The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-09-03
ENCOURAGING WORDS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Delivers a Dis
course to the Downcast.
The Story of Job Used to Illustrate the
Fact that Man May Go to the Very
Brink and May Yet be Saved
Through Faith.

The following discourse by Rev. T.
Dewitt Talmage contains words of en-
couragement to those who, through
worldly troubles, are depressed in
spirit. 1t is based on the text:
am escaped with the skin of my teeth.-Jot
| xix, 20
Job had it hard. What with boils
and bereavements, and bankruptcy
and fool of 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: Il am escaped with the skin OF
my teeth"
| There has been some difference OF
opinion about this passage. st. jerome
and Schultens, and Doctors 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, thou
sands 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 provoking COM
plants, Job, think, has added an ex-
| asperating toothache, and putting his
hand against the inflamed face, he says:
81 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 be-
tween them and ruin was no thicker
than tOoth's enamel; but, as Job
finally escaped, 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. The boats
have 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 fire
begins to lick the back of your hands,
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
saved as by fire"
But l like the figure of Job little
better than that of Paul, because the
ulpit has not worn it out; and l want
10 show you, if God will help, that
some men make narrow escape of their
souls, and are saved as with the skin
of their teeth"
1t is easy for some people to look to
the cross as for you to look to this pull
pit. Mild, gentle, tractable, loving,
you expect them to become Christians.
You go over to the store and say:
'GrandOn joined the church yester-
day" YoU= business comrades say:
THAT Is just what might have been
expected; he was always of that turn
of mind" In youth this person whom
l 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 chur en-, per-
fectly 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 dis
cussiOn about the eternal DEGREES. He
never upset things nor lost them. He
dOated 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
balance himself. There was no horse
that he dared not ride-no tree that he
could not climb. His boyhood was
long series of predicaments; his man
hood reckless; his midIife very way
ward. But now he is converted, and |
you go over to the store and say:
cartwright joined the church yester-
day." Your friends say: 1T is not |
possible; you must be joking" You |
say: No; l tell you the truth. He |
Joined the church" Then they reply: |
There is hope for any of US if old |
has become a Christianw In /
other words, we will admit that it is |
more difficult for some men to accept |
The Gospel than for others.
l may be preaching to some who
nave cut loose from churches, and
Bibles, and Sundays, and who have no
Intention of becoming Christians them
selves, and yet you may find yourself
before you leave this house,
Is with the skin of your teeth" l do
not expect to waste this hour. l have
,een boats go off from Cape May or
Long Branch, and drop their nets, and
after awhile come ashore, pulling in
he nets without having caught single
ish. 1t was not a good day, or they
had not the right kind of a net. But
We expect no such excursion to-day.
The water is full of fish, the wind is
n the right direction, the Gospel net
S strong. o, Thou who didst help
Simon and Andrew to fish, show US
low to cast the net on the right side
If the ship.
Some of you, in coming to God, will
nave to run against skeptical notions.
t is useless for people to say sharp
md cutting things to those who reject
he Christian religion. l can not say
'ucn JnlnBS- by "AdI prOCeSS VI CeAnp |
alton, or trial, or betrayal, you have
come to your present state, know not.
There are two gates to your nature;
he gate of the head and the gate of
he heart. The gate of your head is
ocked with bolts and bars that an
could not break, but the
rate of your heart swings easily on
Is hinges. If 1 assaulted your
body with weapons you would
meet me with weapons, and it would be
,word-stroke for sword-stroke, and
wound for wound, and blood for blood;