The Forrest City times., 1892-03-18
THE GIANTS BEDSTEAD.
DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON IN
 TABERNACLE PULPIT
The Eloquent Divine Draws . Prsctica and Useful Lesson from m Obscure Text-Giant King Og and
 Ills Bedstead.


 Talrnage's text this morning was taken from Deut. X, H.: ''0nly Og, king of Bashan, remained of the remnant of giants; behold. his bedstead was bed stead 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." Dr. Talmage spoke as follows:
 The story of giants is mixed with myth. William the Conquerer was said to have been of overtowering alti- tude, but, when in after time. his tomb was opened, his bones indicated that he had been physically of only or dinary size. Roland the hero was said to have been of astonishing 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 enor- nous size made and left among the people he had conquered, so as to give the impression that he was giant, al- though he was rather under than over the usual height of 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 half feet high. In a museum in London is the skeleton of Charles Birne, eight feet. four inches, in stat ure. The Emperor Maximin was over eight feet. Pliny tells of giant nine feet high, and two other giants nine and half feet. So am not incredu- lous when l 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 have been about thirteen and 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 writers trying to account for the pres- ence of this giant. King Og, as they did, by saying that he came down from the other side of the flood, being tall | Noah's ark, or that he rode on the top of the ark, the passengers inside the ark daily providing him with food. There was nothing supernatural about him. He was simply a monster in size.
 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 instead of telling us that his | H.. IL long? No doubt among other things it was to teach us that 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 a word about him. You can not only tell man according to the old adage, By the company he keeps" but by the books he reads, by the pictures he admires, by the church he attends, 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 faithful in attendance upon churches and prayer meetings and Sunday Schools, and put ting himself among intense religious associations. He may have his imper- fections, but he is a very good man. Great is his religious stature. The other man has been for thirty years among influences intensely worldly, l l.. l.. al. l. A. I othe.' influences. and his religious stat ure is that of dwarf. No man ever has been or can be independent of his surroundings, social, intellectual | moral. religious. The Bible indicates the length of the giant by the length of his bedstead. Let no man say, ''I will be good" and yet keep evil surroundings. Let no man say, "I will be faithful as Christian" and yet consort chiefly with worldlings. You are proposing an everlasting inn possibility. When a man departs this life you can tell what has been his in- fluence in a community for good by those who mourn for him and by how sincere and long-continued are the re grets of his taking off. There may be no pomp or obsequies and no pretcnse at epitapheology. but you can tell how high he was in conservation and how high in usefulness by how long is his shadow when he comes to lie down.
 Notice furthermore that even giants must rest. Such enormous physical en dowment on the part of King Og might suggest the capacity to stride across all fatigue and omit slumber. No. He re quired an iron bedstead. Giants mus, rest. Not appreciating that fact. how many of the giants yearly break down, Giants in business. giants in art, giant. in eloquence, giants in usefulness They live not out more than half theil days. They try to escape the conse quence of over-work by a voyage across the sea or sail in summer yacht, ol call on physicians for relief from in sonnla or restoraCion of unstrunl nerves or the arrest of apoplexies when all they need is what this gian of my text resorted to-an iron bed stead. Let no one think because hs has great strength of body or mint that he can afford to triie with his un usual gifts. The commercial world the literary world, the artistic world the political world, the religi ous world, are all the tim aquake with the crash O falling giants. King Og, no doubt, ha' a throne. but the Bible never mention