Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1891-10-15
A Stout Grasp of Faith.

A great general Of King Dayic was
EcaZar, the hero of the text. The
Philistlncs opened battle against him,
and his troops retreated. The towards
Hcd. 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 a whole battalion with
God against them. Fall back.' shouted
the commander OF the Philistine army.
The cry ran along the host, ''Eall back"
Eleazar having swept the field, throws
himself on the ground to lest, 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
through the skin of the palm Of the
hand, and he could not drop this sword
which he had so CALAMITY welded.
His hand clavc unto the sword" That
is what / call magnificent fighting Tor
shc Lord God of Israel, and we want
more Of it. | 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
I come to the conclusion that he took
the sword with very tight grip. The
towards who fed had no trouble in drop
ping 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 EioaZar'S
haud clave unto the sword.
On my friends, in this Christian con-
Aict we want a tighter grip Of the Gospel
weapons, d tighter grasp of the two
edged sword of the truth. 1t makes me
sad TO see these Christian people who
l,Di ,l,yo nf VA M q
truth go. so that the PhiiliStineS, seeing
She Iooscncd grasp, wrench the whole
sword away from them. The only safe
thing for us to do is to put our thumb on
rhc book of Genesis and sweep our hand
around the book until the New Testa-
2ncnt comes into the palm, and keep on
sweeping our hand around the book until
the tips of the fingers clutch at the
words, ''In the beginning God created
She heavens and the earth" | like an
intidel great deal better than | do one
of those nambypamby Christians who
hold part of the truth and let the rest
go. BY miracle God preserved this Bible
Just as it is, and it is Damascus blade.
The SGYcreSt test to which a sword can
be put in a sword factory is to wind the
blade around a gun barrel like a 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 its own
shape Think of it. A book written
eighteen centuries ago, and some OF it
thousands of years ago, and yet in our
sine the average sale of this book is
moro than 10000 copies every week,
and more than million copies d year
say now that book which is divinely
inspired and divinely kept and divinely
scattered is a weapon worth holding Il
tight grip Of. Bishop COlcnSO 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, and Renan will
come along and try to wrench out OF your
hanC the entire life of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and your associates in the store,
or the shop, or the factory, or the bank
ing house will try to wrench out of your
hand the entire Bible, but in the strength
of the Lord God of Israel, and with
EIeazar's grip, hold on to it, You give
up the Bible, you give up any part of it,
and you give up pardon and peace and
life and Heaven.
So "e,I'Gl ~ pIl lo,9 W W
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gives an incident of a very bad man who
stood in the cell of Western prison.
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