Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-01-31
TRIALS OF LIFE.
Dr.. Talmage Discourses on Battling
for Salvation.
The Joys and SORROWS of Life-The Hap
piness of Believer in the Heavenly
world-Promises for the
Weary.

In a recent sermon at Brooklyn Rev. T.
Dewitt Talmage took for his subject: 1.-THE
March Homeward," and his text was
from l Samuel XXX. 8: 'Pursue, for tnou
shalt surely overtake them, and without
fail recover ALL" DR.. TaImage said:
There is intense excitement in the vii
lage of Ziklag. David and his men are
bidding goodbye to their families and are
off for the wars. In that little village of
Ziklag the defenseless ones will be safe
| until the warriors, flushed with victory
come home. But will the defenseless ones
be safe. The soft arms of children are
around the necks Of the bronzed warriors
until they shake themselves free and start,
and handkerchiefs and flags are waved
and kisses thrown until the armed men
vanish beyond the hills. David and his
men soon get through with their campaign
and start homeward. Every night on
their way home. no sooner does the soldier
put his head on the knapsack than in his
dream he hears the welcome of the wife
and the shout of the child. o, what long
stories they will have to tell their families
of how they lodged the battle-axe, and
then will roll up their sleeve and show
the half-healed wound.
With glad, quick step they march on,
David and his men, for they are marching
home. Now they come up to the last hill
which overlooks Ziklag, and they expect
in a moment to see the dwelling places of
their loved ones. They look, and as they
| look their cheeks turn pale, and their lip
| quivers, and their hand involuntarily comes
down on the hilt of the sword 'Where is
| Zklag? Where are our honest" they cry.
| Alasi the curling smoke above the ruin
tells the tragedy. The Amalekites have
come down and consumed the village and
carried the mothers and the wives and the
children of David and his men into cap
| tivity. The swarthy warriors stand for a
few minutes transfxed with horror. Then
| their eyes glance to each other, and they
burst into uncomfortable weeping; for
when a strong warrior weeps the grief Is
| appalling. 1t seems as il the emotion
might tear them to pieces. They swept
| until they had no more power to
weep" But soon their sorrows turns into
rage, and David, swinging his sword high
| in air, cries: pursue for thou shalt over
take them, and without fail recover all.
Now the march becomes "double-quick. {"
Two hundred of David's men stop by the
brook Besor, faint with fatigue and grief.
They can not go a step farther. They are
left there. But the other 400 men under
David, with a sort of panther step, march
on in sorrow and In rage. They find by
the side Of the road half dead Egyptian,
and they resuscitate him and compel him
to tell the whole story. He says: "Yon-
der they went, the captors and the cap
tives," pointing in the direction. For
ward, We 400 brave men of fire.
Very soon David and his enraged COM
pany come upon the Amalekitish host.
Yonder they see their own wives and
children and mothers and under Amale-
kitish guard. Here are the officers of the
Amalekitish army holding banquet The
cups are full, the music is reused, the dance
begins. The Anna ekitish host cheer and
cheer and cheer over their victory. But,
without note of bugle or warning of
trumpet David and his 400 men burst upon
the scene suddenly as Robert Bruce hurled
his Scotchmen upon the jewellers at Ban
nockburn. David and his men look up
md one glance at their loved ones in
aptivity under Amalekitish guard throw
them into a very fury of determination;
for you know how men will fight when
they fight for their wives and children.
All, there are lightnings in their eye and
every finger is spear, and their voice is
like the shout of the whirlwind. Amidst
the upset tankards and the costly viands
crushed under foot the wounded Amelek-
ties lie (theis blood mngling with their
wine) shriekias for mercy. No sooner do
David and his men win the victory than
they throw their swords down in the
dust!-what do they want with swords
now?-and the broken families come to-
gether amidst a great shout of joy that
makes the parting scene in Ziklag seem
very insipid in comparison. The rough
old warrior has to use some persuasion
before he can get his child to come to him
now after so long an absence, but soon
the little finger traces the familiar wrinkle
across the SCARED face. And then the
empty tankards are set up and they are
filled with the best wine from the hills,
and David and his men, the husbands, the
wives the brothers, the sisters, drink to
the overthrow of the Amalekites and to
the rebuilding of Ziklag. So, o Lord, let
thine enemies perish!
Now they are coming home. David and
his men and their families-a long process
sion. Men, women and children, loaded
with jewels and robes and with all kinds
81 trophies that the Amalekites had gath
cred up in years of conquest-every thing
now in the hands of David and his men.
When they come by the brook Besor, the
place where staid the men sick and incom-
petent to travel, the jewels and the robes
and all kinds of treasures are divided
among the sick as we'll as among the we'll.
Surely the lame and exhausted ought to
have some of the treasures. Here lie a robe
for this pale-faced warrior. Here is pill
low for this dying man. Here is handful
of gold for this wasted trumpeter. really
think that these men who tainted by the
brook Besor may have endured as much as
those men who went into battle. Some
mean fellows objected to the sick ones
having any of the spoils. The DIRECTORS |
said: ''These men did not fight" David, |
with a magnanimous heart, replies: "As |
his part is that goeth down to battle. so
shall his part be that tarrieth by the |
stuff"
This subject is practically suggestive to |
me. Thank God, in these times q man can |
go of on a journey, and be gone weeks
and months, and come back and see his |
house untouched of incendiary, and have
his family on the step to greet him, il by
telegram he has foretold the moment of |
his coming. But there are Amalekitish
disasters and there are Amalekitish dis
eases that sometimes come down upon
ones home, making as devastating work
as the day when Ziklag took fire. There
are families in my congregation whose
homes have been broken up. No battering
ram smote in the door, no iconoclast crum-
bled the statues no fame leaped amidst
the curtains; but 30 far as all the Joy and
merriment that once belonged to that
house are concerned, the home has de-
parted.
Armed diseases came down upon the
luietness of the scene-scariet fevers, or