Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-03-17
viii Serve to Tell a Mans Size
as Well as a TapeIine.
LOOK AT ALL THOSE THINGS
Which Surround Man, Notice the Company
He Keeps and How He Lives.
And You can Tell What Manner OF Man
He Is-King Og and His Immense
Couch-God Honors Sleep.
A Divine Gift
Special to the Gazette.

Special to the Gazette.
BROOKLYN, n. Y. March 13.-Dr. Tai.
mage gave another illustration this morn
ing in his sermon at the Tabernacle of his
wonderful power of drawing use
ful, practical lessons from an
| obscure text, which, to tho ordi-
nary mind, seemed incapable of yielding
any spiritual edifcation. The text was
| Deut. 5:11: "Only Og, King of B1shan, re-
manned of the remnant of giants; behold,
his bedstead was bedstead of iron; is it
| not in Rabbath of tho children of Ammon ?
tSerines-c ubits was tho length thereof and
four c1bits the breadth Of it"
The story of giants is mixed with myth.
| William the Conqueror was SAID to have
been of overtowering altitude, but when, in
| 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 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 tho i'm pres
sion that he was a giant, although ne was
| rather under than over the usual height of
| allan. But that in other days and lands
| there were real giants is authentic. One of
| the guards OF the duke of Bruins wick was
eight and half feet high. In a museum in
London is the skeleton of Charles Brine,
eight feet, four inches in stature.
The Emperor Maximin was over eight
feet Pliuy tells of a giant nine feet high
and two other giants nine and half feet.
So / am not incredulous when come to nv
text and find King Og giant, and the size
OF mis- 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 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 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 monster in
size. o
Cyrus and Solomon slept on beds of gold,
and SardanapaluS had 80 bedsteads of
gold burned up with him, but this bedstead
OF my text was OF iron-everything sacri-
feed for strength to hold this excessive
avoirdupois, this Alp of bone and flesh.
no wonder this couch was kept as q curl
osity at Rabbath, and people went from
far and near to see it, Just as now people 90
to museums to behold the armor of the an
clients. You say what fighter this giant
King Og must have been. No doubt of it.
1 suppose the size of his sword and breast
plate corresponds to the size of his beistead,
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 part iculars of the battle, but
think the lsraelites trembled when they
saw this monster of man moving down to
crush them. Alas for the Israelites viii
their troubles never cease2 What can men
five and a half feet high do against this
warrior of eleven feet, and what can short
swords do against sword whose CLEAN
must have been like fash of lightning2
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. oHuzza for triumphant Israeli
Sixty fortified cities surrendered to them.
A land of indescribable 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 Gu |
bits the breadth of it,
Why did not the Bible give us the size of |
the giant instead of the bedstead2 Why |
did ii not indicate that the man was eleven |
feet high instead of telling US that his couch |
was thirteen and a-half feet long7 No |
doubt among other things it was to teach |
us that you can judge of IA man by his sur |
roundings. Show me a mans associates, |
show me mans books, show me a mans |
home, and I win tell you what he is without |
your telling me one word about him. You |
cannot only tell a man according to the old |
adage, "oy Ithe company he keeps" but by |
the books he reads, by the pictures he adj
mires, by the church he attends, by the
he -fpsFg rrfn r4t- ns,1
pigmies, intellectual giants and intellectual
pigmies, like physical giants or physical
pigmies may be judged by their surround
ings.
That man has been thirty years faithful
in attendance upon churches and prayer
meetings and Sunday schools, and putting
himself among intense religious associa-
tions. He may have his imperfections, but
he Is q very good man. Great is his relig-
ious stature. That other man has been for
thirty years among influences intensely !
worldly, and he has shut himself out from
all other influences, and his religious stat
ure is that of dwarf. No man ever has
been or can be independent of his surround
lngs, social, intellectual, moral, religious.
The Bible indicates the length of the giant
By the length OF his bedstead. Let no man
say, Il will be good" and yet keep evil
Let no man say. ~ will be
faithful as a Christian and yet consort
enleHy Win WOrlQlngS- Y gu are proposing |
an everlasting lmpossibility.
Whea q man departs this life you can tell
what has been his infiuen ce in q community |
FOR good by those who mourn for him and
by how sincere and long-c0nt1nued are the
regrets of his taking off. There may be no |
pomps or ob5equics and no pretense at
but you can tell how high he
was in conservation, and how high in use
,ulness by how long is his shadow when he
zones to lie down. What is true of indi-
7iduals is true of cities and nations. Show
ne the free libraries and schools of city,
md will tell you the intelligence of its
people. Show me its gallery Of painting
ind sculpture, and will tell you the arts i
lie advancement of its citizens. Show me
Is churches, and 1 viii tell you the moral
ind religious status of the place. From the
act that Og's bedstead was thirteen and 4
laf feet long, l conclude the giant himself .
vas about eleven feet high. But let no one ,
~ this thought be induced to surrender TO
environments. A man can Z
make his own bedstead.
Chantrey and Hugh Miller were born /
tone masons, but the one became an i'm {
Mortal sculptor and the other a Christian !
cientist whose name will never die. Tur- S
er, the painter, in whose praise John
2uskin expended the greatest genius of his q
fe, was the son of u barber who adver- 1
ised, "a penny shave.n DR.. Prideaux, {
ne of the greatest scholars of all time, ! 4
armed his way through college by securing | 2