The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-03-25
KNOWN BY HIS COMPANY
Another Characteristic Discourse
By DR.. Talmage.
A Man is Known BY the Company He
Keeps-The Giants of Doubt That Con-
front Gods People-The Last Great
Enemy TO BE Conquered.

In recent sermon at Brooklyn Rev.
T. De Witt Talmage took his text
from Deuteronomy iii IL. only 0g,
king of Bashan, remained of the
remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead
of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the
children of Ammon? Nine cubits was
the length thereof and four cubits the
breadth of it" DIR. Talmage said:
The story of giants is mixed with
myth. William the Conqueror was
said to have been of over-towering
altitude, but, when in after time, his
tomb was opened, his bones indicated
that he had been physically of only
ordinary size Roland the hero was
said to have been of astounding stature,
but when his sepulchre was examined,
his armor was found only large
enough 10 fit an ordinary man. Alex
auder the Great had helmets and
shields of enormous size made and left
among the people whom he had con-
Guered, SO as to give the impression
that he was n giant although he
was rather under than over the usual
height of a man. But that in other
days and lands there were real giants
is authentic One of the guards of the
duke of Brunswick was eight and a
half feet high In a museum in Lon
don is the skeleton of Charles Brine,
eight feet four inches in stature. The
emperor Maximin was over eight feet
Pliny tells of giant nine feet high
and two other giants nine and a-half
feet So am not incredulous when
come to my text and find King Og a
giant and the size of his beadstead,
turning the cubits of the text into feet
the beadstead of Og, the king, must
have been about thirteen and a-half
feet long. Judging from that the
giant who occupied it was probably
about eleven feet in stature, or nearly
twice the average human size. There
was no need of Rabbinical writer's try
ing to account for the presence of this
giant, King Og. as they did, by saying
that he came down from the other side
of the food, being tall enough to wade
the waters beside Noan's ark, or that
he rode on the top of the ark, the pas
sengers inside the ark daily providing
him with food. There was nothing
supernatural about him. He was sim
ply a monster in size.
Cyrus and Solomon slept on beds of
gold and Sardanapalus had $50 bed
steads of gold burned up with him, but
this bedstead of my text was of iron
everything sacrificed for strength to
hold this excessive avoirdupois, this
Alp of bone and flesh. No wonder this
couch was kept as a curiosity at Rab-
bath, and people went from far and
near to see it just as now the people
go to museums to behold the armor of
the ancients. You say what a fighter
this giant King Og, must have been.
No doubt of it suppose the size of
his sword and breastplate corresponded
to the size of his bedstead, and his
stride across the battle field and the
full stroke of his arm must have been
appalling. With an armed host he
comes down to drive back the Israel
ties, who are marching on from Egypt
to Canaan We have no particulars of
the battle, but think the Israelites
trembled when they saw this monster
of a man moving down to crush them.
Alas for the Israelitesi Will their
troubles never cease? What can men
five and a half feet high do against
this warrior of eleven feet, and
what can short swords do against
a sword whose CLEAN must
have been like flash of lightning?
The battle of Edrei opened Moses
and his army met the giant and his
Ia - Id
into the fight and the gigantic strides
that Og had made when advancing into
the battle were more than equaled by
the gigantic strides with which he re-
treated. Huzza for triumphant Israel!
Sixty fortified cities surrendered to
them. A land of indescribable opu-
.lence comes into their possession, and
all that is left of the giant king is the
iron bedstead. Mine cubits was the
length thereof and four cubits was the
breadth thereof"
Why did not the Bible give us the
size of the giant instead of the size of
the bedstead? Why did it not indicate
that the man was eleven feet high in
stead of telling us that his couch was
thirteen and a-half feet long? No
doubt among other things it was to
teach us that you can judge man by
his surroundings Show me a mans
associates, show me a mans books,
show me a mans home, and l will tell
you what he is without your telling me
one word about him. You cannot
only tell a man according to the old
adage, by the company he keeps, "
but by the books he reads, by the pict-
ures he admires, by the church he at
tends, by the places he visits. Moral
giants and moral pigmies, intellectual
giants and intellectual pigmies like
physical giants or physical pigmies,
may be judged by their surroundings.
That man has been thirty years faith
full in attendance upon churches and
prayer meetings and Sunday schools
and putting himself among intensely re-
ligious associations He may have his
imperfections, but he is a very good
man. Great is his religious stature.
That other man has been for thirty
years among influences intensely world
ly and he has shut himself ont from all
other influences, and his religious
stature is that of a dwarf No man
ever has been or can be independent of
his surroundings-socia intellectual,
moral, religious The Bible indicates
the length of the giant by the length
of his bedstead. Let no man say: II
will be good" and yet keep evil sur
roundings Let no man say: 81 will be
faithful as a Christian" and yet con-
sort chiefly with worldlings. You are
proposing az everlasting impossibility.
When a man departs this life you can
tell what has been his influence in a
community for good by those who