The Bossier banner., 1894-09-13
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
How Some Are Saved as By the
Skin Of Their Teeth.
Some Find 1t More Difficult to Accept the
Gospel than Others-The Battle
with Business Perplexities,
Evil Passions, Etc.

IL IS emitted Narrow Escapes and is
based on the text:
am escaped with the skin of my teeth
Job xix, 90
Job had it hard What with boils,
and bereavements, and bankruptcy,
and fool of a wife. he wished he was
dead; and | 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: Il 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
Interpretation 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
AeINCO4 . VI VIC OOAys 1O otilcr pGONOh-
ing complaints, Job, think, has added
an eXasperating toothache, and, put
ting his hand against the inflamed
face, he says: Il 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 a
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 fingers 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
life boats comes back, and the passen-
gers 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 pursued by tempta-
ton until they are partially consumed,
but after all get off saved as if by
fire" But l like the figure of Job a
little better thar that of Paul, because
the pulpit has not worn it out: and 1
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"
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 go over to the store and say,
"Grandon joined the church yester-
day." Your business comrades say.
THAT is just what might have been
expected; he always was of that turn
of mind" In youth, this person. whom
| describe was always good. He never
broke things. He never laughed when
it was improper to laugh. At seven, 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 lie could bal
ance himself. There was no horse he
dared not ride-no tree he could lot
climb. His boyhood was long series
of predicaments; his manhood was
reckless; his mid life very wayward
But now he is converted. and you go
over to the store and say, cartwright
joined the church yesterday" Your
friends say, 1T is not possible! You
must be joking" You say, No; tell
you the truth. He joined the church. -
Then they reply, There is hope for
any of US if old Arkwright has become
a Christian.''
In other words, we all admit that it
is more difficult for some men to accept
the Gospel than for others.
may be addressing some who lave
cut loose from churches, and Bibles,
and Sundays, ana who have at present
no intention of becoming Christians
themselves, but just to sec what is GO
ing On; and yet you may find yourself
escaping, before you hear the end, as
with the skin of your teeth" l do
not expect to waste this hour. l have
seen boats go off from Cape May or
Long Branch, and drop their nets, and
after awhile come ashore, pulling in
the nets without having caught a
single fish. 1t was not good day, or
they had not the right kind of net.
But we expect no such excursion to-
day. The water is full of fish: the
vino is in the right direction; the
Gospel net is strong. o, thou, who
didst help Simon and Andrew to fish,