The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1899-1900, 1899-04-12
LIN GRIP OF STEEL.
4 Dr. Talmage Draws a Lesson from
the Tenaeity Of Eleazar.
NE Urges a Closer Adherence to the
Gospel and Announces That
He VIII Not Cease TO
Preach. u

mage that Pastor Charles H. Spurgeon,
Of London, wrote the great English min
lister said he was glad to find preacher
that believed something. This dis
course Of DIR. Talmage is in that vein,
and urges close adherence to the old
Gospel; text, II. Samuel, 23:1o, "And his
hand clave unto the sword" ,r
What glorious thing to preach the
Gospel Some suppose that because l
have resigned fixed pastorate l will
cease to preachl Mol Mol expect to
preach more than l ever have. III the
Lord will, four times as much, though
In manifold places, I would not dare
to halt with such opportunity to declare
the truth through the ear to audiences
and 70 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
Philistines 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
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
bilt of the sword that the hilt was i'm
bedded in the flesh, and the goldwire of
fhe hilt had broken through the skin
Of the palm of his hand, and he could
not drop this sword which he had so
gallantly welded. Ellis hand clave un-
10 the sword" That is what / call mag
nifcent fighting for the Lord God of
Israel. Andwe want more 1T.
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-
elusion that he took the sword with a
very tight grip. The towards who fed
had no trouble in dropping their
swords. AS they fly over the rocks l
hear their swords clangingi 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 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 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. is~. E..
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: "In the beginning God ere
ated the Heavens and the earth" like
an infidel a great deal better than l dc
one 1of these namby pamby 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 seyerest test to which a
sword can be put in sword factory Is
TO wind the blade. around gun barrel
like ribbon, ard 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 1t! A book
written near 10 centuries ago, and some
1 it thousands of years ago, and yet in
rur time the average sale of this Book is
more than 10000 copies every week, and
more than million copies year. l say
now that book which is Divinely in.
spired, and Divinely kept, and Divinely
scattered is a weapon worth holding Q
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
, sociatesin 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, t.
have the world know that you are Q
friend OF the Bible. This book is tn,
friend of all that is good, and it is tn,
swoYn enemy of all that is bad. An,elo
quent writer recently gives an incident
of very bad man who stood in eel
Of a western prison, This crimina
had gone through all styles of crime
and he was there waiting for the gal
lows. The convict standing thereat the
window of the CELL this writer says
''looked out and declared, I am an in
fidel.' He said that to all the men ant
women and children who happened tC
be gathered there, i am an infdel,'
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, L am Chris
tian,' every man and woman would have
said, He is a liar!'"
This Bible is the sworn enemy Of al
that is wrong, and it is the friend of al
that is good. Oh, hold oni it! Do not
take part of it and throw the rest away
Hold ON to all of it, There are so many
people now who do not know. You asl
them if the soul is immortal, and they
say: 81 guess it is; don't know. Per
hnps it is; perhaps it isn't" Is the Bible
true? "Well, perhaps it is, and perhaps
II isn't. Perhaps it may be, flgdrative
ly, and perhaps IL may be partly, ant
perhaps it may not be at all" They
despise what they call the apostolic
creed, but If their own creed were writ
ten out it would read like this: g
believe In nothing, the maker of HEAVIER
and earth, and in nothing whichi it hatl