The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-09-28
LIKE SHARP RAZ0RS
GODS JUDGMENTS ARE: SWIFT AND
SURE, SAYS DR.. TAlMAGE
National Sins are Punished by Keen
lnstruments-No Calamity Happens
by Chance, but is by Dr.
vine Wisdom

DR.. TaImage in his journey westward
through Europe, has recently visited
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 vii. 20, In
the same day shall the Lord shave
with a razor that is hired, namely, by
them beyond the river, by he king
Of Assyria-"
The Bible is the boldest book ever
written. There are no similitudes in
Ossian or the uiad or the Odyssey so
daring. Its imagery sometimes seems
on the verge of the reckless. but only
seems so. The fact is that God would
startle and arouse and propel men
and nations. a tame and
similitude would fail to accomplish the
object. While there are times when
he employs in the Bible h gentle
dew and the morning cloud and the
dove and daybreak in the presentation
of truth, we often find the iron cnarlot
the lightning, the earthquake the spray
the SWORN anu, III III NOANB LIN
This keen bladed nStrumen mas al
yanced in usefulness with the ages
In bible times and lands the beard re
manned uncut save In the seasons Oh
mourning and humiliation, but the
razor was always a suggestive sym
Dol. David said to Doeg, his antago-
mist, Thy tongue is a sharp razor
working deceitfully"-that is, it pre-
tends to clear the face, but is really
used for deadly inclSlOn-
In this striking text this weapon OF
the toilet appears under the following
circumstances: Judea needed TO nave
some of its properties cut on, anu
God sends against it three Assyrlan
kings-frst S~ennacherib, then ESar-
haddon and afterwards Nebuchadnez-
ger. These three sharp invaSlonS tndt
cut down the glory of Judea are COM
pared to so many sweeps OF the razor
across the face of the land. And these
deyastatfons were called a hired razor
because God took the kings or AsSy-
ria, with whom he had no
to do the work and paid them in pla-
ces and spoils n anneXations. Inese
kings were hired to execute the dlVlne
behests. And now the text, Whlcn on
its first reading may nave seem tr!viai
or inapt, is charged with momentous
import. I'm the same day shall the
Lord with a razor that is hired
namely, by them beyond the river by
the king of Assyria."
RAZORS OF JUDGMENT.
Well, if Gods judgment are razors'
we had better be careful how We use
them on other people. In care1ul
sheath these domestic are
put away where no n by accldent
may touch them and where the handS
of children may not reach them. Sucn
instruments must be carefully handled
at all. But how reckleSSly some peo-
rle weld the judgment OF God! Ii a
man meets with business misfortune,
how many there are ready to cry out:
THAT is q judgment upon him of God
becaus he was or AFRO
giant or ov~erreaching or misery. L
thought he would get cut down. What
a clean sweep Of everything! His CITY
house and cauntry house gone. HIS
tables emptied of all the fine pays
and sorrels and geayS that use 10
prance by his door. All his
and all that he prided himself on tum-
bled into demolition. Good Tor MIN!
Stop my brother Don't sling around
too freely the judgments OF God 1or
they are raZOrS.
Some of the most wicked business
men succeed. and they live and die IN
prosperity. and some OF the most nom
est and conscientious are driven into
bankruptcy. Perhaps the unsucceSs-
full mans name was unfortunate,
and really as proud as he looked &c
be. Some of those who carry thelr
heads erect and look imperial are hum
BILE as a child, while many a man IN
seedy coat and slouch hat and un-
BACKED shoes is a proud as Luc1ter
You cannot tell by a mans look. Ter
haps he was not INSCRIPTIONS IN pu-
siness, for there are two sides to every
story, and everybody that accom-
pills, es anything for himself or others
- .5,-+,;1,,Cl 1iod about ParhanS
his business misfortune was not a pun
ishment, but the fatherly discipline tc
prepare him for heaven, and God may
love him far more than he loves you
who can pay dollar far dollar and are
put down in the commercial catalogue
as Al. Whom the Lor loveth he gives
$500. 900 and lets die on embroidered
pillows? No; whom the Lord loveth
he chasteneth. Better keep your hand
off the Lords razor lest they cut
and wound people that do not deserve
it. If you want to shave on the Orlstl-
ing bride of your own heart, do so oui
be very careful how put the SHARP
edge on others How 1 do dislike the be-
havior of those persons who when peo-
Pile are unfortunate say, Il told pou 50
getting puniShed-Served him rlght!
If these I-told-you-So's got their de
sert, they would long g been pitched
over the battlements. The mote IN
their > eye, 81 SuIdil uidi -
takes a microscope find il, gives i6heIn
more trouble than the beam which OBJ
scures their own optics. With all
sometimes SuperciliouS and sometimes
~pharasical and always ~blaSphemous
they take the razor of divine Judgment
and sharpen it on the hone of their
own hard hearts and then go 10 work
on men Sprawled out at full length un-
der disaster. cutting mercileSsly. They
begin by soft expressions of sympathy
and pity and half praise and latheI
the victim all over before they put on
the sharp edge.
MUSIC OF KIND WORDS.
Let us be careful how we shoot a
others lest we take down the WRONG
one, remembering the servant OF klnt
William Rufus, who shot at a deer
but the arrow glanced against q tree
and killed the king. Instead OF golnf
out with shafts to pierce and razors
to cut we had better initiate b FRIEND
OF Richard Ceour de Lion. Richard
in the war of the Crusades, was cap,