Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-05-28
WORLDLY BATTLES.
Or. TaImags Gives Some interest
ing Statictics,
AND PAYS A TRIByTE TO THE BRAVE
Who Died on the Northern and Southern
Fields of Battle-His War Policy
Laid Down For
Consideration.
,SUscidl 10 the Register.

Special TO the Register.
New YORK, May 27.-The Rev. I. De-
Witt Talmage preached the following ser
mon in the Brooklyn Tabernacle this
morning:
Opening hymn:
"My country, it's Of thee
Sweet land OF liberty"
DR.. Talmage before the sermon made a
running commentary on some of the bat
ties recorded in the old testament.
Subject of the sermon: "The sword
sheathed in flowers"
Text: isaiah XLv1I.4 4: "The Lord OF hosts
is His narle." -
Under the God OF armies we meet to-day.
He was present with indignation and pity
at the great hemorrhages OF the world
Salamis, Marathon, Cannae, Navarro, LelP-
sig, Sedan, Waterloo, Gettysburg. DE
saw all the armies of the ages march and
where they fell. He presides over all grave
trenches and all the national cemeteries,
and not q private soldier that was sacri.
feed in all the wars of the countries, but
God knows where his dust is as we'll as
though every man had been monument
of marble, gloriaed from base to top with
epitsph and euleguim. Over all the srm.
les of the living and over all the armies OF
tbe dead The Lord OF hosts is Hisname.
In this spring time the American nallon
kneels with cool bandage OF garlands to
bind up that
War g more chastity now than once. not
only because of the greater destructlFeness
of its weaponry but because now 1t taxes
down the best men, whereas, once 1t chief
ly took down the worst. Bruce, IN L'i',
in his institution OF Military Law SAID
of the European armies OF history: III
all Infamous persons, and such as have
committed capital crimes, heretlcS" athe-
lists and all dastardly and feminine men
were weeded out of the army ii would soon
be reduced to pretty moderate nun Der. "
Flogging and mean pay made them still
more ignoble. Officers were appointed to
see that each soldier drank his rations OF
| a pint OF spirits day. There were noble
men in battle, but the
Moral Character Of an Army
then was o. per cent lower than the moral
character OF an army to-day. BY so much
| is war now the more detestable because 1t
| destroys the picked men OF the nations.
The South last week and the North tnis
| week in great and solemn ceremony OF
| decoration first of all deplores the desola-
| ton of war. know there are those who
L
nations and nothing but the lancet can
keep them from plethora and that fre-
| ouent wars are necessary to kill oil the
| useless and bad population OF the earth.
That heathensh idea is utterly loathsome
| to me, especially wheh | remember that
war is indiscriminate and takes down the
GOOD as well as the bad. Then think the
| time has come when christian nations
| ought 10
| Substitute Arbitration and Treaty
in the place OF wholesale massacre, a
glance at isolated facts will show the waste,
| the desolation, the suffering, the extermi'
nation OF war. When Napo!eon's army
marched up towards Moscow they burned
every house for $50 miles. Our revolu'
tiOnary wars cost the English government
$3.50, 100000. The wars growing out OF the
| French revolution cost Enland three thou
sand millions of dollars. Christendom, OF
| as | might mispronOunCe it 10 make II
| more appalling, Christ.endom, has paid in
twenty-five years fifteen thousand million
| dollars for battle. Those were the twenty
two years, | think, ending in 1920, OF
thereabout. The exhorbitant and
Exhausting Taxes
OF Great Britain and the United States are
| for the most part resultant FROM conflicts
| When we complain about our taxas We
charge the fault upon this administration
or that administration, upon this line o.
policy or upon that line OF policy, but il i!
simple fact that to-day We are paying
for the shot and the she'll and the ambu
lances and the cavelry horses and the bat
teries and the exploded fortresses and the
broken bones and the digging OF the grave
trenches and for four years OF nationa
martyrdom. Edmund Burke estimated
that the nations of this world had expend
ed $35, 900, 900 in war, but be did his cypher
ing before our great American and Euro
pean wars
Were Plunged Into.
He never dreamed that in this land il
the latter part OF this century in tou
| wears We should expend in battle thre,
thousand million dollars. But what wa
all the waste of treasure when compared
with the waste OF human life? The story i
| appalling beyond everything. In one bat
tie under Julius Cesar 10000 fell; under
NerXes in one campaign, 100000 wer
slain; under Gengis Khan, at Herat 100,
OOO were slain; at Nishar 1,7iI,0O0 wer,
slain; at the seige of OStend, 10000; a
Acre, 100000. At the siege of Troy l,SlG,
O0O fell. The Tartar and African wars cos
los COO 600 lives.
The Wars
against the Turks and the Saracens cos
lSU,0CU0 0O0 lives. Added TO all these thu
million who fell or expired in the hospita
in our own conflict. 1t might seem to SOM
small addition, but vast addition i
| seems 10 me, because it comes so near ou
own hearts. Then take the fact that thirty
five times the present population of tn
earth have fallen in battle. Looking OF
! these things am | not right in chargin,
you, o Christian men and women, to prav
every day OF your lives, that the Lord vii
hasten on the day when war shall cease
Enough the tears. enough the blood
enough the bereavement.
Enough the Martyrdom.
Again, by this annual ceremony we pro
pose vividly to impress the rising genera
tion. Subtract 1865, when the war ended
from our 1888, and you will realize what
vast number OF people were born since tn
war, or were so young as 10 have no viyiC
appreciation. No one under 2s years o
age has any adequate memory of that pro
longed horror. Young man, do you re
member it?' well" you say, 81 only
remember that mother swoOned away while
she was reading the newspaper, and tha
they brought my father home wrapped il
the flag, and that a good many people
came in the house 10 pray, and that mother
| tainted away AFTER that until again there
were many people in the house and they
told me she was dead" There are other
who cannot remember the roll OF the drum
or the train OF the regiment or q sigh or {
tear Of that
Tornado Of Woe
that swept the nation again and again un
I'll there was one dead in each house
Now it is the religious duty of those who
do remember il to tell those who do not
Ny young friends there were such part
ipgs at rail-car windows and steamboat
whsrves and at front doors OF comfortable
houses as pray God you may never wit
ness. Oh, what time it was when father:
and mothers gave up their sons, never eX
pectipg to see them again, and never did
see them again until they came back mu.
tilsted and crushed and dead. Four years
OF hostile experiences. -Four years of Oh ass
illness. -Four years OF grave digging. Four
| years of funerals, collins, shrouds, hesrses
dirges, mourning! mourning! mourning.
IL Tas hell let loose. What q time OF
waiting for morning papers and evening
| papers