The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-08-03
NARROW ESCAPES.
DR.. Talmage Tells How Some Men
Are Scarcely Saved.
The Difficulty with Which They Accept the
Gospel-Battling with Skepticism
and other PerpIexities-How
to Be Saved.

| l. he ldtcSb ScTlHOn given ouO W ehO
press by Rev. L. Dewitt Talmage was
upon the subject of Marrow Escapes"
the text being taken from Job xix. 20:
81 am escaped with the skin of my
teeth" Following is the sermon:
Job had it hard. What with boils,
and bereavements, and bankruptcy,
and fool of a wife, he wished he was
dead; and l do not blame him. His
flesh was gone, and his bones were dry.
His teeth wasted away until nothing
but the enamel seemed left. He cried
out: 81 am escaped with the skin of
my teeth"
There has been some difference of
opinion about this passage. st. Jerome
and Schultens and Drs. Good and Poole
and Barnes have all tried their forceps
on Jobs teeth. You deny my in
depreciation, and say: what did
Job know about the enamel of
the teeth?" He knew everything
about it. Dental surgery is almost as
old as the earth. The mummies of
Egypt, thousands of years old, are
found to-day with gold-filling in their
teeth. Ovid and Horace and Solomon
and Moses wrote about these important
factors of the body. To other provok-
ing complaints, Job, think, has added
an exasperating toothache, and, put
ting his hand against the infiamed face,
he says: II am escaped with the skin
of my teeth"
A very narrow escape, you say, for
Jobs body and soul; but there are
thousands of men who make just as
narrow escape for their soul. There
was time when the partition between
them and ruin was no thicker than
tooth's enamel: but, as Job finally es-
capped, so have they. Thank God!
Thank God!
Paul expresses the same idea by a
different figure when he says that
some people are ''saved as by fire." A
vessel at sea is in flames. You go to
the stern of the vessel. The boats are
showed off The flames advance; you
can endure the heat no longer on your
face. You slide down on the side of
the vessel, and hold on with your fin
gers until the forked tongue of the fire
begins to lick the back of your hand,
and you feel that you must fall, when
one of the lifeboats comes back, and
the passengers say they think they
have room for one more. The boat
swings under you-you drop into it
you are saved. So some men are pur-
sued by temptation until they are par
TALLY consumed, but after all get off
sawed as if by fire." But / like the
figure of Job little better than that
of Paul. because the pulpit has not
worn it out: and l want to show you, If
God will help, that some men make
narrow escapes for their souls, and are
saved as with the skin of their teeth. v
1t is as easy for some people to look
to the cross as for you to look to this
pulpit. Mild, gentle, tractable, loving,
you expect them to become Christians.
You 90 over to the store and say:
"Grandon joined the church yester-
day." Your business comrades say:
THAT is just what have might been
expected; he always was of that turn
of mind" In youth, this person whom
1 describe was always good. He never
broke things. He never laughed when
it was improper to laugh. At Z, he
could sit an hour in church, perfectly
quiet, looking neither to the right
hand nor to the left, but straight into
the eyes of the minister, as though he
understood the whole discussion about
the eternal DEGREES. He never upset
things, nor lost them. He fioated into
the kingdom of God so gradually that
it is uncertain just when the matter
was decided.
Here is another one who started in
life with an uncomfortable spirit. He
kept the nursery in an uproar. His
mother found him walking on the edge
of the house roof to see if he could bal
ance himself. There was no horse he
climb. His boyhood was long serie:
of predicaments; his manhood wa:
reckless; his mid-life very hayward
but now he is converted, and you &c
over to the store and say: cartwright
Joined the church yesterday" You
friends say: sit is not possible! You
must be joking" You say: mo;
tell you the truth. He Joined the
church" Then they reply: There il
! nope lOT VI uS II OAA ~ wv ~ A-e-
become Christian"
In other words, we all admit that il
is more difficult for some men to &C
cept the gospel than for others.
may be addressing some who have
cut loose from churches, and Bibles
and Sundays, and who have at present
no intention of becoming Christian!
: themselves, but just to see what is go
: ing on: and yet you may find yourself
escaping before you hear the end, a:
with the skin of yor teeth" do mo-
expect to waste this hour. have seeI
boats go off from Cape May or Long
Branch, and drop their nets, and aftel
awhile come ashore. pulling in the net!
without having caught a single fish
1t was not good day. or they had no
the right kind of net. But we expec
no such excursion to-day. The waite
: is full of fish: the wind is in the right
directions; the gospel net is strong. o
: Thou. who didst help Simon and An
drew to fish, show us to-day how t.
cast the net on the right side of tn
ship.
Some of you. in coming to God, viii
have to run against skeptical notions
, 1t is useless for people to say sharp ant
, cutting things to those who reject tn
Christian religion. l cannot say sucl
!, things. BY what process of temptation
or trial. or betrayal you have come t
your present state. know not. Their
> are two gates to your nature; the gat
of the head. and the gate of the heart
I The gate of your head is locked will
l bolts and bars that an archangel coul
not break. but the gate of your hear
swings easily on its hinges If l as
= saulted your body with weapons, yo