The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-03-25
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
a Practical Lesson Drawn from an
Obscure Subject.
The Giants All are Competed to Meet OBJ
STRUGGLING Our Paths ln LIE
We Nust be Prepared
for Them


Rev. II. DEWITT Talmage drew N prac-
teal lesson from the story of the giant.
Og. king of Bashan, i'm recent sermon I'm
the Brooklyn tabernacle. His text was:
Only Og. king OF Baahan. remained OF the
remnant Of giants; behold his bedstead was
n bedstead o. IRON; Ia II not in Rabbath OF the
children OF Ammonf Nine cufdts was the
length Thereof. and four cubits the breadth OF
h-Deuteronomy. in. IL
The story Of giants is mixed with
myth. William the Conqueror was said
10 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
eepulcher was examined his armor was
found only large enough 20 fit an or
binary 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 inn
preston that he was n 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 half feet high. In a 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 aahalf feet high. So 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 have been about thir-
teen and a half feet long. Judging
from that, the giant who occupied IL
was probably about eleven feet in stat
ure, or nearly twice the average hui
man size. There was no need OF rab-l
binical 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 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.
Cyrus and solomon slept on beds of
gold, and Sardanapalns had one hum
dred and fifty bedsteads of gold burned
mp 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 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
n fighter this giant, King Og, must have
been. No doubt of it 1 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 trem-
bled when they saw this monster of n
man moving down to crush them. Alas
for the Israelitesl VIII their troubles
never cease? What can five and half
feet high do against this warrior of
eleven feet, and what can short swords
do against sword whose CLEAN must
have been like a fash of ligh thing? 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
n \
cities sun endered to them. A land of
indescribable opnlence 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
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 among
other things it was to teach us that you
can judge of a man by his surround
ings. Show me mans associates,
show me n mans books, show me n
mans horne and will tell you what he
is without you telling me one word
according TO the old adage: by the
company he keeps" by the books he
reads, by the pictures he admires, by
the church he attends, by the places he
visits. Moral giants and moral pig
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
day-Schools, and putting himself
among intense religious associ-
atoms. He may have his Inn
projections. but he is very good man.
Great in his religious 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 n 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: II
will be good" and yet keep evil sur
roundings. Let no man say: "I will
be faithful as n Christian" and vet
consort chiefly with worldlings. You
are proposing an everlasting impossi-
bility. When a man departs this life
you can Aell what has been his influ-
ence in a community for good by those
who mourn for Him, and by how sin
cere and long-continued are the regrets