The Red Cloud chief., 1890-05-30
THE SWORDS USES.
4 Sermon 70 the Military By Rev.
Z. Dewitt Talmsge.
Whss shs sword lsas Achieved 10 the
WesDe's Alstory The salsssoW end lDsom
eeths Great Weapos-Arbitsssiow
Nueo "a C0ase.

1T. IelmeRo recently prcAChcd the
annual sermon to the Thirteenth rcgi
ment Ut Brooklyn. His subject was
"The Sword -IN Mission and lts DOOM
The text Isaiah xxxiv., q, my sword
shall Do bathcd In Heaven"
Three hundred and ifty.one times
does the Bible speak Of that sharp.
keen, curved, memorable weapon, which
sword. Sometimes the message IL ap'
plsudstory, and sometimes damnatOry,
sometimes ~ drawn. sometimes ss
sheathed. In the Bible, and In much
secular literature. the sword represents
oil javelins. ell muskcts, all carbines,
oil guna, al police elubA ell battle axes,
all wssponry foe physical defense or u.
tack. II would be an interesting thing
TO give tho history Of the pillow and fol.
low its burrows I'll Gown through the
ages, from che frst crop IN Chsldes 10
the last crop In Minnesota. II would
be interesting 10 follow tho pen ~ II
has tracked its way on down through
tho literature Of nations, from It's first
word In the first book to the last word
some author wrote last night ~ he
closed his manuscript. II would he an
interesting thing 70 count the echoes
Of tho hammer from the frst nall driven
down through all tho mechanism Of
centuries 10 the last stroke In the car.
pentcr's shop yesterday. but In this.
my annual sermon "a chapla n Of the
Thirteenth regiment, I propose taking
. weapon that has done q work that
neither pillow nOr pen nor hammer ever
accomplished. My thcmo Ia the sword
Its mission and "a doom.
The sword Of the text was hathed In
Heaven; that IL, II was = sword Of right.
cOusnesA, u another sword may be
bathed In hell. and the sword Of cruelty
and wrong. There IL . great difference
between tho sword Of Winklcrcid and
tho sword Of I.cOnidas and tho sword Of
Benedict Arnold. In our effort To hasten
the end OF war We have hung the sword
with abuses and excavations when II
has had . divine mission, when In many
crises ofthc worlds history II has swung
for liberty and Justice. civilization and
righteousness and God.
At tho worry opening Of tho Bible and
on the east side Of the Garden Of Eden
God PLACED . flaming sword TO defend
the tree OF lifc. Of tho Oficcr Of tho
law 1T. Paul declares: lilo beareth not
the sword. In vain" Through Moses
God commanded: "rut every man hts
sword by his sidc." David In his prayer
says: 'tird thy sword upon thy thigh.
u most mighty" Ono Of the old hattie
shouts OF the Old Testament wan: ''The
sword Of the Lord and Of Gideon"
Christ IN . great efficiency said that
such . weapon. wAs o important than
coat for flo declared: "he that hath
no sword, lot him soil his garment and
buy one." Again Ito declared: ~
como not 70 send pcscc but q sword. -
OF Christie second coming u IL said:
'Out Of bis mouth went . sharp, two
edged sword" Thus sometimes figura.
lively, but oftener literally. tho divine
misaion Of tho sword Ii announced.
What more cOnaecratod thing In the
world than Joshua's sword. or Caleb's
sword. Or Gideon's sword, or Dsvid's
sword. or Westinghouse sword, or
Marion's sword, or I.Afayette,a sword, or
WellingtOn's sword. On K~osciusko's
sword. or Garihaldi's sword. or hundreds
Of thousands Of American swords that
have again and again been bsthed In
Heaven. Swords Of that kind have boon
thC best friends Of tho human race.
They have slain tyrannics, pried omen
dungeons and cleared tho way for mn.
lions In their march upward. II was
bottcr for thcm to takc tho sword and be
trcc, than lilo under tho 0pprcshor'a hccl
and sufcr. There In something WORSE
than death. and that u ltie II IL must
,rlnge and crouch before tho wrong.
Turn over the leaves Of the wOrld's HIS.
TORY and ind that there has aevcr been
tyranny stopped Or . nation liberated
cxccpt BY the sword. am not talking
10 you about the way things ought to bc,
hut about tho way they have been.
What force drove back the Saracens at
Tours. and kept Europe from boing over.
whclmcd by INSTRUMENTATION. and,
subsequently, all America given over To
MohsmmedAnism? Tho sword OF
Charles MArtcl and his men. Who can
Zeal enough In inRnitics tn toll what
was accomplished for tho worlds good
by the sword Of Joan Of Arc?
In nccsmher last ] looked ON and saw
In tho distance the battlefield Of Mara.
thon. and ! asked myself what was Il that,
IN that u,oat tremendous day In history,
stopped the PcrSiAn hosts, representing
not only Persia hut Egypt and Tripoii
and Afghsnistan and b~eloochistsu and
Armenia; = host that had Asia under
loot and proposed 70 put Europe under
foot end II successful In that bsttl.
would have submerged by Aaistic bar.
barsm European civilization and "A q
consequence. In after I ms. American
civilization? The swords Of MItisdcs
end Thcmistooles and AristideA A.
the waving Of these swords the eleven
thousand lsaosrs u Athens ON the
run dashed agaisst Ne a hundred
thousand incident r~sseiaas and trampl.d
them down or pushed them back into
the No. The sword OF tAst day saved
the best part Il Ne hemtsphercs. .
trinity Of keen steel hashing In the two
~tishA-thc light Of tho setting sun OF
barbarian. the light Of thu rising sun OF
c~tvilisstlon. Hall 70 these three Rrcs,
swords bsthed In Heaveni