The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1900-09-20
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
GODS JUDGMENTS ARE SWIFT
AND SURE.
National Sins Are Punished BY Keen
Instruments - No Calamity Happens
by Chance, but Is Directed by Divine
Wisdom.

-. AoAAAd6Cs Al LIS JOuIuSy WEST
ward. through Europe, has recently
visited scenes Of thrilling historic
events. He sends this sermon, in
which he shows that nations are judg-
ed in this world and that God re-
wards them for their virtues and pun
ishes them for their crimes. The text
Is Isaiah vii, 20, "In the same day
shall the Lord shave with razor that
is hired, namely, by them beyond the
river, by the king of Assyria."
The Bible is the boldest book ever
written. There are no similtudes in
Ossian of the Had 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 limping simil-
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 presentat on
OF truth, we often find the iron chariot,
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
symbol. David said Of Doeg, his an
tagonist. ''Thy tongue is a sharp ra-
zor working deceitrully"-that is. it
pretends to clear the face, but is really
used for deadly iucision.
In this striking text this weapon of
the toilet appears, under the following
circumstances: Judea needed to have
some of its properties cut off, and God
sends against it three Assyrian kings
first Sennacherib, then Esarhaddon
and afterward Nebuchadnezzar. These
three sharp invasions that cut down
the glory of Judea are compared to so
many sweeps Of the razor across the
face of the land. And these devasta-
tons were called hired razor because
God took the kings of Assyria, with
whom he had no sympathy, to do the
work and paid them in palaces and
spoils and annexations. These kings
were hired to execute the divine be-
hests. And now the text. which on its
first reading may have seemed trivial
or inapt. Is charged with momentous
import, I'm the same day shall the
Lord shave with razor that is hired,
namely, by them beyond the river, by
the king Of Assyria."
Razors of Judgment.
Well, If Gods judgments are razors,
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 judg-
ments of God! If man meets with
business misfortune, how many there
are ready to cry out: THAT is a judy
ment of God upon him because he was
INSCRIPTIONS or arrogant or over
reaching or miserly. I thought he
would get cut down. What a clean
sweep of everything! His city house
and country house gone. His stables
emptied Of all the fine bays and sorrels
and grays that used to prance by his
door. All his resources overthrow
and all that he prided himself on
tumbled into demolition. Good for
him!" Stop, my brother. Don't sling
around so freely 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 hon
est and conscientious are driven into
bankruptcy. Perhaps the unsuccessful
mans manner was unfortunate. ard
he was not really as proud as he look
ed to be. Some Of those who carry
their heads erect and look imperial are
humble as child, while many man
in seedy coat and SLOUGH hat and I'M
BACKED shoes is as proud as Lucieer.
You cannot tell by mans look. Per
haps he was not INSCRIPTIONS in bust
ness, for there are two sides to every
story, and everybody that accomplish
es anything for himself or others gets
industriously lied about. Perhaps his
business misfortune was not a punish
ment. 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 a e
put down in the commercial catalogues
as Al. Whom the Lord loveth he
gives 100000 and let's die on en.broid-
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 bristling pride of your
own heart. do so, but be very careful
how you put the sharp edge on others
How do dislike the behavior of those
persons who when people ars uafor-
tunate say. II told you so-getting
punished-served him right" If those
I-told-you-sos got their desert, they
would long ago have been pitched over
the battlements. The mote In their
neighbours eyes, so small that it takes
a microscope to find it, gives them
more trouble than the beam which OBJ
scures their own optics. With air
sometimes supercilious and sometimes
pharasaical and always blasphemous
they take the razor of divine Judgment