Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1892-03-19
OF THE GIANTS BED.
SERMON PREACHED BY Or. TALMAGE
ON SUNDAY MARCH t3.

n
og. King of Bashan. Whose Bedstead
Was Nine Cubit> Long and. Four Cubits
Broad.
BeooKLYx. March Is. DR. Tai
mage gave another Illustration this
morning in his sermon at the Tabcr-
nacle of his wonderful power of
drawing useful, practical lessons from
an obscure text, which. To the ordi-
nary mind seemed incapable of yield
ing any spiritual cditication. The
text was Deuteronomy iii. II: Only
Og. king of Bashan, remained of the
remnant of giants; behold, his bed
stead was a bcdstead of iron; Is it
not in Rahhath of the children of
Ammon. Nine cubits was the length
thereof and four cubits the breadth
of it,
The story of giants Is mixed with
myth. William the Conqueror was
said TO have been of ovcrtowering al
titude, but when III aftertime 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 Stat
ure. but when his sepulcher 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 i'm
precision that he was giant. although
he was rather under than over the
usual height of a man. But that in
other days and lamls there were real
giants Is authentic. One of the guards
of the Duke of Brunswick was eight
and half feet high. In museum
i'll London 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 | ann not incredulous when l
come to my text and find King Og Il
giant. and the size of his bed .ead.
turning the cubits of the text into
feet the bedstcad of Og. the king.
must have been about thirteen and a
half feet long. Judging from that,
the giant who occupied it was prob
ably about eleven feet i'll stature, or
nearly twice the average human
size. There was no need of Rabbin-
ical writers trying 10 account for the
presence of this giant, King Og as
they did, by saying that he came
down from the other side of the
flood, being tall enough To wade the
waters beside Noah's ark, or that he
rode on the top of the ark. the pas
sengers inside the ark daily provid-
ing him with food. There was moth
ing supernatural about him. He was
simply monster in size.
EVERYTHING SACRIFICED To STRENGTH.
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 everything sacrificed
for strength to hold this excessive
avoirdupois, this Alp of bone and
flesh. No wonder this couch was
kept as Il curiosity at Rabbath, and
people went from far and near to see
it, just as now people 20 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 coIrcSpondcd to the
size of his bcdstead. and his stride
across the battlefield and the fail
stroke of his arm must have been ap
palling. With an armed host hr
comes down 10 drive back the Is'lCl
ties. who are marching on from
Egypt to Canaan. We have no par
ticulars of the battle, but think the
Israclitcs trembled when they saw
this monster of Il man moving down
tocrush them Alas for the Israelites .
Will their troubles never cease. What
ran men five and half feet high do
against this warrior of eleven feet.
and what can short swords doayainst
Il sword whose CLEAN must have been
like 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 advancing into
the battle were more than equalcd
by the gigantic strides with which he
retrcated HuzZa for triumphant
Israel Sixty fortified cities sur
rendered To them. A land of in lc
scriblble opulence comes into their
possession. and all that Is left of the
giant king is the iron belstcad
Nine cubits was the length thereof
and four cubits the breadth of it
JUDGE OF \ MAN BY Ills SURROUNDINGS.
Why did not the Bible give us the
size of the giant instead of the size of
the bcdstead: Why did ii not indi-
cate that the man was eleven feet
high instead of telling us that his
couch was thirteen and Il half feet
long: No doubt, among other things
it was To teach us that you can judge
of a man By his surroundings. Show
me mans associates. show me Il
mans books. show me man home
and will tell You what he is without
your telling me one word about him
You cannot only tell man. accord
ing to the old adagc, BY the com
pany he keeps" but 10y the books he
reads, by the pictures he admires, by
the church he attends. by the places
he visits
Moral giants and moral pygmics,
intellectual giants and intellectual
2ygmies, like physical giants or ply
sic.ll pyglnics may bc judged by their
Surroundings. That man has been
thirty years faithful in attendance