The Penn's Grove record., 1892-03-18
REV. DR.. 7ALNAGE'S SERMON.
The Brook Iyi. UIvire's Sunday
Sermon.
subjects "og, King of Bashan."

subjects "Og, king OF
TEXT; "Only Og, king of Bashau, re
manned of The remnant of giants; behold hi
bedstedd tCds a bedStead of iron; is 10 not IN
Rdbbdth of the children of 4mmonP Nine
cubitS 1Uas the length thereof and fouI
cubits the breadth of u."-Deuteronomy
ill.,, IL.
The story of giants is mixed with myth
William the Conqueror was said to have
been Of overtoweriDg altitude, but when il
aftertime his tomb was opened his bones in
dictated 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 to fit an ordinary
man. Alexander the Great had helmets
and shields of enormous size made and left
among the people whom he had conquered,
so as to give the impression that he was a
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 London is
the skeleton OF Charles Brine, eight feet
four inches in stature. The Emperor Maxi
min was over eight feet.
Pliny tells of a giant nine feet high and
two other giants nine n a half feet. So l
am not ~incredulous when | come to my text
and find King Og a giant, and the size of
his bedstead, turning the cubits of the text
into feet, the bedstead of Og, the king, must
nave been about thirteen and a half feet
long. Judging from that the giant who oc-
cupied it was probably about eleven feet in
stature, or nearly twice the average human
size. There was no need of Rabbinlcal
writers trying to account for the presence OF
this giant, King Og, as they did, by saying
- 49, L-- III -
the food, being tall enough to wade the wa
tiers beside Noah's ark, or that he rode on the
top of the ark, the passengers inside the ark
daily providing him with fool. There was
nothing supernatural about him. He was
simply a monster in size
Cyrus and Solomon slept on beds Of gold,
and Sardanapalus had $50 bedsteads of gold
burned up with him, but this bedstead of
my text was Of iron-eyerything sacrificed
for strength to hole this excessive avoirdu-
pois, this Alp of bone and flesh. No wonder
this couch was kept as a curiosity at Rab-
bath, and the people went from far and near
to see it, just as o people go to museums
to behold the armor Of the ancients. You
say what a fighter this giant, King Og,
must nave been. No doubt of it. l suppose
the size of his sword and breastplate CORE
sponded to the size of his beadstead, and his
stride across the battlefield and the full
stroke of his arm must have been appalling.
With an armed host he comes down to drive
back the Israelites, 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 Israelitesl Will
their troubles never cease? What car men
five and a half feet high do against this a
rior of eleven feet, and what can short
swords do against a sword whose CLEAN
must have been like a flash of lightning?
The battle of Edrei opened. Moses and his
army met the giant and his army. The Lord
of Hosts descended into the fight, and the
gigantic strides that Og had made when adj
vancing into the battle were more than
equaled by the gigantic strides with which
he retreated. Huzza for triumphant Israeli
Sixty fortified cities surrendered to them.
A land of ind~escribabie opulence 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 the
breadth of it."
Why did not the Bible give US the
size Of the giant instead of the size of the
bedsteadi Why did it not indicate that the
giant was eleven feet high instead Of telling
us that his couch was thirteen and a half
feet longf No doubt among other things ID
was to teach US hat you can judge OF a man
by his surroundings. Show me a mans
associates, show me a mans books, show me
a mans home, and will tell you what he is
without your telling me one word about
him. You cannot only tell a man accord
ing to the old adage, by the company he
keeps but by the books he reads, by the
pictures he admires, by the church he at.
tends, by the places he visits. Moral
giants and moral pygmies, intellectual
giants and intellectual pygmies, like physical
giants or physical pygmies may be Judged
by their surroundings.
When a man departs this life you can tell
what has been his influence In a community
for good by those who mourn for him and
by how sincere and long continued are the
regrets Of his taking off. There may be no
pomp or obsequies aud no p~retense at epi-
tapheology, but you can tell how high he
was in consecration, and how high in use
fulness by how long is his shadow when he
comes to lie down. What is true of indi-
viduals is true of cities and nations. Show
me the free libraries and schools of a city,
and l will tell you the intelligence of its
people. Show me its gallary of painting and
sculpture, and l will tell you the artistic ad-
vancement of its citizens. Show me its
churches, and l will tell you the moral and
religious status of the place.
From the fact that Og's bedstead was
thirteen and a half feet long, l conclude the
giant himself was about eleven feet high.
But let no one by this thought be induced to
surrender to unfavorable environments. A
uldu Cdu DudhS hhs iva bcAobCooe
and Hugh Miller were born ~stonemasons,
but the one became an immortal sculptor
and the other a Christian scientist whose
name will never die. Turner, the painter,
in whose praise John Ruskin expended the
greatest genius of his life, was the son of a
barber who advertised "a penny shave"
DR.. Prideaux, one of the greatest scholars OF
all time, earned his way through college by
securing pots and pans. The late Judge
Bradley worked his own way up from a
charcoal burner to the bench of the supreme
court of the United States. Yes, a man can
decide the size of his own bedstead.
Notice furthermore that even giants must
rest. Such enormous physical endowment
on the part of King Og might suggest the
capacity to stride across all fatigue and
omit slumber. No. He required an iron
bedstead. Giants must rest. Not apprecia-
ting that fact how many of the giants
yearly break down. Giants in business,
giants in art, giants in e~loquence, giants in
usefulness. They live not out more than
half their days. They try to escape the
consequence of overwork by a voyage
across the sea or a sail in a summer yacht,
or call on physicians for relief from insom-
MIA or restoration OF unstrung nerves or the
arrest of a~poplexies, when all they need is
what this giant of my text resorted to-an
iron bedstead.
Let no one think because he has great
strength of body or mind that he can afford
to triie with his unusual gifts. The COM
mercial world. the literary world, the arts
tic world, the political world, the religious
world, are all the time aquake with the crash
of falling giants. King Og no doubt had a
throne, but the Bible never mentions his
throne. King Og no doubt had crown, but
the Bible never mentions his crown.
King Og no doubt had a scepter, but
the Bible does not mention his scepter.
Yet one Of the largest verses of the Bible is
taken up in describing his bedstead. So God
all up and down the Bible honors sleep.
Adam, with his head on a pillow of Edenio
roses, has his slumber blest by a divine gift
of beautiful companionship. Jacob, with
his head on a pillow of rock, has his sleep
glorified with a ladder filled with descending
and ascending angels. Christ, with a pillow
made out of the folded up coat Of a fisher
man honors slumber in the back part of tbs
storm tossed boat.
In Bible times. when people arose at the
voice of the bird, they retired at the time
the bird puts his head under his wing. Ons
OF our national sins is robbery Of sleep.
Walter Scott was so urgent about his duty
OF slumber that, when arriving at a hotel
where there was no room to sleep in excepf
that in which there was a corpse, nquired II
the deceased had 1iad If a aonta, io.as.--