The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-05-04
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Beware Lest, Having Forgotten
God, Ye Perish.
Safety Only in righteousness Toward
God and Justice Toward Man
The Lessons of History Illus
trating the Subject.

subject of q recent sermon in Brooklyn
Tabernacle seThe Star WormwOod, or
Brilliant Bitterness" taking for his text:
There fell great star from Heaven, burning
as if il were lamp, and it fell upon the third
part OF the rivers, and upon the fountains Of
waters; and the name of the star was called
Worm mWood-Revelations viii, 10 and II.
Patrick and Lowth, Thomas Scott, Mat
thew Henry, Albert Barnes and all the
other commentators agree in saying that
the star Wormwood of my text was Attila,
King Of the Huns. He was so called be-
cause he was brilliant as star, and, like
wormwood, he embittered every thing he
touched. We have studied the Star Of
Bethlehem, and the morning Star of the
Revelation, and the Star of Peace, but my
subject this hour calls us to gaze at the
star Wormwood, and my theme might be
called brilliant bitterness.
A more extraordinary character history
does not furnish than this man referred
TO In my text, Attila, the King of the
Huns. One day a wounded heifer came
limping along through the fields,
and herdsman followed its
bloody track on the grass to
see where the heifer was ! wound
ed, and went on back further and further,
until he came to a sword fast in the earth,
the point downward, as though 1t had
dropped from the heavens, and against
the edges of this sword the heifer hRa
been cut. The herdsman pulled up that
sword and presented it to Attila. Att1la
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 hberators,
or the merciful, or the good, but
Attila called himself and demanded
that others call him the ScOurge Of God.
At the head of seven hundred thousand
troops, mounted on Cappadocian horses,
he swept every thing 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
rHinous levy, put up at 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 every
thing and let go back to the city to pay
heavy tax.
1t was a common saying that the grass
never grew again where the hOof OF
Attila's horse had trod. His armies red
dened the waters of the Seine and the
Moselle and the Rhine with carnage, and
fought on the Catalonian plains the
fercest battle since the world stood
three hundred thousand dead left on the
feldl On and on, until all those who could
not oppose him with arms lay pEostrate
on their faces in prayer, and, cloud Of
dust seen in the distance, Bishop cried:
t'It is the aid of Godl And all the people
took up the cry, sit is the aid of GodP
As the cloud Of dust was blown aside the
banners of reinforcing armies marched
in to help against Attila, the Scourage of
God. The most unimportant occurrences
he used as a supernatural resource, and,
after three months of failure to capture
the City of Aquileia, and his army had
given up the siege, the flight of 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 at a point from
which the stork had emerged. So brilliant
was the conqueror in attire that his enc
mics could not look at him, but shaded
their eyes or turned their heads.
Slain on the evening of his marriage by
his bride, Ildico, 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 cofins-the first OF
| iron, the second of silver, and the third OF
| gold. He was buried by night, and into
his grave were poured the most valuable
| coin and precious stones, amounting to
| the wealth of a 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 con-
uuered the world, but Attila conquered the
Roman Empire. He was right in calling
| himself a scourQe, but instead of being
the scourge of God he was the scourge of
| hell. Because of his brilliance and Bit
terness the commentators we're right in
believing him to be the star WOrmwood 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 it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third
/ part OF the rivers and upon the fountain of
| waters, and the naERe of the star is called
/ WormwoOd.
| Have you ever thought how many en-
i bittered lives there are all about us, mis-
| anthropic, morbid. acrid, saturnineY
| The European plant from which worm
/ wood is extracted, artemisa absinthium,
II
round it is ready to exude its oil. And in
| many human lives there is a perennial
/ distillation Of acrid experiences. Z ca,
| there are some whose whole work ia to
/ shed q baleful influence on others. There
are Attilas Of the home, or Attilas of the
social circle, or Attilas of the church,
or AttiIas Of the state, and one-third OF
the waters Of all the world, If not two
thirds Of the waters, are poisoned by the
| falling of the star Wormwood. 1t is not
/ complimentary to human nature that
most men, as soon as they get great
| power, become owe bearing. The more
power men have the better, II their power
be used for good. The less power men
have the better, If they use it for evil.
Birds circle round and round and round
before they swoop upon that which they
are aiming for. And if my discourse so
far has been swinging round and round,
this moment it drops straight on your
| heart and asks the question: is your life
to others a benediction or an embitter-
mens blessing OF curse, q balsam OF
q wormwood?
Some Of you, know, are morning stars,
and you are making the dawning life OF
| your children bright ith gracious intiu-
| snces. and you are bealming upon all the
opening enterprises OF philanthropic and
| Christian endeavor, and you are heralda
Of that day Of gospelization which will
/ ret food all the mountains and valleys OF
bur sin -cursed earth. Hail, morning star
Keep on shining with eneourag cement and
Christian Eope.
Some OF gou are evening stars and you
are cheering the last days Of old people
and though a cloud sometimes comes over
you through the queruIous Eess or unrea.
Sonsbleness Of your old father ano
mother, It La only a moment and the
! Exar socu comes out clear again, and Is
seen from. on the balconies of the neigh.
sorhood. The old peOpt win forgive youl
occasional Shortcomings for they them
Belves several times lost their patience
Ftth you when you were young ane