The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-08-31
JOBS ACHING TOOTH.
HE ALSO HAD BoILs. BANKRUPT
CY AND A FOOL OF A WIFE.

From His Troublee, and Rev. DIR. Tai.
mage Shows That Thousands Of Others
May BE Similarly Saved.
In this discourse of DR.. Talmage IN
mighty encouragement for many who
consider their own case hopeless. His
text is Job xix, 20. II am escaped with
h skin Of my teeth"
Job had it hard. What with boils
and bereavements and bankruptcy and
a fool Of a wife he wished he was dead,
and I do not blame aim. His flesh was
gone, and his bones were dry. His teeth
wasted 1--WE until nothing but the
enamel seemed left. He cries out, II
am escaped with the skin Of my teeth"
There has been some difference Of
opinion about this passage. st. Jerome
and Schultens and Drs. Goode 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 tb . 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 today with gold
filling in their teeth. Ovid and Horace
and Solomon and Moses wrote about
these important factors of the body.
To other provoking complaints Job I
think, has added an exasperating tooth
ache, and, putting his hand against the
inf1amed 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. Their
was a time when the partition between
them and ruin was no thicker han a
tooth's enamel, but as Job finally es-
capped SO have they. Thank God!
Thank God!
SAVED AS BY FIRE
Paul expressed the same idea by a
different figure when he says that some
people are saved as by fire." A vessel
at sea as in flames. You go to the stern
OF the vessel. The boats have showed
off. The flames advance. You can en-
dure the heat no longer on our face.
You slide down on the side Of the ves-
sci, and hold on with u 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 Iifeboats comes back, n the pas
sengers 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 by
fire."
But I like the figure Of Job a little
better thar that of Paul, because the
pulpit has not worn it out, and I al
to show you, If God will help F., that
some men make narrow escape fortheir
souls and are saved as with the skin
of their teeth"
It is as easy for ONE people to look
to the cross as it 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
I 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 the left, but straight into the eyes
of the minister as though he under
stood the whole discussion about the
eternal DEGREES. He never upset things
nor lost them. He floated into the
kingdom Of God so gradually that it is
uncertain Just when the matter was
decided.
DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY.
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 II he could
balance himself. There was no horse
that he dared not ride, no tree he could
not climb. His boyhood was a long
series of predicaments, his manhood
was reckless, his midlife very hayward.
But now he is converted, and you go
over to the store and say, cartwright
Joined the church yesterday" Your
friends say: 'It is possible. You must
be Joking You y mo; I tell you
the truth. He joined the church"
Then they reply, h is hope for
a Christian" In other words, we will
admit that it is more difficult for some
men to accept the gospel than for
Others.
may be preaching to some who have
cut loose from churches and Bibles and
Sundays, and who have no intention OF
becoming Christians themselves, and
yet you may find yourself escaping be-
fore you leave this house as with the
skin of your teeth" I do not expect to
waste this hour. I a seen boats go
off from Cape May or Long Branch and
drop their nets and after awhile come
ashore, pulling in the nets without hav-
ing caught a single fish. It was not a
good day, or they had not the right
kind of a net. But we expect no sucn
excursion today. The water Is full OF
fish,, the wind is in the right direction,
the gospel net is strong. O thou who
didst help Simon and Andrew to fish,
show us how to cast the net on the
right side of the ship!
Some of you in coming to God will
have to run against skeptical notions.
It is useless for people to say sharp and
cutting things to those who reject the
Christian religion. I cannot say such
things. By what process of temptation
or trial or betrayal you have come to
your present state I know not. There
are two gates to your nature0the gate
of the head and the gate Of the heart.
The gate of your head is locked with
hollis and barS that an a could