Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-06-02
SERMON BY DR. TALMAGE
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE TALKS OF
THE SWORD AND ITS MISSION.

BE Bathed In MISUNDERSTANDING Be
fore tho Thirteenth Regiment. N. c.,
s. N. Y.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, June 1.--Chaplain T.
Dewitt Talmage this evening preached the
annual sermon before the Thirteenth regi-
ment, in the Academy of Music. The staff
offic 70 and members of the regiment were
Immediately in front of the platform, and
their friends thronged the galleries. The
hymn sung was the national air:
My country, It's Of thee,
Sweet land Of liberty.
The subject Of the sermon was: "The
Sword-Its Mission and Its Doom" The
text, Isaiah xxxiv, 8; MY sword shall DO
bathed in heaven"
Three hundred and flfty-one times does
the Bible speak Of that sharp, keen, curved,
memorable weapon, which flashes upon us
from the text-the sword Sometimes the
mention is applaudatory and sometimes
damnatory, sometimes as drawn, sometimes
as sheathed. In the Bible, and in much
secular literature, the sword represents all
1avelins, all muskets, all carbines, all guns,
all police clubs, all battle axes, all weaponry
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, from the first crop in
Chaldea to tho last crop in Minnesota. It
would be interesting to follow the Pen as
IL has tracked its way on down through the
literature of nations, from it's first word in
the first book to the last word which some
author last night wrote as he closed his
manuscript. 1t would be an interesting
thing to count the echoes of the Hammer
from the first nail driven, down through
all the mechanism of centuries to the last
stroke in the carpenters shop yesterday.
But in this my annual sermon as chaplain
of the Thirteenth regiment propose TAX
ing up a weapon that has done II work that
neither Pillow nor Pen nor Hammer ever
accomplished. My theme is the sword-its
mission and its doom.
A SWORD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
The sword of the text was bathed in
heaven; that is it was sword of right
eousness, as another sword may be bathed
in hell. and the sword of cruelty and
wrong There is a great difference be-
tween the sword Of Winklereid and the
sword of Cataline, between the sword of
Leonidas and the sword of Benedict Ar
mold In our effort to hasten the end of
war, we have hung the sword, with abuses
and execrations when it has had divine
mission, and when in many crises of the
worlds history it has swung for liberty
and Justice, civilization and righteousness
and God At the very opening of the Bible
and on the east side of the Garden of Eden
God placed flaming sword to defend the
tree of life. OF the officer of the law st.
Paul declares: Gle beareth not the sword
I'm vain" Through Moses God commanded:
"Put every man his sword by his side"
David in his prayer says: "Gird thy sword
upon thy thigh, o most mighty" One Of
the old battle shouts of the Old Testament
was "The sword of the Lord and of Gid
con" Christ, in a great exigency, said
that such weapon was more important
than coat, for he declared "He that hath
no sword, let him sell his garment and buy
one" Again he declared: II come not to
send peace but a sword" OF Christ's sec
ond coming it is said: "Out of his mouth
went "A sharp, two edged sword" Thus,
sometimes 6guratively but oftener liter
ally, the divine mission of the sword is an
nounced
What more consecrated thing in the |
world than Joshua's sword, or Calebs |
sword, or Gideon's sword, or Davids |
sword, or Washington's sword, or Marion's |
sword, or Lafayettes sword, or Yelling |
toms sword, or Kosciusko's sword, or Gar
ibaldi's sword, or hundreds of thousands |
OF American swords that have again and |
ag.Np been bathed in heaven, Swords of
that Kind have been the best friends of the |
humaA race. They have slain tyrannies, |
pried open dungeons, aud cleared the way |
for nations in their march upward, 1t |
was better for them to take the sword and |
be free, than lie under the oppressoP's heel |
and suffer. There is something worse than |
death, and that is life if it must cringe and |
crouch before the wrong. Turn over the |
leaves of the worlds history, aud find that
there has never been "A tyranny stopped or
n 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 ut Tours, and kept Europe from
being overwhelmed by Mohammedanism,
and, subsequently, all America given over
TO Mohammedanism The sword of Charles
Martel and his men Who can deal enough
In infinities to tell what was accomplished
for the worlds good by the sword of Joan
Of ArcP
In December last looked off and saw In
The distance the battlefield of Marathon,
and asked myself what was it that, on
that most tremendous day in history,
stopped the Persian hosts, representing not
only Persia, but Egypt, and Tripoli, and
Afghanistan, and Beloochistan, and Ar
nenia; IA host that had Asia under foot
and proposed TO put Europe under foot,
and, il Auccessful In that battle. would
have submerged by Asiatic baRbarism
European civilization, and, MS a conse-
lnence In after time, American civilizationS
The swords of Miltiades, and Themistocles,
and Aristides At the waving OF these
words the eleven thousand lancers OF
Athens on the run dashed against the one
hundred thousand insolent Persians, and
them down or pushed them back
nto the sea. The sword of that day saved
he best part of the hemispheres, trinity
# keen steel flashing in the two lights
he light of the setting sun OF barbarism,
,he light of the rising sun of civilization.
Hail to these three great swords bathed IN
THE SWORDS WORK FOE GOOD.
What put an end to infamous Louis
xVTs plan of universal conquest, by
which EnRlend would have been made to
1neel on the steps Of the Tuileries and the
Anglo-Saxon race would have been halted
IND Ill Europe parM3AHul Ihe sNolu VI
at Blenheim. Time came
when the Roman war eagles, whose beaks
lad been punched into the hearts of ma
ions. must he brought down from their
aries All other attempts had disgrace
uiiy failed, but the Germans. the mightiest
nation for Drawn and brain, undertook the
work. and. under God, succeeded. What
lrove back the Roman cavalry till the
.la1 l,nip ysiI
asst rider persisted, aud the Hercynian
- l.,,.,,a tba scapa ~ Roup's humili- /