Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-04-23
BRILLIANT BITTERNESS.
OR. TALMAGE'S SUNDAY MORNING
SERMON AT THE TABERNACLE.

| and Looks Forward to the Time w hen
Christ win Set HIS Throne Between
| the AiIeghanies and Sierra Nevsdas.
Brook rS, April o2-The Rev. T. De Witt
| Tafmage. D. D., preached this morning at the
Tabernacle on tie 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 sdjoining 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 hli Thy courts with sounding praise
Professor Browne rendered sonata M in
d 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-ll: There fell great
star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp,
and it fell upon third part of the rivers and
upon the fountains Of waters; and the name
OF the star is called Wormwood"
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
| tue Aahs- &tc "ds ~ DtlsluSa he was
brilliant as star, and, like wormwood, he
embittered everything he 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 Wormvood, and my theme
might be called Brilliant Bitterness
more extraordinary character history
does not furnish than this man referred to
in fA~
One day wounded heifer came limpine
along through the fields, and herrislnan
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 s~ ord 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 hertlsman pulled
up that sword and presented it to Attila.
Attila 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 whoiS earth. Other mighty men
have been delighted at being called
iiberators or the merciful or the good,
but Attila called himself and de-
niandesi that others call him the scourge of
God At the head of 100 900 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
Paiua and Verona beg for mercy, which he
bestowed not The Byzantine castles, to
meet his ruinous levy, put up at auction
massive silver tables and vases of solid gold
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
II was a common saying that the grass
never grew again where the hoof of Attila's
horse had trod His armies Redeemed the
waters Of the Seine and the Moselle and the
Rhine with carnage, and fought on the Cat
alonians plains the iercest battle since the
world stood, $4,000 dead left on the field
On and on until all those who could not op-
pose him with arms lay prostraee on their
faces in prayer; and, q cloud Of dust seen in
the 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 70 help against Attila,
the scourge of God. The most unimSortant
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 flight Of a stork
and her young from the tower of the city
was taken by him as sign that he was to
capture the city, and his army inspired with
the same occurrence resumed the siege and
took the walls at point from which the
stork had emerged 80 brilliant was the
conqueror in attire that his enemies could
hot look at him, but shaded their eyes or
turned their heads.
Slain on the evening OF 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 iances- He was put into
three coftins, 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 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 lamp. |
and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, |
and upon the fountains of waters; and the |
name of the star is called Wormwood-
Have you ever thought how many embit- |
tered lives there are about US, misanthropic, |
morbid, acrid, saturninei The European
plant from which wormwood is extracted,
artemisia abSinthium Is q perennial Dlant |