The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-04-10
HELD IN STOUT GRIP.
Or. TALMAoE DRAWS A LESSON FROM
ELEAZAR's rENAcITv. . 81.

piSo eoncofhAAB IL. lnlihaRo tHuO Id6tol
Charles H. Sturgeon Of London wrote thu
great English minister said he was glad tt
find q preacher that believed something
This discourse of DIR. Talmage is in thai
vein and urges close adherence to the old
gospel; text. II Samuel xiii, 10, And his
hand clave unto the sword.
What glorious thing to preach the
gospel! Some suppose that because l have
resigned q fixed pastorate will cease te
preach. No! No! I expect to preach
more than ever have. If the Lord will,
four times as much, though In manifold
places. Iwould not dare to halt with such
opportunity to declare the truth through
tho ear to audiences and to the eye through
the printing press. And here we have a
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 reiterated The towards fed.
Nleazar and three of his comrades went
into the battle and swept the field, for four
men with God on their side are stronger
than whole regiment with God against
them. Fall backl'' shouted the COM
mander Of the Philistine 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 his sword that the hilt
was imbedded In the flesh, and the gold
wire Of the hilt had broken through the
skin of the palm of the hand, and he could
not drop this sword which he had SO gal
lantly welded His hand clave unto the
sword That is what call magnificent
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 como to tho conclusion that he took
the sword with IL very tight grip The
towards who fed had no trouble in drop
ping their swords AS they fly over the
rocks henr their swords changing in ev-
cry direction. 1t is easy enough for them
to drop their swords But Eleazar's hand
claye unto the sword In this Christian
conflict we want Il tighter grip of the gos.
pei weapons, a 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.
The only safe thing for us to do is to
put our thumb OH 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 beginning God created
the heavens and the earth" like an in
tidel a great deal better than l do one of
these mandy painhy 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 a Damascus blade The Sc
vcrest test to which 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 les
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 av "tge sale of
this book is more than tw.nty thousand
copies every week and more than a mil
lion copies year, say now that book
which is divinely inspired and divinely
kept and divinely scattered is a weapon
worth holding tight grip of. Bishop
al will tr,, rs, Ia
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
tho Lord Jesus Christ, and your associates
in the Office or the factory cr the banking
house will try to wrench out Of your hand
the entire Bible, but in the strength of tho
Lord God of Israel and with Eiea2ar'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 friend of
the Bible, This book is the friend of all
that is good, and it is tho sworn enemy of
all that is bad An elolucnL writer re-
Stitiy EiNtS ttii VI Il very lIlttH
who stood in Il cell of Il western prison.
This criminal had gone through all st yles
of crime, and he was there waiting for the
gallows. The convict standing there at
the window of the cell this writer says,
looked out and declared, i am an inf
del, He said that to all the men and woIu-
en- and children who happened to be gath
cred there, i am an infidel, and the
eloquent writer says, EVERY man and
woman there believed him." And the
writer goes on to say "lf he had stood
there saying, Il am a Christian, every
man and woman would have said, He is
u liar!
The Enemy of Wrong.
This Bible is the sworn enemy Of all
that is wrong, and it is the friend of all
[ hat is good Oh hold on it'll DO not take