News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-10-15
A STOUT GRASP OF FAITH
DR.. TALMAGE ON THE NECESSITY
OF A MORE EARNEST BELIEF.
This Age of InfideIity Will Pass as
Others Have Passed and the Bible in
Its Entirety viii Remain-The Inspir-
ing Example of EIeazar.

It's Entirety viii Remain-The Inspir-
ing Example of Eleazar.
BROOKLYN, Oct 11-Among the
vast audiences which crowd the Brook
Iyn Tabernacle at every service are
large numbers of young men, many OF
whom are theological students. DIR.
Talmage's sermon this morning had a
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 put him
self on record so clearly and forcibly
that no one who heard him could have
any doubt as to his attitude. His text
was II Samuel xiii, 10. 'And his
hand clave unto the sword"
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
fled. Eleazar and three of his conf
rades 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 backl" shouted the commander
of the Philistine army. The cry ran
along the host, Fall backl" 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 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 gal
lantly welded. His hand clave unto
the sword" That is what call mag
nificent fighting for the Lord God of
Israel, and we want more of it. pro-
pose 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 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 | hear their swords changing in
every direction. 1t is easy enough for
them to drop their swords, but Eleaz-
ars hand clave unto the sword.
HALF HEARTED CHRISTIANS.
Oh, my friends, in this Christian con-
fict we want a tighter grip of the Cos
pei weapons, 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
PhiIistines, 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, SIN the beginning God ere
ated the heavens and the earth. I
ike an infidel great deal better than
] do one of those nambypamby Chris
tians who hold a part of the truth and
let the rest go. By miracle God pre-
served this Bible just as it is, and it is
a Damascus blade.
The severest test to which sword
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'll A book writ
ten eighteen centuries 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 copies
every week, and more than million
copies year.
j say now that a book which is di-
vinely inspired and divinely kept and
divinely scattered is weapon worth
holding a tight grip Of. Bishop Colen-
so 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 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.
THE CONVICTED INFIDEL.
see hundreds, perhaps thousands,
of young men in this audience. Do not
he ashamed, young man, to have the
world know that you are friend of
the Bible. This book is the friend OF
all that isgood and it 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, the writer says, looked out
and declared, 1 am an infidel.' He said
that to all the men and women and
children who happened to be gathered
there, 1 am an infidel, p" and the elo-
quent writer says, every man and
woman there believed him." And the
writer goes on to say, IF he had stood
there saying, / am a Christian, every
man and woman would have said, He
is liar
This Bible is the sworn enemy of all
this wrong, and it is the friend of all
that is good. Oh, hold on toit. 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. Il guess it is, l don't
know; perhaps it is. perhaps it isn't.
Is the Bible true2 ''Well, perhaps il
is. and perhaps it isn't; perhaps it may
be figuratively, and perhaps it may be
partly, and perhaps it may not be al
all. !" They despise what they call the
Apostolic creed but if their own creed
were written out it would read like this
Il believe in nothing, 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 assembled to nothing, and now
sitteth at the right hand Of nothing;
from which it will come to Judge moth
ing.