The Bossier banner., 1892-05-19
OG, KING OF BASHAN.
Rev.T. Dewitt TalmaCe Discourses
On Giants.
All of Them We Meet in Life are Not
Clothed in Human Form, and We
alust Ever be On the
Watch for Them.


hished the foundation for a practica,
lesson on giants in a recent sermon by
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage in the Brook
iyn tabernacle. His text was:
Only Og, king of Bashan, remained of the
remnant of giants; behold his bedstead wa:
a bedstead or IRON; Is it not in Rabbath of the
children of Amnon? Nine cubits was the
length thereof, and four cubits the breadth eI
H:-peHteronomy, ill.,, IL.
The story of giants is mixed with
myth. William the Conqueror was said
to have been of over-towering attitude,
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 statue, but when his
sepulcher was examined his armor was
found only large enough to fit an or
dlnary 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
preston 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 museum in
London is the skeleton of Charles
Brine, eight feet and four inches in
statue, The Emperor Maximin was
over eight feet. Pliny tells of a giant
nine feet high, and two other giants
nine and half feet high. SO am not
incredulous when l come to my text,
and End King Og a giant, and the size
of bis bedstead, turning the cubits of
The text into feet-the bedstead of Og,
the king, must have been about thir-
teen and a half feet long, Judging
from that the giant who occupied it
was probably about eleven feet in stat
ure, or nearly twice The average hu-
man size. There was no need of rab-
binical writers trying 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 flood, being
tall enough to wade the waters beside
Noahs ark, or that he rode on top of the
ark, the passengers inside the ark daily
providing him with food. There was
nothing supernatural about him. He
was simply monster in size.
Cyrus and Solomon slept on beds of
gold, and Sardanapalus had one hun
dred and fifty bedsteads of gold burned
up with him; but this bedstead of my
text was of firon-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 Rabbath, and people went
from far and near to see it, just as now
people GO to- museums to behold the
armor of the ancients. You say what
fighter this giant, King Og, must have
been. No doubt of it. l suppose the
size of his sword and breast-plate cor
responded to the size of his bedstead
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 Israel
ties, who are marching on from Egypt
to, Canaan. We have no particulars of the
battle, but think the lsraelites tre M
bled when they saw this monster of a
man moving down to crush them. Alas
for the Israelites! Will their troubles
never cease? What can five and n half
feet high do against this warrior of
eleven feet, and what can short swords
do against 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 equaled by the gigantic
strides with which he retreated. Huzza
for triumphant Israel! Sixty fortified
cities surrendered to them A land of
lndescribable opule ice comes into their
possession, and all that is left of the
giant king is the iron bcdstead. Mine
cubits was the length thereof and fo1r
cubits the breadth of it."
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 couch was thirteen
feet and half. long? No doubt amonp
other things it was to teach us that Won
can judge of man by his surround
lngs. Show me mans associates
show me mans books, show me
mans home and l will tell you what he
is without you telling me one word
about him. You can only tell a man
according to the old adage: ''Bv the
he keeps" by the books he
reads, by the pictures he admires. bv
the church he attends, by the places he |
visits. Moral giants and moral pio-
mics. intellectual giants or physical
pigmies, may be judged by their sur
rounding. That man has been thirty
years faithful in attendance. upon
churches and prayer meetings and Sun
iay-schools, and putting himself
among intense religious associ.
atoms. He may have his i'm
oerfections, but he is a very good man
Great in his religious stature. That
other man has been for thirty wears
among influences intensely worldly
md he has smut himself out from ali |
'ther influences, ana his religious stat-
Ire is that of a dwarf No man ever
has been or can be independent of his
social, intellectual
moral reliuiouS uvbo Dill. l.