The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1886-10-14
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Pointed Discourse on Profanity,
Drunkenness and Kindred Evils.
The Occasion Ripe for God to Arise anG
Scatter His Enemies-The Bllghting
Evils of Intemperance ana Swear
ing Throughout the World.

Rev. T, Dewitt Talmage, in a recent SER
mon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, made
determined onslaught on the prevailing
vices of The time, taking for his text:
Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered.
.-Psalms xviii, |.
You will observe my text is not like
complimentary and tasseled sword that
you sometimes see hung up in parlOr, a
sword that was never in battle and only to
be used on general training day. lut more
like some weapon carefully hung up in
your home, telling its story Of Chapulte-
pee, Cerro Gordo and Cherubusco, and
Hatcher's Run, and Malvern Hill; for my
text hCngs in the Scrip ure armory, telling
of the holy wars of 5000 years in which it
has been carried, but as keen and mighty
as when David first unsheathed it. 1t
seems to me what in the Church of God,
and in all styles of reformatory work, we
most need now, is battle cry. We raise
our little standard and put on 1t the name
of some man who only few years ago
began TO live, and in a few years will
cease to live. We go into contests against
the armies of iniquty, depending too
much on human agencies. We use for
battle cry the name of some brave Chris
tian reformer, but after a while that re-
former dies, or gets old, or loses his cour-
age, and then we take another battle cry,
and this time perhaps we put the name of
some one who plays Arnold and sells out
to the enemy. What we want for battle
cry is the name Of some leader who will
never betray us, and will never surrender,
and will never die.
All respect have for brave men and
women, but if we are going to set the vic
tory all along the line we must put God
first. We must take the hint of the Gid
eonites, who wiped out the Bedouin Arabs,
commonly called Midanites. These Gid
eonites had glorious leader in Gideon,
but what was the battle-cry with which
they flung their enemies into the worst de-
feat into which any army was ever tum-
bled? 1t was:
The sword of the Lord and Of Gideon.
Put God first, whoever you put second.
If the army of the American Revolution is
to free America, ii must lie:
The sword of the Lord and of Washington
If the Germans want to win the day at
Sedan, it must be:
The sword Of the Lord and Won Moltke
Waterloo was won for the English be-
cause not only the armed men at the front
but the worshipers in the cathedrals at the
rear were crying:
The sword of the Lord and wellington.
The Methodists have gone in triumph
across nation after nation with the cry:
The sword OF the Lord and Of Wesley.
The Presbyterians have gone from vic
tory to victory with the cry:
The sword of the Lord and of John Knox.
The Baptists have conquered millions
after millions for Christ with the cry:
The sword of the Lord and OF Jordan.
The Americans Episcopalians have won
their mighty way with the cry:
The sword of the Lord and of Bishop Nc
Ilvaine.
The victory Is to those who put God
first. But as we want battle-cry suited
to all sects Of religionists, and to alllands,
nominate as the battle-cry of Christen-
dom in the approaching Armageddon the
words Of my text, soun led before the ark
ss it was carried to Mount Zion:
Let God arise; let his enemies be scat.
tered.
As far as our finite mind can Judge, it
Sc ms about time for God to rise. Does it
not seem to you that the denominations of
this earth have gone far enough? Was
there ever time when sin was so defiant?
Were there ever before so many fists lifted
toward God, telling him to come on If he
dare? Look at the blasphemy abroad
What towering profanity! Would it be
possible for any one to calculate the num-
her of times that the name OF Almighty
God, and of Jesus Christ, are every day
taken irreverently on the lips2 So COM
mon has blasphemy become that the pub
lie mind, and public ear, have got used to
it, and blasphemer goes up and down
this country in his lectures defying the
plain law against blasphemy, and there is
not mayor in America that has back
hone enough to interfere with him save
one, and that the mayor of Toronto. Pro-
fene swearing is as much forbidden by the
law as theft, or arson, or murder; yet who
executes it'll Profanity is worse than
theft, or arson, or murder, for these
crimes are attacks on humanity-that is
an attack on God.
This country Is pre-eminent for bias
phemy. A man travelling in Russia was
supposed to be clergyman.
"Why do you take me to be a clergy
manw said the man.
"Oh," said the Russian, "all other Amer
leans swear"
The crime is multiplying In intensity.
God very often shows what He thinks of
it, but for the most part the fatality is
hushed up. A few summers ago among
the Adirondacks 1 met the funeral process
sion of man who, two days before, had
fallen under a flash of lightning while
boasting, after a Sunday of work in the
fields, that he had cheated God out of one
day anyhow; and the man who worked
with him on the same Sabbath is still liv-
ing, but helpless invalid under the same
fash. On the road from Margate to Rams
gate, England, you may find rough mon
ument with the inscription:
A boy was struck dead here while in the
act of swearing.
Years ago in a Pittsburgh prison two
men were talking about the Bible and
Christianity, and one of them, Thompson
by name, applied to Jesus Christ very
low and villainous epithet, and as he was
uttering 1t he fell. A physician was called,
but no help could be given. After lying a
day with distended pupils and palsied
tongue, he passed out Of this world. In
cemetery in Sullivan County, In this State,
are eight headstones in line and all
alike, and there are the factsi In 1861
diphtheria ragged in the village, and q
physician was remarkably successful In
curing the patients. So confident did he
become that he boasted that no case of
diphtheria could stand before him, and