Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1891-10-15
THE SWORD OF ELEAZAR.
A SERMON ON THE GOODNESS. DOUBT
AND UNBELiEF OF THIS AGE.

tians who Shrink from the Conflict.
BROOKLYN, Oct 1l.-Among the vast au
diences which crowd the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle at every service are large numbers OF
young men. many Of whom are theological
students DR. Talmages sermon this
morning had a special interest for them
At this time when SO manysare giving up
the Bible, or holding the truth less firmly
than before. the eloquent preacher put
| himself 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 PILLS
tines opened battle against him. aud his
troops retreated. The towards lied. Elsazar
and three OF his comrades went into the
battle and. swept the field. for four men
with God OH their side are stronger than a
whole battalion with God against them.
Fall backp' shouted the commander Of
the Philisiine army The cry ran along the
host, "Fai backs' Eleazar having swept
the field throws himself on the ground to
rest, but the muscles and sinews Of his
| hand had been 80 long bent around the hilt
of the sword that the hilt was imbeddel in
the flesh, and the gold wire Of the hiit 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 claye unto the sword" That is what
| call magnificent lighting for the Lord
God Of Israel. And we want mUre of IT,
propose to show you this morning how
Eleazar took hold OF the sword aad how
the sword took hold Of Elcazar | look at
Eleazar's hand, aud come To the conclu
sion 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 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 a tighter grip of the Gospel
weapons, a tighter grasp of the two edged
sword Of the truth IL 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. I'm the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth" like
an infdel a great deal better than do one
of these namby-pamby Christians who hold
a part of the truth and let the rest 20 By
miracle God preserved this Bible Just rs il
is. aud il is a Damascus blade The Sererest
test TO which Il sword can be put IN a sword
factory is to wind the blade around gun
barrel like a ribbon. aud their when the
sword is let loose it flies back To its own
shape So the sword OF Gods truth has
been fully tested. and 1t is bent this way
and that way, and wound this way and
that way. but il always comes back to
its own shape. Think Of III a book writ
ten eighteen centuriesr 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 "A year | say
now that book which is divinely inspired
and diyinely kept and divinely scattered is
a weapon worth holding tight grip of
Bishop Colenso will come along and try 10 |
wrench out of your hand the five books of |
Moses. and Strauss will come along and |
try TO wrench out Of your hand the mir
acles. and Renan will come along and try
TO wrench out Of your hand the entire life |
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and your asso.
ciates in the store, or the shop, or the fac
tory 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.
TIKI NoTAINGARIANs' CREED.
! see hundreds, perhaps thousands, 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 the 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 very bad mau 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 says. Hooked nut and /
declared. j am an iniidel He said that |
TO ali the men and women and children
who happened to be gathered there. i am
an infidel.'" and the eloquent writer says,
Every man and woman there believed
him. And the writer goes on to say. "If
he had stood there saying, I am a Chris
tian. every man and woman would have
said. He is liarl' " 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 nots know
You ask them If the soul is immortal, and
they say. Il guess it is. don't know. per
haps 1t is, perhaps it isn't Is the Bible
truef Well perhaps it is. and perhaps it
isn't. perhaps it may be fguratively. aud
perhaps it may be partly, and perhaps it
may not be at all They despise what
they call the Apostolic creed. but if their
own creed were written out it would read
like TINS II believe in nothing, the maker
OF heaven and earth. and in nothing which
1t hath -ent, which nothing was born OF
nothing. and which nothing was deaf, aud
buried and descended into nothing. and
arose from nothing, aud assembled TO moth
aeee "a. I