Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-10-17
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Diyine's Sun
day Sermon.
subject: the sword Of Elea1ar..


| Eleazar, the hero of the text The PILLS.
tines 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
4 whole battalion with God against them
Fall back p shouted the commander Of
/ the Philistine army. The cry ran along the
| host, Fall backp Eleazar having 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
1 of the sword that the hilt was embedded in
the flesh, and the gold wire of the hilt had
| broken through the skin of the palm of the
/ hand and he could rot drop his sword
which he had so calamity welded. His
hand clave unto the sword That is what
call magnificent fighting for the Lord God
/ OF Israel. And we want more of it. l
I propose to show you this morning how
/ Eleazar took hold of the sword and how
4 the sword took hold of Eleazsr look at
| Eieazar's hand and come to the conciu-
sion that be took the sword with a very
! tight grip. The towards who fed had no
trouble in dropping their swords. As they
I fly over the rocks hear their swords clang-
ing in every direction. 1t is easy enough for
them to drop their swords. But Eleazar's
/ hand clave unto the sword.
| Oh, my friends, in this Christian conflict
we want tighter grip of the Gospel weap-
ons, 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 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 until the tips of the fingers
clutch at the words, ia the beginning God
created the heavens and the EARTH like
an infidel great deal better than do one
of these Mandy PANTY 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 severest
test to which a sword can be put in a sword
factory is to wind the blade around 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 its own shape.
Think OF it A book written eighteen CEN
turtles ago, and some of it Thousands of years
ago and yet in our time the average sale OF
this book Is more than twenty thousand cop
les every week, and more than million
which is divinely inspired and divine
ly 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 como along and try
to wrench out of your hand the miracles
and Renan will come along and try to
wrench out of your hand the entire life of
the Lord 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 hand the entire Bible; but in the
strength of the Lord God OF Israel and with
Eleazar'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.
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 a friend of the Bible.
This book is the friend of all that is good
and 1t is the sworn enemy of all that is bad.
An eloquent writer recently gives an Incl
1 dent of Ii very bad man who stood in cell
! of western prison. This criminal had gone
4 through all styles of crime and he was there
waiting for the gallows. The convict stan!-
| ing there at the window of the cell. this
/ writer says, 'looked out and declared, 4 am
! an infidel. He said that to all the men and
women and children who happened to bs
there Il am an infidel " and the eloquent
writer says, EVERY man and woman there
believed HIM" And the writer goes on to say,
! eff he had stood there saying, 1 am Chris
tian,' every man and woman would have
said. He is a larp 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 to all of 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, Idon't know; perhaps it
is, perhaps it isn't" Is the Bible trueS
{ tNa1i l. / iSn T..
/ perhaps it may be figuratively, and perhaps
! it may be partly, and perhaps it may not be
/ at ALL" They despise what they call the
| Apostolic creed; but it their own creed were
written out it would reat like this: 4 be-
! lieye in nothing, the Maker of heaven AMI
earth, and in nothing which it hath sent,
I which nothing was born of nothing, and
which nothing was dead and buried and
descended into nothing, ami arose from
nothing, and assembled to nothing, and now
/ sitteth at the right hand of nothing, from
which it will come to judge moth
/ ing. | believa in the holy agnostic
church an / in the communion OF nothing
arians, 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 thousands of people in
this day. If you have mind to adopt such
theory viii not 81 believe in God the
Father Almighty. maker Of heaven and
]
catholic church, and in the communion of
saints, and in the life everlasting. Amen"
! Oh, whsn | see ElesZar taking such a stout
/ grip of the sword in the battle against sin
and for Righteousness | come to the conclu-
sion that we ought to take stouter grip of
Gods eternal truth, the sword of righteous
ness.
AS LOOK at Elelz9r's hand l also notice
his spirit of self forgetfulness, He did not
! notice that the hilt OF the sword was eating
through the palm of his hand He did not
! know 1t hurt him. As he went out into the
conflict he was so anxious for the victory he
1 forgot himself, and that hilt might go ever
so deeply into the palm of his hand it could
4 not disturb him III S hand clave unto the
sword" Oh, my brothers and sisters, let US
go into Christian conflict with the spirit of
self abnegation. Who cares whether the
world praises us or denounces ust What do
we care for Misrepresentation, or abuse or
persecution in a conflict like this? Let us
| forget ourselves. That man who is afraid OF
getting his hanl hurt will never kill Phlis
tine. Who cares whether you get hurt or
not you get the victory? On, how many
Christians there are who are all the time
worrying about the way the world treats
them. They are SO tired, and they are So
abused, and they are SO tempted, when
Eleazer did not think whether he had hand,
or an arm or foot. All he wanted was vic,
tory.
We see how men forget themselves in
worldly achievement. We have often seen
men VINO in order to achieve worldly sue
cess will forget all physical fatigue and all
annoyance and all obstacles. Just after
the battle OF Yorktown. in the American
revolution, musician, wounied was told
he must have his limbs amputate1, and
they were about TO fastan him to the sur
geon'S table-sOr it was long before the
merciful discovery of an@sthetics He
said, No, don't fasten mo to that table.
get me a VIOLIN A violin was brought to
him an he said, Now go to work as be-
gint pay" All for forty minutes, during
the awful pangS of amputation, he moved
not a muscle nor drnnDed a note vvi,ila ha
played soma sweet tune. Oh, is it not
strange that while the music of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ and with this grand march
of the church militant on the way to be-
come the church triumphant. we cannot
forget ourselves and forget all pang and
all sorrow and all persecution and all per-
turbation2
We know what men accomplish under
worldly opposition. Men do not shrink back
from antagonism or for hardship You have
admired Prescott's Conquest of Mexico" as
brilliant and beautiful a history as was ever
written; but some Of you may not know I'M
der what disadvantages it was written-that
Conquest OF Mexico'--for Prescott was to-
tally blind, and he had two pieces OF wood
parallel to each other fastened. and totally
blind, with his pen between those pieces of
wood he wrote, the stroke against one piece
of wood telling how far the pen must go in
one way, the stroke against the other piece
of wood telling how far the pen must go the
other wav. Oh. how much men will endure
for worldly knowledge and for worldly sue
cess, and vet how little we endura for ,JeS1ls