Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-04-27
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

sons Drawn From the Sword of Eleazar
AS He Grasped His Weapon So Should
We Cleave to the Old Gospel.
TEXT: "And his hand clave unto the
sword."-II Samuel xxlii., 10.
What glorious thing to preach the
Gospel Some suppose that because I
have resigned a fixed passionate l will
cease to preach. No, no. l expect to
preach more than 1 ever have. II the
Lord will, four times as much, t-.agh
in manifold places. I would not dare to
halt with such opportunity to declare the
truth through the ear to audiences and to
the eye through the printing press. And
here we have Il stirring theme put before
us by the prophet.
A. great general OF King David was
Eleazar, the hero of the text. The Philis
tines opened battle against him, and his
troops retreated. The towards fed.
Eleazar and three of his comrades went
into the battle and swept the held for
four men with God on their side are
stronger than whcle regiment with God
against them. Fall back!' shouted the
commander Of the Philistine army. The
cry ran along the host, Fall backl'
Eleazar, having swept the field, throws
himself on the ground to rest, but the mus
cles and sinews OF his hand had been SO
long bent around the hilt OF his sword that
the hilt was imbedded In the flesh, and the
gold wire Of the hilt had broken through
could not drop this sword which he had
so gallan.ly welded. His hand clave
unto the sword That is what L call
magnificent fighting for the Lord God Of
Israel. And we want more Of it.
propose to show you how Eleazar took
hold of Hhe sword and how the sword took
hold Of Eleazar. look at Eleazar's hand,
and come to the conclusion that he took
the sword with very tight grip. The
towards who fed had no trouble In drop
ping their swords. AS they, fly over the
rocks hear their swords changing In every
direction. I. is easy enough for them to
drop their swords. but Eleazar's hand clave
unto the sword. In this Christian conflict
we want tighter grip of the Gospel weap-
ons, Il tighter grasp Of the two edged sword
of the truth. 1t makes me sick to see these
| Christian people who hold only part OF
| the truth and let the rest of the truth go,
so that the Philistines, seeing the loosened
grasp, wrench the whole sword away from
them. The only safe thing for US to do is to
put our thumb on the book Of Genesis and
! sweep our hand around the book until the
| New Testament comes into the palm and
keep on sweeping our hand around the
book until the tips of the fingers clutch at
! the words "In the be ginning God created
| the heavens and the earth" 1 like an inf
! del great deal better than 1 do one of
| these namby pamby Christians who hold
part OF the truth and let the rest go. By
miracle God preserved this Bible just it
| is, and 1t is Damascus blade. The sever
est test to which Il sword can be put in a
sword factory is to wind the blade around
| gun barrel like a ribbon, and then when
! the sword is let loose it flies back to its own
! shape. SO the sword of Gods truth has
! been fully tested, and it Is bent this way
and that way and wound this way and that
| way, but it always comes back to it's own
shape. Think it! A book written nearly
nineteen centuries ago, and some OF 1t
thousands Of years ago, and yet in
our time the average sale of this book
| Is more than 20, 900 copies every week and
more than ,000, 900 copies u year! 1 say
now that a book whtcll Is divinely inspired
and divinely kept and divinely scattered Is
weapon worth holding tight grip Of.
! Bishop Colenso will come along and try to
wrench out Of your hand the five books Of
Moses and Strauss will come along and try
4 to wrench out of your hand the miracles,
AMI Renan will come along and try to
wrench out of your hand the entire life of
! the Lord Jesus Christ, and your associates
In the office or the factory or the banking
house will try to wrench out of your hand
| the entire Bible, but in the strength of the
Lord God OF Israel aud with Eleazars grip
! hold on to It, You give up the Bible, you
give up any part of 1t, and you give up par
| don and peace and life in heaven.
Do not be ashamed young man, to have
| the world know that you are a friend of the
Bible. This book is the friend OF all that Is
good, and 1t is the sworn enemy OF all that
Is bad. An eloquent writer recently gives
an incident of n very bad man who stood
In cell OF Western prison. This crimi-
nal had gone through all styles of crime,
and he was there waiting for the gallows
The convict standing there at the window
| Of the cell, this writer says, "looked ont
and declared, Il am an in0del' He said
| that to all the men and women and chill
dren who happened to be gathered there,
Il am an infldel.'" And the eloquent writer
says, Every man and woman there be-
tieved him." And the writer goes on to
say, ''If he had stood there saying. 1 am
! Christian every man and woman would
have said, He is II liar!'''
| This Bible Ia the sworn enemy of all that
is wrong, and it Is the friend of all that Is
good. Oh, hold on 1t! Do not take part
OF 1t and throw the rest away. Hold on to
all Of 1t. There are so many people now
who do not know. You ask them IL the
soul Is immo mortal and they say: 81 guess it
Is; don't know. Perhaps 1t Is; perhaps
it isn't" Is the Bibletru "Well, perhaps
it is, and perhaps it isn't. Perhaps it may
be, f1guratively, and perhaps 1t may be
partly, and perhaps 1t may not be at all" !"
They despise what they call the apostolic
creed, but IL their own creed were written
out 1t would read like this II believe in
nothing, the maker Of heaven and earth,
and in nothing which it hath sent. which
| nothing was born of nothing and which
nothing was dead and buried and descend
ed into nothing and rose from nothing
and assembled to nothing and now sitteth
at the right hand OF nothing, from
which it will come to Judge nothing. 1 be-
lieve in the holy agnostic church and in
the communion of nothingarians and in
the forgiveness of nothing and the resur-
rection of nothing and in the life that never
shall be. Amen' That is the creed OF
tens OF thousands of people III this day. Ii
| v0u hava n mind TO adODt such n theory
will not. II believe in God, the Father Al
mighty, Maker Of heaven and earth, and in
Jesus Christ and in the holy catholic
church and In the communion of saints
and in the life everlasting. Amen" Oh,
when see Eleazar taking such stout
grip OF the sword in tho battle against sin
and for righteousness, come to the con-
olusion that we ought to take u stouter
grip of Gods eternal truth-the sword Of
righteousness.
As look at Eleazar's hand also notice
his spirit OF self forgetfulness. He did not
notice that the hilt of the sword was eating