Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-10-15
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
TALMAGE AND THE TRUTHS OF
THE BIBLE.
4 Forcibie Sermon from the Text, II
uave Unto the christians
shouid Not be Ashamed Of tho
bible.

Among the vast audiences which crowd
the Brooklyn Tabernacle ~ every
service are large numbers of young
men, many OF whom are theological
students. DIR, Talmage's sermon this
morning had special interest for
them. At this time when SO many are
giving up the Bible or holding the
truth less firmly than before, the
eloquent preacher puI himself ON
recood so clearly and forcibly that no
one who heard him could have any
doubt as to his attitude, His text
was; III. Samuel %; 10, And his
hand clavc unto the sword"
A great general of King DAVID was
Eleazar. the hero of the text Tho
Philistines opened battle against him,
and his troops reiterated. The towards
lied. Eleazar and three of his com
rudes went into the ba tie and swept
the teld, for four men with God ON
their side are stronger than whole
battalion with tod against them,
Fall back" shouted the commander
81 the Philistine army. Tho cry ran
along tho host: "Fall back
r2leazar having swept the licd
throws himself on tho ground to
rest, but the muscles and shows of his
hand had been so long ent around the
dilt of the sword that the hilt was i'm
Oedded In tho flesh and the gold wire
of the hilt had broken through the
skin of the palm of the hand, and he
ould not drop this sword which he
had'so gallnnrly welded, Ellis hand
clave unto the sword" That Is what
call magnificent fighting for the
Lord God of Israel. And we want
moro of it, prop 80 Ia show
you THIS morning how Elca2ar took
hold of the sword and how the sword
took hold of Elea2ar, look at Elca'
EAR hand, and | come To tho conciu'
sion that he took the sword with u very
tight grip. The towards who He'd had
no trouble in dropping the + swords.
As they fly over the rocks hear their
swords changing in every dire ton. 1t
is easy enough for them to drop their
swords. but Eleazar hand elavc unto
the sword,
Omy friends, in this Christian con.
dict we want tighter grip of the Cos
pei weapons, n tighter grasp OF the
two-cdged sword of 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, 80 that the
Philistincs seeing the looscned grasp,
wrench tho whole sword away from
them. The only safe thing for MS
to do ~ to put our thumb on the book
OF Genesis aud sweep our hand
around the look until the new tesla
nent comes into the palm, and keep on
swee, ing our hand around the book
until the tips of the fingers clutch ut
tho words: "ln the beginning tod
created the heavens aud the earth
like an inlidcl n great deal bet
ter than do one of these Mandy pnmby
christians who hold part OF the truth
an 1T Il @ rest 20. by miracle God
reserved this Bible just as 1t Is,
and IL IL "a Damascus blndc. Tho
seyercst test TO which u sword can be
put In u sword factory Is To wind the
blade around "A gun barrel like IL RIB.
bon, and then when the sword IL let
loose IL flies back TO It's own shape.
So the~word of God truth has been
fully tested, and IL is bent this
way aud that way, but "
always comes back to its own
shape Think of III A bool;
written eighteen centuries ago, and
some OF IL thousands of years ago. and
yet in our time the average sale OF this
look is more than twenty thousand
copies every week, and more than u
million copies u year say now that u
book which is divincly inspired and di-
yinely kept and divinely scattered is u
weapon worth holding II tight grip
Of Lishop Colenso will come
along and try To wrench out
of your hand the five books of Moses,
and Strauss will como along
and try To wrench out of your hand
along aud try to wrench out OF your
hand the entire life Of the ord 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 iand the entire bible; but in
the strength of the Lord God OF Israel,
and with Eleazar's grip, hold on 1t.
You give up the bible, you give up any
part of IL, and you give up pardon, an
pace, and life and heaven.
see hundreds, perhaps thousan Ids,
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 tho friend OF
all that is good, and II 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 window OF the cell, this writer
saws, looked out and declar, d, Il am
an infidel.' He said that to all the men
and women and children who hap
pened to be gathered there, Il am an
inLdel," and the elol uent 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: He is "A liar Th s
bible is the sworn enemy Of all this
wrong, and it Is the friend of all that
is good. Oh, hold ON IL. Do not take
part of IL and throw the rest away.
Hold on TO all of il. 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; per-
haps it is, perhaps it isn't" Is the
Bible true? "Well, perhaps it Is, and
PERHAPS it isn't; perhaps 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 il
their own creed were written
out it would read like this: Il believe
IN no hing, 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 descended into nothing,
and arose from nothing, and ascended
to nothing, and now stitch at the
right hand of nothing; from which il
will come to judge nothing. believe
n the holy agnostic church and in the
communion of nothi. garians, and in
the forgiveness of nothing, and the
resurrection OF nothing, and IN the
life that never shall be. Amen" That
is the creed OF tens of thous
ands of people in this day. II you
nave a mind to adopt such a theory