The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1891-10-20
THE SWORD OF ELGAZAR.
AsERMoN ON THE coLpNess. Dous /
AND uNeELIeF OF THIsAeg.

AND uN6ELIEF OF TtIsAGE.
Sad Cases of Christians Who Believe but
Part otthe Bible, OF pion Who Doubt
Everything and OF ssIf styled Christians
Who Shrink from tho Conflict.
BRookLYN, Oct. ll.--Amoug the
vast audiences which crowd the Brook
;lyn Tabernacle al every service are large
numbers Of young men, many Of whom
are theological students. DIR. Talmage's
sermon this morning had special in.
terest for them. AT this time when SO
many re giving up the Bible, or hold
ing the truth less firmly than before, the
eloquent preacher put himself on record
30 clearly and forcibly that no one who
heard him could have any doubt as to
his attitude. His text was III Samuel
xiii. 10, "And his hand clave unto the
sword"
A greet general of King David was
EleaZar, the hero of the text. The
Phllistines opened battle against him,
and his troops retrea,ed. The towards
fled. Elcazar and three his comrades
went into the battle and swept the field,
tor four men with God on their side are
stronger than whole battalion with
God against them. '.Fall back!" shouted
The cry ran along the host, "Fall back!"
Eleasar having swept the field throws
himself on the ground to rest, but the
muscles aud sinews of his hand had been
so long bent around the hllt of the sword
that the hilt was in,bedded in tho 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 80 gallantly welded. "His
hand clave unto the sword" That is
what call Insignificant fighting for the
Lord God of Israel. And we want more
OF it. Ipropose 10 show you this morning
how EleaZar took hold of The sword and
how the sword took hold of Eleazar. L
look at EleaZar's hand, and come to
the conclusion that he took the sword
with very tight grip. The towards
who fled had no trouble in dropping their
swords. AS they fly over the rocks
l hear their swords Changing in every
direction, IL is easy enough for them to
drop their swords. But Eleazar's hand
Clave unto the sword.
Oh, my friends, In this Christian con-
flict we wan. tighter grip OF the G os-
pei weapons, a tighter grasp of the two
edged sword of the truth. ltmakes me
sad to see these Christian people who
hold only Il part Of the truth and let the
rest OF the truth go, 80 that the Philis-
tines, 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 intidel q great deal better than
do one of these namby-pamby Chris
tians who hold part of the truth and
let the restgo BY miracle God pee
served this Bible just as it is, and it is a
Damascus blade. The severest test to
which q sword can be put in sword
factory is to wind the blade around q
gun barrel like 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 way and wound this way
and that way, but it always comes back
to it's 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 sale of this
book lie more than twenty thousand cop
les every week, and more than q million
copies year. 1 cay now that book
which is divinefy inspired 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 miracles, aud Repun
will come along and try 10 wrench out
OF you hard the entire life OF the Lord
Jesus Christ, and your associates il. tie
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 TO il. You
give up the Bible, you give up any part
Oft. and yon give up pardon and peace
and life and heaven.
THE NoTH1NGARIANs' CREED.
see hundreds, perhaps thousands, of
young mt n in this audience. Donot 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
ana 1t Is the sworn enemy OF all that is
bad. An eloquent writer recently gives
an incident ola 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 waitng Tor the
gallows. The convict standing there at
The window OF the cell, thus writer says,
''looked out and declared, Il am an in
fidel.' He said that to al! the men and
children who happened TO be gathered d
there, L am an infidel,'" aud the elo-
quent writer says, Every man and wo.
man there believed him." And the
writer goes on 10 say. "If he had stood
there saying, i am Christian every
man and woman would have SAID, He
Is q 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 10 all of it.
There are so many people now who do
not know. You ask them if the soul
Is immortal, and they say, IL guess it
is, don't know; perhaps it is, perh ps
1t isn't" Is the Bible true? "Well,
perhaps It is, apd perhaps it isn's; per.
haps it may be iiguratively, aud perhaps
it NAV nor he MT all ~ Tbey a. Mo n