The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1900-09-21
ARE SWIFT AND SURE
Gods Judgments Are Like Sharp
Razors, Says DR.. Talmage.
Nations of the World Are Either Pun
ished or Rewarded-AlI Calami-
ties Are Directed by Di-
vine Wisdom.
copyright, 1900 by Louis Klopsch.1

DR.. Talmage, in his journey west
ward through Europe, has recently VS.
tied scenes of thrilling historic events.
He sends this sermon, in which he
shows that nations are judged in this
world and that God rewards them for
their virtues and Furnishes them for
their crimes. The text is Isaiah Z,
&c: 'In the same day shall the Lord
shave with a razor that is hired, name
ly, by them beyond the river, by the
king of Assyria."
The Bible is the bo1dest book ever
written. There are no similitudes in
Ossian or the Had or the Odyssey so
daring. It's imagery sometimes seems
on the verge of reckless, but only
seems so. The fact is that God would
startle and arouse and propel men and
nations. A tame and limping simili-
tude would fail to accomplish the OBJ
ject. While there are times when He
employs in the Bible the gentle dew
and the morning cloud and the dove
and the daybreak in the presentation
of truth, we often find the iron char
lot, the Lightning, the earthquake, the
spray, the sword and, in my text, the
razor. This keen-bladed instrument
has advanced in usefulness with the
ages. In Bible times and lands the
beard remained uncut save in the sea-
sons of mourning and humiliation, but
the razor was always a suggestive SYM
Dol. David said of Doeg, his antagon-
ist: "Thy tongue is a sharp razor work
ing deceitfully''- is, it pretends
to clear the face, but is really used
for deadly incision.
In this striking text this weapon of
the toilet appears under the follow
ing circumstances: Judea needed to
have some of its prosperities cut off,
and God sends against it three Assyrian
kings-first Sennacherib, then Esar-
haddon and afterward Nebuchadnez-
Ear. These three sharp invasions that
cut down the glory of Judea are COM
pared to so many sweeps of the razor
across the face of the land. And these
devastations were called a hired ra-
zor because God took the kings of AS
syria, with whom He had no sympathy,
to do the work, and paid them in pal
aces and spoils and annexations. These
kings were hired to execute the Di-
vine behests. And now the text, which
on its first reading may have seemed
trivial or inapt, is charged with mo-
mentous import: ''In the same day
shall the Lord shave with a razor that
is hired, namely, by them beyond the
river, by kings of Assyria."
. Well, if Gods judgments are ra-
zors, we had better be careful how we
use them on other people. In careful
sheath these domestic weapons are put
away where no one by accident may
touch them and where the hands of
children may not reach them. Such
instruments must be carefully handled
or not handled at all. But how reck-
lessly some people WELD the judgment
of God! If man meets with bust
ness misfortune, how many there are
ready to cry out: THAT is judgment
of God upon him because he was un-
scrupulous or arrogant or overreach-
ing or lniserly. 1 thought he would
get cut down What clean sweep
of everything! His city house and
country house gone. His stables emp
tied of all the fine bays and sorrels and
grays that used to prance by his door.
All his resources overthrown and all
that he prided himself on tumb.ed into
demolition. Good for him!" Stop, my
brother. Don't sling around too free
ly the judgments of God, for they are
razors.
Some of the most wicked business
men succeed, and they live and die
in prosperity, and some of the most
honest and conscientious are driven
into bankruptcy. Perhaps the unsuc-
cessful mans manner was unfortu-
nate, and he was not really as proud
as he looked to be. Some of those
who carry their heads erect and look
imperial are humble as a child, while
many man in seedy coat and slouch
hat and unblacked shoes is as proud
as Lucifer. You cannot tell by a
mans look. Perhaps he was not un-
scrupulous in business, for there are
two sides to every story, and every
body that accomplishes anything for
himself or others gets industriously
lied about. Perhaps his business mis-
fortune was not a punishment, but
the fatherly discipline to prepare him
for Heaven, and God may love him
far more than He loves you, who can
pay dollar for dollar and are put
down in the commercial catalogues
as Al. Whom the Lord loveth He
gives 100000 and lets die on embroid-
cred pillows? No; whom the Lord
loveth He chasteneth. Better keep
your hand off the Lords razors, lest
they cut and wound people that do
not deserve it. If you want to shave
off some of the bristIing pride of your
own heart, do so, but be very careful
how you put the sharp edge on 9TH
ers. How I do dislike the behavior
of those persons who when people
are unfortunate say: ST told you so
getting punished-served him right!"
If those I-told-you-so's got their
desert they would long ago have been
pitched over the battlements. The
mote in their neighbor's eyes, so
small that it takes a microscope to
find it, gives them more trouble than
the beam which cbscures their own
optics. With air sometimes super
cilious and sometimes pharasaical and
always blasphemous they take the
razor of Divine judgment and sharp
en- it on the hone of their own hard
hearts and then go to work on men
sprawled out at full length under dis
aster, cutting mercilessly. They be-