St. Landry democrat., 1885-10-10
TALMAGES SERMON,
Delivered at the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle Sunday, September 9th.
astOrmed and Taxen''-Any P1anof Attack
On the StronghoIds of Sin That Sue
ceeds or Promises Success to
De Favored.

and thousands were unable to get seats.
The hymn before the sermon was:
Hark the voice Of Jesus calling
Who will go and work to-day;
Fields are white, the harvest waiting,
Who will bear the sheayes away?
After reading the parable of the talents
(Matthew xxv.) DIR. Talmage announced
his subject as "Stormed and Taken" and
took for his text the words:
And AbimeIech got him up to Mount ZaI.
mon, he and all the people that were with
him; and AbimeIech took an ak in his hand,
and cut down Dough from the trees, and
took it and laid 1t on his shoulder and said
unto the people that were with him: What
ye have seen me do. make haste, and do as I
have done. And all the people like wise cut
down every man his bough and followed
Apimeleeh, and put them to the hold, and
set the hold on fire upon them; so that all
the men of the tower of Ehechem died =
Judges TX, 4s, 49,
Abimelech is name matodorous in
Bible history, and yet full Of profitable
suggestion. Buoys are black and un-
comely, but they tell where the rocks are.
The snakes rattle is hidsous, but it gives
timely warning. From the piazza of my
summer home, night by night, saw
lighthouse fifteen miles away, not placed
there for adornment. but to tell mariners
to stand off from that dangerous point.
So all the iron bound coast of moral dam
ger is marked with Saul, and Herod, and
Rehoboam, and Jezebelr and AbimeI ech.
These bad people are mentioned in the
Bible, not only as warnings, but because.
there were sometimes flashes of good cons
duct in their lives worthy Of Imitation.
God sometimes drives a very straight
nail with a very Y1nnf. haTnTn ar FL
The City of Shechem had to be taken,
and Abimelech and his men were to do il,
l see the dust rising up from their excited
march. hear the shouting of the cap
tains and the yell of the besiegers. The
swords clank sharply on the parrying
shields, and the vociferation of the two
armies in death grapple is horrible to
hear. The battle goes on all day and as
the sun is setting Abimelech and his army
cry Surrender ~ to the beaten foe. And
unable longer to resist, the City of
Shechem falls.
As look over the city, I can find only
one building standing and that is the
temple of the God Berth. Some soldiers
outside Of the city in a tower. finding that
they can no longer defend Shechem. now
begin to look out for their own personal
safety, and they fly to this temple of
Berth. They get within the door, shut
it, and they say: "Now we are safe.
Abimelech has taken the whole
city, but he can not take this temple of
Berth. Here we shall be under the proc
lection Of the gods" Oh, Berth, the
god! do Y our best for these refugees If
you have eyes, pity them. If you have
nIo hal, ho-x
bolts strike for them. But how shall
Abimelech and his army take this
temple of Berth and the men who are
there fortified? Will they do it with
sword? Nay. VIII they do it with
spear? Nay. With bat5ering- ram rolled
up by hundred armed strength, crash
ing against the walls? Nay. Abimelech
marches his men to wood in Zalmon.
With his axe he hews off limb of a
tree, and puts that limb upon his own
shoulder, and then he says to his men:
You do the same" They are obedient
to their commander. Tiers is a truggle
as to who shall have axes. The whole
woods is full of bending boughs, and the
cracking, and the hacking. and the cut
ting, until every one OF the host has a
limb of a tree cut down, and not only
that, but has put it upon his shoulder,
just as Abimelech showed him how.
Are these men now all armed with the
tree branch? The reply comes: San |
armed" And they mach on. Oh,
what a strange army, with what strange
equipment. They come up to the foot of |
the temple of Berth, Abimelech takes |
his limb of tree and throws it down,
and the first platoon of soldiers come /
up and they throw down their branches, /
and the second platoon, and the third, /
until all around about the temple Of |
BERTH there is a pile of tree branches.
The Shechemftes look out from ths win /
dow of the temple upon what /
seems to them childish play on the part OF |
their enemies But soon the aints are |
struck, and the spark begins TO kindle the
brush, and the fame comes up through /
the pile, and the red elements leap to the i
and the wood work begins to
blaze, and one arm Of flame is thrown up
on the right side of the temple, another
arm Of fame is thrown up on the left
side of the temple until they clasp their
lurid palms under the wild night sky, and /
the cry Of "frel' within and fire without
announces the terror and the straugula-
tion and the doom Of the shechemites,
and the complete overthrow of the temple
of the god Berth.
Now, I1earn first from this subject the
folly Of depend ng upon any one form Of
tactics in anything we have to do for this
world or for God. Look over the weap-
onry Of oldsn times javelins, battleaxes,
harobengeons- show me single
weapon with which Abime1ech and his
men could have gained such comp1ste
victory. It is no easy thing to take
temple thus armed. 1 saw a house where,
Turing revolutionary times, man and
his wife kept back whole regiment hour