to all OF II, There are so man.
people now who do not know You as
them II the soul Is immortal, and the
say: Il guess IL Is, don't know; per
haps II Is, perhaps II isn't" Is tn
Bible true? swell, perhaps II is, an
perhaps II isn't; perhaps II may be fe
uratiyely, and perhaps IL may be partly
and perhaps II may not be at all" The
despisc what they call the Apostoli
creed; but II their own creed were writ