Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1891-10-29
a A. STOUT GRASP.
*Meazar's Hand Cleaving to His
Sword" Serves DR.. Talmage as, u
81 Subject for Sermon.
The Good Doctor Likes an lnfidel Far
Better Than He Does a Mandy
Panty Christian.

ael XIII, 10, "And his hand clave u.l-
to the sword
A great general OF King David was
Eleazar, the hero of the text. The
Phllistines opened battle against him,
and his troops reiterated. The cow
ards fled. Eleazar and three of his
comrades went into the battle and
swept the field, for four men with God
an their side are sire niger than whole
battalion with God against them.
"Fall back" shouted the commander
OF the Philistine army. The cry ran
along the host, "Fall back" 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 thesword
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
his sword which he had so calamity
welded. Ills hand clave unto the
sword" That is what call magnifi-
cent fighting for the Lord God OF Israel.
And we want more OF it.
o my friends, in this Christian con-
dict we want tighter grip OF the Cos
pei weapons, a 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,
10 that the Philistines, seeing the loos-
ened grasp, wrench the whole sword
away from them. The only safe thing
tor 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 our fingers
clutch at this words: ain the beginning
God created the heavens and the
earth" like an infdel great deal
better than do one OF these
NAMBY-PAMBY CHRISTIANS
who hold a part OF the truth and let
the rest go. By miracle God preserved
the Bible just as it is, and it is q Da-
mascus blade. The severest test to
which a sword can be put in q sword
factory is to wind the blade around a
gun barrel like q ribbon, and then
when the sword is let loose it flies
back to it's own shape. So the sword
of God s truth has been fully tested,
and it is bent this way and that, and
wound this way and that way, but it
always comes bank to it's own shape.
Think of it! A book written Is cent
uries ago and some OF it thousands of
years ago, and yet in our time the av-
erage sale OF this book is more than
20, 900 copies every week, and more
than l, 900, 900 copies a year. I say
now that a book which is divinely in
spired and divinely kept and divinely
scattered is a weapon worth holdinga
tight grip of.
see hundreds, perhaps thousands,
OF young men in this audience. Do not
be ashamed, young man, to have the
world know that you are afriend of the
Bible. This book is the friend of all
that is good and it is the sworn
enemy of all that is bad. Oh, hold on
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 II
guess it is, 1 don't know; perhaps it
is, perhapsit 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 if their own creed were
written out it would read like this:
II 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 decended
into nothing, and arose from nothing,
and assembled to nothing, and now
sirteth at the right hand OF nothing;
from which it will come to judge moth
ing. I believe in the holy agnostic
church and in the communion of
nothingarians, and in the forgiveness
of nothing, and in the life that never
shall be. Amen!"
That is the creed of ten thousands
Of people in this day. If you have q
mind to adopt such a theory I will
not.
As I look at Eleazar's hand I 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 it hurt him.
As he went out into the conflict he
was SO anxious for the victory he for
got himself and that hilt might go
ever SO deeply into the palm of his
!. hand, it could not disturb him. Oh,
my brothers and sisters, let us go in
to the Christian conflict with the
spirit of self abnegation. Who cares
whether the world praises us or de-
nounces w? What do we care for
misrepresentation or abuse or psrse-
cution in conflict like this? Let us
forget ourselves. That man who is
afraid of getting his hand hurt will
never kill q Phiistine. Who cares
whether you get hurt or not if you