Connecticut western news., 1897-08-26
JOBS ACHING TOOTH.
HE ALSO HAD BOlLS, BANKRUPTCY
 AND A FOOL OF A WIFE.

But He Finally Escaped, Body and Soul,
 From His Troubles, and Rev. Dr. Tal-
 mage Shows That Thousands of Others
 May He Similarly Saved.
 NEW YORK, Aug. 22.-In this dis course of Dr. Talmage is mighty en- for many who consider their own case hopeless. His text is Joh xix, 90, 'I am escaped with the skin of my teeth"
 Job had it hard. What with boils and bereavements and bankruptcy and a fool of wife he wished he was dead, and I 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 cries out, "I 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 interpre- tation and say, "What did Job know about the enamel of the teeth?" He knew everything about it. Dental sur gerry 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 Solo, mon and Moses wrote about these inn portant factors of the body. To other provoking complaints Job I think, has added an exasperating toothache, and, putting his hand against the inf1amed face, he says, 1T am escaped with the skin of my teeth. !"
 A very narrow escape, you say, for Jobs body and soul, but there are thou sands 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 escaped so have they. Thank Godi Thank Godl
 Saved as by Fire.
 Paul expresses the same idea by 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 have showed off. The flames advance. You can en- dure the heat no longer on your face. You slide down on the side of the yes- .sel 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 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 pursued by temptation until they are partially consumed, but after all get off-"saved as 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 escape for their souls and are saved as with the skin of their teeth.
 It 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:
 1uhb IS Ju6b wudb 1ulShb DafC pSCh 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 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 understood the whole discussion about the eternal decrees. He never upset things nor lost them. He f1oated into the kingdom of God so gradually that it is uncertain just when the matter was decided.
 Dimculties 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 if he could bal ance 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 reck- less, his midlife very wayward. But now he is converted, and you go over to the store and say, "Arkwright joined the church yesterday" Your friends say: Ut 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 Arkwright has become Chris tian." 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" do not expect to waste this hour. have seen boats go off from Cape May or Lon1 Branch and drop their nets and after awhile come ashore, pulling in the nets without hay 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 such excur- sion to day 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 shipl
 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. cannot say such things By what process of temptation or trial or betrayal you have come tc your present state I know not. There are two gates to your nature-the gate of the head and the gate of the heart. The gate of your head is locked with bolts and bars that an archangel could not break, but the gate of your heart swings easily on it's hinges. If as- saulted your body with weapons, you would meet me with weapons, and it would be sword stroke for sword stroke and xpound for xpoupd and h1O0d fOr