The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-12-01
TALMAGE's SERMON.
The Small but Decidedly Important
Conjunction, aft"
The "Ifs" of the Bible and Their sIgnIn-
cance-The Overpowering Earnest
ness of Moses Prayer-Ths
Dangerous "If."

brooklyn tabernacle The lis" OF the
Bible" basing it upon the text:
II Thou wills forgive their sin; and II not.
blot me. pray Thee, out Of Thy book--Exodus
XXI. j.
There IS in our English language
small conjunction, which / propose, by
Gods help, to haul out of its present
insignificance and set upon the throne
where it belongs, and that is the con-
junction ''if. !" Though made of only
two letters, it is the pivot on which
everything turns All time and all
eternity are at its disposal. We slur it
in our utterance, we ignore it in our
appreciation, and none of us recognize
it as the most tremendous word in the
vocabulary outside of those words
which describe deity. If Why that
word we take as tramp among words,
now appearing here, now appearing
there, but having no value of its own.
when it really has a millionairedom of
worlds, and in its train wallrAll planeta-
ry, stellar, lunar, solar destinies. If
the boat of leaves, made water-tight in
which infant Moses sailed the Nile,
had sunk, who would have led Israel
out of Egypt? If the Red sea had not
parted for the escape of one host, and
then come together for the submer-
gence of another host, would the Book
of Exodus ever have been written? If
the ship on which Columbus sailed for
America had gone down in an Allan
tic cyclone, how much longer would it
have taken for the discovery of this
continent? If Grouchy had come up
with re-enforcements in time to give
the French the victory at Waterloo,
what would have been the fate of Eu-.
rope? If the Spanish Armada had not
been wrecked off the coast, how differ
ent would have been many chapters in
English history. If the battle of Hast
ings, or the battle of Pultowa, or the
battle of Valmy, or the battle of Ma
taurus. or the battle of Arbela, or the
battle of Chalons, each one of which
turned the worlds destiny, had been
decided the other way. If Shakespeare
had never been born for the drama, or
Handel had never been born for music,
or Titan had never been born for
painting, Observation-Disclosures been
born for sculpture, or Edmund Burke
had never been born for cloquence, or
Socrates had never been born for
philosophy, or Blackstone had never
been born for the law, or Copernicus
had never been born for astronomy, or
Luther had never been born for lie
reformation! Oh, that conjunction
''ifr'' How much has depended on it.
The height of it. the depth of it, the
length of it, the breadth of it, the i'm
mensity of, the infinity of it, who can
measure? It would swamp anything
but Omnipotence. But / must confine
myself to-day to the Ifs of the Bible,
and in doing so l shall speak of the
eff of overpowering earnestness, the
''if'' of incredulity, the eff of threat,
the ''if" of augmentation, the eff of
eternal significance, or so many of
these Ifs" as | can compass in the time
that may be reasonably allotted to
p1ipit discourse.
First, the IF" of overpowering earn
estness. My text gives it. The Israel
ties have been worshiping an idol,
notwithstanding all that God had done
for them, and now Moses offers the
most vehement prayer of all history,
and il turns upon an eff" ''If Thou
wilt forgive their sin; and if not,
blot me, pray Thee, out of Thy book"
Oh, what an Overwhelming ''ifr' twas
as much as to say: IF Thou wilt not
pardon them, do not pardon me; if
Thou wilt not bring them to the prom
ised land, let me never see the prom
ised land; if they must perish, let me
perish with tn en-; in that book where
Thou recordest their doom, record my
doom; if they are shut out of Heaven,
let me be shut out of Heaven; if they
go down into darkness, let Inc go
down into darkness" What vehe-
mence and holy reclxlessness of pray
-ers! Yet there are those here who,
! have no doubt, have, in their
all-absorbing desire to have others
saved, risl1ed the same prayer,
for it is a risk. You must not make it,
unless you are willing to balance your
eternal salvation on such an 'if." Yet
there have been cases where mother
has been so anxious for the recovery
of hayward son than her prayer has
swung and trembled and poised on an
''if'' like that of the text. IF not, blot
me, l pray Thee, out of Thy book.
Write his name in the Lambs Book of
Life, or turn to the page where my
name was written ten or twenty or
forty or sixty years ago, and with the
black ink of everlasting midnight
erase my first name and my last name
and all my name. If he is to go into
shipwreck, let me be tossed amid the
same breakers, If he can not be part
ner in my bliss, set me be a partner in
his woe. ] have for many years loved
Thee, o, God! and it has been my
expectation to sit with Christ and all
the redeemed at the banquet of the
skies, but / now give up my promised
place at the feast, and my prom
ised robe, and my promised crown,
and my promised throne. unless John,
unless George, unless Henry, unless
my darling son can share them with
me. Heaven will be no Heaven with
out him. o. God, save my boy, or
count me among the lost" That is
terrific prayer, and yet there is a
young man sitting in the pew on the
main floor, or in the lower gallery, or
in the top gallery, who has already
crushed such a prayer from his moth
er's heart. He hardly ever writes
home, or, living at home, what does
he care how much trouble he gives
herr Her tears are no more trouble to
him than the rain that drops from the
caves of the house on dark night.
The fact that she does not sleep be-
cause watching for his return late at
night does not choke his laughter or
hasten his step forward. She has tried
coaxing and kindness, and self-sacri-