Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-09-28
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
Dlvif'E.


Subject: "Hold Fast to the Bible"-Les-
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
rd."-II Samuel xiii, 10.
What a glorious thing to preach the
Gospel! Some suppose that because
have resigned a fixed pastorate l will
rease to preach. No, no. expect to
Lord will, four times as much, though
in manifold places. / 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 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 field, for
four men with God on their side are
stronger than whcie regiment with God
against them. Pail backt" shouted the
commander Of the Philistine army. The
cry ran along the host. Fall back!'
Eleazar, having swept the neld, 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
the skin of the palm OF the hand, and he
could not drop this sword which he had
so gallan.ly welded. His hand clave
unto the sword That is what 1 call
magnificent fighting for the Lord God OF
Israel. And we want more OF It.
Ipropose to show you how Eleazar took
hold Of tthe 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. 1. Is easy enough for them to
drop their swords. but Eleazars hand clave
unto the sword. In this Christian conflict
we want a tighter grip Of the Gospel weap-
ons, 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 for US to dois 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 SIN the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth" l like an inf
del a 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 Ghis Bible just as it
is, and 1t Is a Damascus blade. The sever
est 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 1t flies back to its own
shape So the sword of Gods truth has
been fully tested, and 1t is bent this way
and that way and wound this way and that
k,,S a. al ha.
shape Think of iti A book written nearly
nineteen centuries ago, and some Of it
thousands OF years ago, and yet in
,ur time the average sale of this book
8 more than 20, 900 copies every week and
more than 900 900 copies a year, / say
now that book which, is divinely inspired
and divinely kept and divinely scattered is
q weapon worth holding tight grip Of.
Bishop Colenso will come along and try to
wrench ont of your hand the five books Of
Moses, and Strauss will come along and try
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 and with Eleazar's grip
hold on TO il. You give up the Bible, you
give vi any part of il, 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 friend of the
Bible. This book is the friend OF all that is
good, and II is the sworn enemy OF all that
Is bad. An eloquent writer recently gives
an incident Of 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, 4 am an infidel.' He said
that to all the men and women and chill
dren who happened to be gathered there,
Il am an infdel.'" And the eloquent writer
says. Every man and woman there be-
lieved 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 Il liarl''
This Bible is the sworn enemy of all that
is wrong, and il is the friend of all that is
good. Oh, hold on il! 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 immortal, and they say: II guess il
Is: don't know. Perhaps it is; perhaps
it isn't" Is the Bible trues well, perhaps
1t is, and perhaps ii isn't. Perhaps it may
he, fguratively, and perhaps it may be
partly, and perhaps ii may not be at all. 3"
They despise what they call the apostolic
creed, but IL their own creed were written
out ii would read like this: II believe in
and In nothing which 1t 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 ascended to nothing and now sitteth
at the right hand of nothing, from
which it will come to judge nothing. i be-
lieye in the holy agnostic church and in
the communion OF nothingarians and in
the forgiveness of nothing and the resur-
rection OF thing and in the life that never
shall be. Amenl'' That is the creed of
tens OF thousands of people IN this day. If
you have q mind to adopt such theory,
will not. 81 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 the battle against sin
and for righteousness / come to the con-
clusion 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
= ~ AL "a = 49, 49, xs.e..