Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-11-24
IFS" OF THE BIBLE.
DR.. TALMAGE BREACHES FROM
BOOK OF EXODUS,
"If Thou wilt Forgive Their Sin; and
IL Not. Blot Me, Pray Thee, Out
of Thy Book"-Exodus 32;32--A
Beautiful Discourse.


from text never before preached from
Subject: The "Ifs" of the bible, The text
chosen was: Exodus 80: 80, eff thou wilt
forgive their sin; and if not, blot me,
pray thee, out of thy book"
There is in our English language a
small conjunction, which i propose,
by Gods help, to haul out of its present
insignificancy ap-' 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 lbs disposal. We slur IT
in our utterance, we ignore it in our
appreciation, and none of us recognize
il as the most tremendous word in all
the vocabulary outside of those words
which describe deity. If! Why that
word we take as a tramp among words
now appearing here, now appearing
there, but having no value of
its own, when it really has million
airedom of worlds, and in its train
walk all planetary, 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 submergence 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 Atlantic cyclone, how
much longer would it have taken for
the discovery of this continent? If
Grouchy had come up with reinforce
ments in time to give the French the
victory at Waterloo, what would have
been the fate of Europe? If the Span
ISL armada had not been wrecked off
the coast, how different would have
been many chapters in English
history. If the battle of Hastings
or the battle Of Pultowa, Or the
battle of Valmy, or the battle of Ma
tauras, or the battle of Arbela, or the
battle CT Tnalons, 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, or Thorwaldsen had never
been born for sculpture, or Edmund
Burke had never been born for elo-
quence, or Socrates had never been
born for philosophy, or Blackstone had
never been born for the law, or Copper
nicus had never been born for astro-
I ,tha, hn1 haov,
for the reformation! Oh, that con-
junction eff" How much has de-
pended on it. The height of it, the
depth of it, the length of it, the breadth
of it, the immensely of it, the infnity
of it, who can measure2 1t would
swamp anything but Omnipotence.
But must confpe myself to-day to
the Ifs of the bible, and in so doing
| shall speak of the 'If'' of overpower-
ing earnestness, the eff of incredulity,
the 'If' of threat, the "If" of argu-
mentation, the If of eternal signifi-
canoe, or so many of these Ifs" as
can compass in the time that may be
reasonably allotted to pulpit discourse.
First, the "If' of overpowering earn
estness. My text gives it. The Israel
ties have been worshipping an idol,
notwithstanding all that God had done
for them, and now Moses offers the
most vehement prayer of all history,
and it turns upon an "If,' eff thou
wilt forgive their sins; and if not,
blot me, pray thee, out of thy book"
Oh, what an overwhelming IF ~ It
was as much as to say, eff thou wilt
not pardon them do not pardon me;
if thou wilt not bring them to the
promised land let me never see the
promised land; if they must perish let
me perish with them; in that book
where thou recordest their doom re-
cord my doom; if they are shut out of
heaven let me be shut out of heaven; if
they go down into darkness, let me go
down into darkness" What vehe-
mence and holy recklessness of prayer!
Yet there are those here who, have
no doubt, have in their all-absorbing
desire TO have others saved, rislSed the
same prayer, for it is risk. You must
not make 1T, unless you are willing to
balance your eternal salvation on such
an "lf." Yet there have been cases
where a mother has been so anxious
for the recovery of a hayward son
that her prayer has swung and trem-
bled and poised on an "If'' like that of
the text. "If not, blot me, / pray
thee, out of tiny 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 ever
lasting 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 partner in my bliss,
let me be "A partner in his woe. have
for many years loved thee, o God! and
1t has been my expectation to sit with
Christ and all the redeemed at the ban
quet of the skies, but now give up my
promised place at the feast, and my
promised robe, and my promised crown
and my promised throne, unless John,
unless George, unless Henry, unless my
darling SON aan ebaro thor, ,.y;4I, 49,,