The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1897-09-23
ENCOURAGING WORDS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Delivers a Dis
course to tho 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-
enlargement TO those who, through
worldly troubles, are depressed i'll
spirit. 1t is based on the text;
! am escaped with the skin OF my teeth, Job
xix, % %f
Job had it hard. What with boils,
and bereavements, and bankruptcy,
and a 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: n 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
teeth2" lie knew everything about it.
Dental surgery is almoot as old as the
earth. The mummies Of Egypt, thon:
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 t~oothache, and putting his
hand against the inHamed 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 a time when the partition be-
tween them and ruin was no thicker
than n tooth's enamel; but, as job
finally escaped. SO have they. Thank
God. thank God. a.
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 nc longer on
yourf face. Iou slide down on the side of
the vessel, and hold On with your fin
gers until the foried tongue of fire
begins to lick the back of your hands,
and you feel that you must fall, when
one of the lifcbouts comes back, and
the passengers say they think they
have room for one more. ,,a,I..he boat
swings under you-you drop into it
you are saved. So some men are, pur.-
sued by temptation until they are par
italy consumed, but after all get off
saved as by fire"
But | like the figure oftJ6b Il little
better than that OF Paul, because the
pulpit has not worn it out: and | want
to show you, if God viii 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 y~cster.
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
| describe was always good. lie never
broke things. He never laughed when
ii was improper to laugh. At seven,
he could sit an hour in church, per
fectly quiet, looking neither to the
Fright hand nor to the left, but straight
into the eyes of the minister, as
{ thn,nb la pnlnrSfo,l thn ,yhn1a ltS.
c~ussion about the eternal DEGREES. lie
meyer upset things nor lost them. lie
aoated into the kingdom Of Got SO
gradually that tits uncertain just when
the matter was decided.
Herr is another one, who started in
life with an uncomfortable spirit. lie
kept the nursery in an uproar. His
mother found him walking on the edge
of the house-roof to See if he could
balance himself. There was no horse
that lie dared not ride~-no tree that he
cotld' not climb. His boyhood was a
long series Of predicamcnts; his man
hood reckless; his midlife very way
ward. But nov he is converted. and
you go over to the store and say
cartwright Joined the church yester-
day, your friends say. at 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 il old
Arkwright has become 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 nc
intention OF becoming Christians them.
selves, and yet you may find yourself
escaping, before you leave this house,
as with the skin of your teeth" l dc
not expect to waste this hour. / have
seen boats 20 off from Cape May OF
Long Branch, and drop their nets, and
after awhile come ashore, pulling In
the nets without having caught asinglo
fish. 1t was not a good day, or they
had not the right kind Of q net. Blu,
we expect no such excursion to-day.
j The water is full of fish, the wind Il
In the rignt direction, the Gospei mel
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, viii
have to run against skeptical notions
1t is useless for people to say SHARP
and cutting things to those who reject
the Christian religion. ] can not say
such things. BY what process OF temp
tation, or trial, Or betrayal. you have
COME 10 your present state, know not
There are two gates to your nature
the gate of the head and the gate O
the heart. The gate Of your head il
locked with bolts and bars that nr
( archapgel could not break. but the
gate OF your heart swings easily Oh
its hinges. II 1 assaulted YOU
body with weapons you wonlt
meet me with vea mons. and it would b1