The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-04-27
BRILLIANT BITTERNESS.
DR.. TALMAGE'S SUNDAY MORNING
SERMON AT THE TABERNACLE.

The Eloquent Preacher Is an Optimist,
and LOOKS Forward To the Time Whom
Christ VIII Set His Throne between
tho AIicghanIes and Sierra Nevadas.
BROOKLYN, April 22.-The Rev. 7. De Witt
Talmage, DID,, preached this morning at the
Tabernacle on the subject: "The Star Worm
wood, or Brilliant Bitterness" The musical
exercises were assisted by the organ and
cornet Thousands of voices In the main
auditorium and in the adjoining parlor and
lecture room and corridor Joined In singing;
Wen crowd Thy gates with thankful songs,
High as the heavens our voices raise;
While earth with her ten thousand tongues
Shall I'LL Thy courts with sounding praise
Professor Browne rendered sonata No I I'm
minor, by Guillmant After DIR. Talmage
had expounded the sarcasm OF Elijah at the
Offering of the Baalites, he spoke as follows:
Revelations viii, l0-1l: "There fell a great
star from heaven, burning rs It were a iamp.
and it fell upon third part of tho rivers and
upon the fountains Of waters; and the name
of the star is called Norwood"
Patrick and Lowth, Thomas Scott. Mat
thew Henry, Albert Barnes and all the other
commentators agree In saying that the Star
Wor!nwood OF my text was Attila king Of
the Huns. He was so called because he was
brilliant as star, and, like NORWOOD. he
embittered everything be touched. We have
studied the Star of Bethlehem, and the morn
ing Star of the Revelation, and the Star of
Peace, but my subject this hour calls us to
gaze at the Star Norwood, and NV theme
might be called Brilliant Bitterness.
A more extraordinary character history
does not furnish than this man referred In
in my text, Attila, the king Of the Huns.
One day a wounded heifer came thinning
along through the fields, and a herdsman
followed its bloody track on the grass to see
where the heifer was wounded, and went on
back, further and further, until he came TO
a sword fast in the earth, the point downward
as though it had dropped from the heavens,
and against the edges Of this sword the
heifer had been cut. The herdsman pulled
up that sword and presented it to Attila.
Attia said that sword must have dropped
from the heavens from the grasp of the god
Mars, and its being given to him meant
that Attila should conquer and govern
the whole earth. Other mighty men
have been delighted at being called
liberators or the merciful or the good,
but Attila called himself and de-
manded that others call him the scourge of
Col. At the head Of roc, 900 troops, mounted
on Cappadocian horses, he swept everything
from the Adriatic to the Black sea. He put
his iron heel on Macedonia and Greece and
Thrace. He made Milan and Pavia and
Padua and Verona beg for mercy, which he
bestowed not. The Byzantine castles, to
meet his ruinous levy, put up ut auction
massive silver tables and vases of solid gold.
A city captured by him, the inhabitants
were brought out and put into three classes
The first class, those who could bear arms,
who must Immediately enlist under Attila or
be butchered; the second class, the beautiful
women, who were made captives to the
Huns; the third class, the aged men and
women, who were robbed of everything and
let go back to the city to pay heavy tax.
1t was common saying that the grass
never grew again where the hoof of Attilas
horse had trod His armies REDEEMED the
waters of the Seine and the Moselle and the
Rhine with carnage, and fought on the Cat.
aloaians plains the fercest battle since the
world stood, 3DO, 900 dead left on the field
On and ON until all those who could not OPP
pose him with arms lay PROSTATE on their
faces in prayer; and, a cloud Of dust seen in
tie distance, bishop cried: 1T is the aid
of God:" and all the people took up the cry:
at is the aid of God" As the cloud of dust
was blown aside the banners of reinforcing
armies marched in to help against Attila,
the scourge of God. The iaost unimportant
occurrences he used as a supernatural re-
source, and after three months of failure to
capture the city of Aquileia and his army
had given up the siege, the fight Of a stork
and her young from the tower Of the city
was taken by him as a sign that he was to
capture the city, and his army inspired with
the same occurrence resumed the siege and
took the walls ut q point from which the
stork had emerged. So brilliant was the
conqueror in attire that his enemies could
not look at him, but shaded their eyes or
turned their heads.
Slain OH the evening ct his marriage by
his bride lldico, who was hired for the as
sassination, his followers bewailed him not
with tears but with blood, cutting themselves
with knives and lances. He was put into
three collins, the first of iron, the second of
silver, and the third of gold. He was buried
at night, and into his grave were poured the
most valuable coin and precious stones,
amounting to the wealth Of kingdom. The
grave diggers and all those who assisted at
the burial were massacred SO that it would
never be known where SO much wealth was
entombed. The Roman empire conquered
the world, but Attila conquered the Roman
empire. He was right in calling himself a
scourge, but instead of being the scourge of
God he was the scourge of hell. Because Of
his brilliancy and bitterness the commenta-
tors were right in believing him to be the
star Norwood Of the text. As the regions
he devastated were parts most opulent with
fountains and streams and rivers, you see
how graphic my text is: "There fell great
star from heaven, burning as 1t were lamp,
and it fell upon the third part Of tho rivers,
and upon the fountains Of waters; and the
name of the star is called Norwood"
Have you ever thought how many embit-
tered lives there are about U.S. misanthropic,
morbid, acrid, saturninei The European
plant from which NORWOOD is extracted,
artemisia absinthium, is a perennial plant
and all the year round it is ready to oxude
its oil And in many human lives there is a
perennial distillation Of acrid experiences
Yea, there are some whose whole work is to
she'd u baieful influence ON others. There are
Attilas of the home, or Attilas Of the social
circle, or Attilas of the church, or Attilas of
the state, and one-third of the waters of all
the world, if not two-thirds the waters, are
poisoned by the falling of the star. Worm
wood. 1t is not complimentary to human
nature TINT most men, as soon as they get
great power, become overbearing The more
power men have the better, IL their power be
used for good. The less power men have the
better, II they use 1t for evil
Birds circle round and round and round
before they swoop upon that which they are
aiming for And il my discourse SO far has
It drops straight on your heart and asks the
question: Is your life to others a benedic-
ton or an embitterment, blessing or a
curse, a balsain or a wormwoodi
Some of you, know, are morning stars,
and you are making the dawning life Of your
children bright with gracious influences, and
you are beaming upon all the opening enter.
prises of philanthropic and Christian en-
deavor, and you are heralds OF that day of
gospelization which win yet flood the noun
tains and. valleys of our sin cursed earth.
Hail, morning start Keep on shining with
encouragement and Christian hope.
Some of you are evening stars, and you
are cheering the last days of old people, and
though cloud sometimes comes over you
through the querulousness or unreasonable
ness of your old father and mother, it is only
for moment, and the star soon comes out
clear again and Is seen from all the balconies
of the neighborhood. The old people will
forgive your occasional shortcomings, for
they themselves several times lost their
patience with you when you were young and
slapped you when you did not deserve it.
Hail, evening start Hang on the idarkening
sky your diamond coronet.
But arc any of You the star Wormwoodf
Do you scold and growl from the thrones
paternal or maternalf Are your children
everlastingly pecked atl Are you always
crying, "Hushi" to the merry voices and
swift feet and their laughter, which occa-
sionally trickles through at wrong times and
is suppressed by them until they can hold it
no Ion,,ay and all the barriers burst into I'M