The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-10-29
TALMAGE'S SERMON,
Delivered at the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle Sunday, September 9th.
"Stormed and Taken"-Any Plan OF Attack
On the Strongho1ds of Sin That Sue
ceeds or Promises Success to
BE Favored.

BE Favored.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, September 2z.-The
Tabernacle was crowded this morning
and thousands were unable to get seats.
The hymn before the sermon was:
Hank the voice of Jesus calling
Who will go and work to-day;
Fields are white, the harvest waiting,
Who will bear the sheaves away!
After reading the parable of the talents
Matthew xxv.) DR.. Talmage announced
his subject as "Stormed and Taken," and
took for his text the words:
And AbimeIech got him up to Mount Zal-
mon, he and all the people that were with
him; and Abimelech took an ak in his hand,
and cut down bough from the trees, and
took 1T and laid 1t on his shoulder and said
unto the people that were with him: What
We have seen me do, make haste, and do as
have done And all the people Ilkew xs cut
Abimelech, and put them to the hold and
set the hold on fire upon them; so that all
the men of the tower of Shechem died
Judges tx, as, 40.
Abimelech is a name NAL odorous in
Bible history, and yet full of profitable
suggestion. Buoys are black and un-
comedy, 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, I 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 Jezebel, and Abimel ech.
These bad people are mentioned in the
Bible, Tot only as warnings, but because
there were sometimes flashes of good con-
duct in their lives worthy OF imitation.
God sometimes drives very straight
uail with very poor hamm Or.
The City of Shechem had to be taken,
and Abimelech and his men were to do it,
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 aud his army
cry s'Surrender :" to the beaten foe. And
unable longer to resist, the City of
Shechem falls.
As / look over the city, l can find only
one building standing. and that Is the
temple of the God Berth. Some soldiers
outside of the city In 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 pro-
lection of the gods" Oh, Berth, the
god do y our best for these refugees. II
you have eyes, pity them. II you have
hands, help them. If you have thunder
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. WIN they do it with
spear? Nay. With battering-ram rolled
up by hundred armed strength, crash
ing against the walls? Nay. Abimelech
marches his men to a wood in "a lmon.
With his axe he hews off limb of
tree, and puts that limb upon his own
shoulder, and then he says to his men:
ssYou do the same" They are obedient
to their commander. There is a struggle
as to who shalt have axes. The whole
woods is full of bending boughs, and the
cracking, and the hacking and the OUT
ting, until every one of the host has
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 branchi The reply comes: "All
armed" And they march on. Oh,
uhaE N etranoa army with What strao,ro
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 Shechemites look out from the win
dow of the temple upon what
seems to them childish play on the part of
their enemies. But soon the fiints are
struck, and the spark begins to kindle the
brush, and the flame comes up through
the Pile, and the red elements leap to the
easement and the wood work begins to
blaze, and one arm of fame is thrown up
an the right side of the temple, another
arm OF flame is thrown up on the left
side of the temple, until they clasp their
1urid palms under the wild night sky, and
the cry of sstirep within and fire without
announces the terror and the strangula-
tion and the doom of the Shechemites,
and the complete overthrow of the temple
of the god Berth.
Now, Ilearn first from this subject the
folly OF depending upon any one form of
tactics in anything we have to do for this
world or for God. Look over the weap-
onry OF olden times--javelins battleaxes,
harobengeons-and show me q single
weapon with which Abimelech and his
men could have gained such q complete
victory. It is no easy thing to take
temple thus armed. saw house where,
during revolutionary times, man and
his wife kept back whole regiment hour
after hour, because they were inside the
house, and the assaulting soldiers were
outside. the house. Yet here Abimelech
and his army come up, they surround this
temple, and they capture It without the
loss Of single man on the part of Abime-
lech, although, suppose, some of the old
1sraelitish heroes tsJld Abimelech: ssYou