The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-05-24
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.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took for the
subject of recent sermon in Brooklyn
Tabernacle "The Star NORWOOD, or
Brilliant Bitterness" taking for his text:
There fell great star from Heaven, burning
as II it were lamp, and II Tell upon the tnlro
part of the rivers, and upon the fountains OF
waters: and the name OF the star was called
ormwood-Reveiations 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 NORWOOD 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 Norwood. 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 wounded heifer came
ha'ping along through the fields,
ana herdsman followed its
bloody track on the grass to
ed, and went on back further and further,
until he came to 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. 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 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 Payia, and Padua, 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. 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
fiercest battle since the world stood
three hundred thousand dead left on the
field! On and on, until all those who could
not oppose him with arms lay PROSTATE
on their faces in prayer, and, a cloud of
dust seen in the distance, Bishop cried:
cit is the aid of God!" And all the people
took up the cry, SIT 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 Scourage of
God. The most unimportant occurrences
he used as 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 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 hrida JIdir0 yyhn rx,oc hiyod for
sassination, his followers bewailed him
not with tears, but with blood, cutting
themselves with knives and lances. He
was put into three coffins-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 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-
quered the world, but Attila conquered the
Roman Empire. He was right in calling
himself scourge, but instead Of being
the scourge of God he was the scourge OF
hell. Because of his brilliance and bit
terness the commentators were right in
SaAoNAhS hlui W pc Tile StaT w OTmWOCQ 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 fountain of
waters, and the name of the star is called
NORWOOD
Have you ever thought how many en-
Uttered lives there are all about us, mis- :
anthropic, morbid, acrid, saturnine?
The European plant from which worm
wood is extracted, artemisa absinthium.
is perennial plant, and all the year
round 1t is ready to exude its oil. And in
many human lives there is perennial
distillation Of acrid. experiences. Yea,
there are some whose whole work is to
shed baleful 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 OF the waters, are poisoned by the
falling of the star Norwood. It is not
complimentary to human nature that
most men, as soon as they get great
power. become overbearing. The more
power men have the better, If their power
be used for good. The less power men
have the better, il they usa IL fo, a,,;,