Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-06-13

his annual sermon before the Thirteenth
Regiment \. q. ). y. Y, in the Brooklyn
Academy of Music The staff officers and
members OF the regiment were Immediately
In front Of the platform, and their friends
throngad the galleries. The hymn sung was
the national air:
My country, lis OF thee.
Sweet land Of liberty
The following is the sermon in full:
Three hundred and fifty-one times does
the Bible speak Of that sharp, keen, curved,
1nexOrabLe weapon, which flashes upon us
from the bext-the sword. Sometimes the
mention * appaudatOry and sometimes
damnatOry, sometimes drawn, sometimes
a sheatbed. In the Bible and in much
secular literature, the sword represents all
Javens, all DnSkets all carbines, all guns,
all police clubs all battle AXIS, all weapOnrv
for physical defense or attack. 1t would
be an Interesting thing to give the history
OF the PlOw, and follow its furrOw all down
through the ages frOEl the first crop in
Chaldea u the last crop in Minnesota. 1t
would be Interesting TO allow the Pen as
Ct has tracked its way down through the
literature Of nations, from its first word in
TIE first book TO the last word which some
author last night wrote he closed his
manuscript. It would be an interesting
4hug TO count the echoes Of the hammer
from the first nail driven, down through all
che mechanism Of centuries to the last stroke
sn the carpenters shop yesterday. But IN
shis, my annual sermon chaplain of the
Thirteenth regiment, propose taking up
weapon that has done work that neither
plow nor pen nor hammer ever accom-
piiShed. My theme is the swOrd-its mission
and its doom
The sword of the text was bathed in
heaven; that is, it was a sword OF righteous
ness, as another sword may be bathed in hell,
and the sword of cruelty and wrong. There
Il great difference between the sword of
Umklered and the sword of Cataline, be-
tween the sword OF LeOnidas and the sword
OF Benedict Arnold. In our effort to hasten
she END of war; we have hung the sword,
with abuses and excavations, when it has had
n, IlvIne mission. and when in many crises Of
She worlds history it has swung for liberty
aud justice, civilization and righteousness
and God. At the very opening OF the Bible
and on the east IF the Garden of Eden God
placed flaming sword to defend the tree
OF life. OF the officer of the law st. Paul
declares: He beareath not the sword in
vain Through Moses God commanded:
Put every man his sword by his side"
David III his prayer says: ''Gird thy sword
apOn thy thigh, O most mighty One of the
old battle shouts of the Old Testament was.
THE sword OF the Lord and OF Gideon"
Christ III a great exigency, said that such a
weapon was more important than coat, for
he declared: He that hath no sword, let him
cell his garment and buy one" Again He de
Ciared: Il come not to send peace but
sword" OF Christ's G@ccud coming it is said
~
sword Thus, sometimes figuratively but
Oftener literally, the divine mission of the
sword l. announced
What more cOnsecrated thing in the world
shan JOShuaS sword, or Caleb'S sword, or
&ideon's sword. or Davids sword, or Wash
ngtOn's sword, or Marion's sword, or Lafay-
cites sword, or WellingtOnS sword,
kOsciuskOs sword, GaribaldpS sword, or
hundreds of thousands Of American swords
that have again and again been bathed in
bean
the best friends of the human race. They
have slain tyrannies, pried open dungeons
and cleared the way for nations in their
marci: upward. 1t was better for them to
bake the sword and be free, than lie under
she Oppressors heel and suffer. There is
something worse than death. and that
AZ life If 1t must cringe and crouch
before the wrong Turn over the
BeayeS of the worlds history, and find that
there has never been tyranny stopped or
q nation liberated except by the sword. |
am not talking to you about the way things
ought to be, but about the way they have
been. What force drove back the Saracens
at Tours, and kept Europe from being over
Whelmed by Mohammedanism, and, suisse
Quently all America given over to MOham-
mechanism? The sword of Charles Mar tel and
ais men. Who can deal enough in infinitieS
10 tell what was accomplished for the worlds
good by the sword Of Joan of Arc.
In December last | looked off and saw in
the distance the battlefield of Marathon and
l asked myself what was it that, on that
most tremendous day in history, stopped the
Persian hosts, representing not only Persia,
hut Egypt, and Tripoh and AfghaniStan,
and Beloochistan. and Armenia; host that
had Asia under foot, and proposed to put
Europe under foot, and, if successful in
that battle, would have submerged by Asiatic
barbarlSn European civilization, and, a
consequence in after time, American civiliza-
ton. The swords of Miitiades, and Themisro
eleS, and Arstides. At the waving of these
swords the eleven thousand lancerS of Athens
9n the run dashed against the one hundred
thousand insolent Persians, and trampled
them down or pushed them back into the
sea. The sword of that day saved the best
part of the hemisphereS, trinity Of keen
steel flashing in the two hghtS-the light of
the setting of the sun of barbarism, the light
of the rising sun of civilization. Hail to these
shree great swords bathed in heaven!
What put an end to infamous Louis HV1.'s
plan Of universal conquest, by which England
would have been made to kneel on the steps
OF the Tuiieries and the Angl0-Saxon race
would have been halted and all Europe
paraIyzedz The sword of Marlborough at
Blenheim. Time came when the Roman war
eagles. whose beaks had been punched into
the hearts of nations, must be brought down
from their eyries. All other attempts had
disgracefully failed, but the Germans, the
might;est nation for Drawn and brain, I'M
dertooh the work, and, unaer GOd sue
ceeded. What drove back the Roman
cavalry till their horses. wounded, flung their
riders and the last rider persisted, and the
Rercynlan forest became the scene of ROme'S
humiliation? The sword, the brave sword,
the triumphant sword of Arminius.
While passing through France last Janu-
airy my nerves tingled with excitement and
] rose in the car, the better to seq the battle
field of Chalons, the mounds and breast
works still visible though nearly five hun
ared years ago they were shoveled up: