Connecticut western news., 1890-12-24
DR. TALMAGES SERMON.
HE BREACHES ON THE WATERS
 OF MEROM

Confirmation of His Series Descriptive of
 His Trip Through the Holy Land-A
 Beautiful Series of Word Paintings-A
 Diseourse That Will Be Remembered.
 BROOKLYN, Dec. 21.-Dr. Talmage preached the following sermon this morning in the Academy of Music in this city, and again in the evening at The Christian Herald service in New York. His text was Joshua Ri, 5: "And when all these kings were met together they came and pitched to- eether at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel"
 We are encamped tonight in Pales- tine by the waters of Merom. After a long march we have found our tents pitched, our fires kindled, and though far away from civilization 8 variety of food that would not compromise first class American hotel, for the most of our caravan starts an hour and half earlier in the morning. We detain only two Mules carrying so much of our baggage as we might accidentally need, and tent for the monday luncheon The malarias around this Lake Merom are so poisonous that at any other season of the year encamp- ment here is perilous, but this winter night the air is tonic and healthful. In this neighborhood Joshua fought his last great battle. The nations had banded themselves together to crush this Joshua, but along the banks of these waters Joshua left their carcases. Indeed it is time that we moro minute ly examine this Joshua, of whom we have in these discourses caught only momentary glimpse, although he crossed and recrossed Palestine, and next to Jesus is the most stirring and mighty character whose foot ever touched the Holy Land. ,a TRADITION OF THE DEATH OF MOSES
 Moses was dead. A beautiful tradi- ton says the Lord kissed him, and in that act drew forth the soul of the dy- ing lawgiver He had been buried, only one Person at the funeral, the same One who kissed him. But God never takes man away from any place of usefulness but he has some one ready. The Lord does not go looking around amid great variety of eandi- dates to find some one especially fitted for the vacated position. He makes a man for that place. Moses has passed off the stage, and Joshua, the hero, puts his foot on the platform of history so solidly that all the ages echo with the tread He was magnificent fight CT, but he always fought on the right ide, and he never fought unless God told him to fight. He got his military equipment from God, who gave him the promise at the start, ''There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life." God full filled this promise, although Joshua's first battle was with the spring freshet, and the next with a stone wall, and the next leading on a regiment of whipped towards, and the next battle against darkness, wheeling the sun and the moon into his battalion, and the last against the king of terrors, Death five great victories.
 For the most part, when the general of an army starts out in a conflict he would like to have 8 small battle in or der that he may get his courage up and rally his troops and get them drilled for greater conflicts; but this first undertaking of Joshua was greater than the leveling of Fort Pulaski, or the laundering down of Gibraltar, or the overthrow of the Bastile. It was the crossing of the Jordan at the time of the spring feshet. The snows of Mount Lebanon had just been melting, and they poured down into the valley, and the whole valley was a raging tor rent. So the Canaanites stand on one bank, and they look across and see Joshua and the Israelites, and they laugh and say, "Ahal aha they can not disturb us in time-until the fresh cts fall; it is impossible for them to reach us." But after awhile they look across the water and they see move mentin the army of Joshua. They say:
 'What's the matter now9 Why, there must be . panic among these troops, and they are going to fly. or perhaps they are going to try to march across the river Jordan. Joshua is a lunatic But Joshua, the chieftain, looks at his army and cries, Forward, march," and they start for the bank of the Jordan.
 THE ARK OF THE COVENANT. One mile ahead go two priests carry ing glittering box four feet long and two feet wide. It is the ark of the covenant. And they come down, and
 no sooner do they touch the rim of the
 water with their feet than by an al mighty fiat Jordan parts. The army of Joshua marches right on without getting their feet wet over the bottom of the river, path of chalk and broken shells and pebbles, until they get to the other bank. Then they lay hold of the oleanders and tamarisks and willows and pull themselves up bank
 thirty or forty feet high, and having gained the other bank they clap their shields and their cymbals, and sing the
 praises of the God of Joshua But no
 sooner have they reached the bank
 than the waters begin to dash and roar.
 and with terrific rush they break
 loose from their strange anchorage.
 Out wonder they have stepped; thirty
 miles of distance they halted On this l side the waters roll off toward the salt
 sea.
 l But as the hand of the Lord God is taken away from the thus uplifted waters-watera perhaps uplifted half a
 mile as the Almighty hand is taken away, those waters rush down, and | of tho ,,nIo1ioxi,,r TSro o1ifoa sov v.