The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-05-06
IN GRIP OF STEEL.
Dr. Tafmage Draws Lesson from
the Tenacity Of Eleazar.
He Urges a Closer Adherence to the
Gospel ana Announces That
He Will Not Cease to
Preach.
washington,

Wv NSH' SSPy ii5 III Ao0oi
In the first notice concerning DR.. Tai
mage that Pastor Charles ii. Sturgeon.
of London, wrote the great English min
lister said he was glad to find preacher
that believed something This dis
course of DR.. Talmage is III that vein.
and urges close adherence to the old
Gospel; text.I Il. Samuel. 20: 10, And his
hand clave unto the sword"
What glorious thing to preach the
Gospel! Some suppose that because !
have resigned a fixed pastorate | will
cease TO preach. No! No! expect to
preach more than ] ever have. If the
Lord will. four times as much. though
in manifold places. | would not dare
to halt with such opportunity to declare
-the*ruth through the ear to audiences
Nand to the eye through the printing
press. And here we have stirring
tMme put before us by the prophet.
* great general of King David was
Eleazar. the hero of the text. The
>Plilistines opened battle against him.
and his troops retreated. The cow
ards fed. Eleazar and three of his COM
-rades went into the battle and swept
1.-the field. for four men with God on their
side are stronger than whole regiment
with God against them. Fall back!"
shouted the commander of the Philis-
tine army. The cry ran along the host:
Fall back!" Eleazar. having swept the
field throws himself on the ground to
rest, but the muscles and sinews of his
hand had been so long bent around the
hilt of the sword that the hilt was, i'm
bedded in the flesh, and the gold wire of
the hlt had broken through the skin
Of the palm of his hand and he could
not drop this sword which he had so
CALAMITY welded. His hand clave I'M
to the sword" That is what ! call mag
niflcent fighting for the Lord God of
Israel. And we want more of it.
propose to show you how Eleazar
took hold of the sword and how the
sword took hold of Eleazar. look at
Eleazar's hand. and come to the con-
cluson that he took the sword with
very tight grip. The towards who fled
had no trouble in dropping their
swords. AS they fly over the rocks
hear their swords changing in every d.
rection. 1t is easy enough for them to
drop their swords. But Eleazar's hand
clave unto the sword. In this Christian
conflict we want a tighter grip of the
Gospel weapons. tighter grasp of the
two-edged sword of the truth. 1t makes
me sick to see these Christian people
who hold only a part of the truth. and
let the rest of the truth 60, 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 tips of the fingers clutch at
the words: I'm the beginning God Gre
ated the Heavens and the earth" like
an inidel great deal better than do
one of these mandy PANTY Christians
who hold part of the truth and let the
rest go. By miracle, God preserved this
Bible just as it is. and it is Damascus
blade. The severest test to which a
sword can be put in sword factory is
to wind the blade around gun barrel
| like 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 its own shape. Think of it! A book
written near 10 centuries ago. and some
of it thousands of years ago, and yet in
our time the average sale of this Book is
more than 10000 copies every week, and
more than million copies year. say
now that book which is Divinely in
spired, and Divinely kept, and Divinely
scattered is a weapon worth holding a
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 to
wrench out of your hand the miracles.
and Renan will come along and try to
wrench out of your hand the entire life
of the Lord Jesus Christ and your as
sociates 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
and with Eleazar's grip hold on to it.
You give up the Bible. you give up any
part of it. and you give up pardon and
peace and life and Heaven.
Do not be ashamed, young man, to
have the world know that you are q
friend of the Bible. This book is the
friend of all that is good. and it is the
sworn enemy of all that is bad. An elo-
quent writer recently gives an incident
of very bad man who stood in a cell
of western prison. This criminal
had gone through all styles of crime,
and he was there waiting for the gal
lows. The convict standing there at the
window of the cell, this writer says,
Hooked out and declared, 4 am an in
fidel.' He said that 10 all the men and
women and children who happened TO
be gathered there. i am an infidel.'
and the eloquent writer says. Every
man and woman there believed him."
And the writer goes on to say, IF he
had stood there saying. 1 am Chris
| t;or ,,,np "A n xxOpId ba IN