The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1890-06-06
THE SWORDS USES.
A Sermon to the Military By Rev.
T.Dewitt Talmage.
What the Sword Has Achieved In the
Worlds HistOry-Ths Mission and Doom
OF the Great Observation-Disclosures
Sure to Come.

ment at Brooklyn His subject was:
The Sword-Its Mission and Its Doom"
The text, Isaiah xxxiv-, 5, MY sword
shall be bathed in Heaven"
Three hundred and hfty-one times
does the Bible speak of that sharp,
keen, curved, memorable weapon, which
flashes upon us from the text-the
sword Sometimes the message Is ap-
plaudatory, and sometimes damnatory,
sometimes as drawn, sometimes as
sheathed- In the Bible, and in much
secular literature, the sword represents
all javelins, all muskets, all carbines.
all guns, all police clubs, all battle axes,
all weaponry for physical defense or at
tack. 1t would be an interesting thing
TO give the history of the pillow and fol-
low its burrows all down through the
ages. from the first crop in Chaldea to
the last crop in Minnesota 1t would
be interesting to follow the PEN as 1t
has tracked its way on down through
the literature of nations, from its first
word in the first book to the last word
some author wrote last night 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
penter's shop yesterday. But in this,
my annual sermon as chaplain of the
Thirteenth regiment, ! propose taking
q weapon that has done a work that
neither pillow nor pen nor hammer ever
accomplished. 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 right
ha
bathed in hell. and the sword of cruelty
and wrong. There is great difference
between the sword of Winklereid and
the sword of Leonidas and the sword of
Benedict Arnold. In our effort to hasten
the end of war we have hung the sword
with abuses and excavations when 1t
has had a divine mission, 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 n flaming sword to defend
the tree of life. OF the officer of the
law st. Paul declares: HE beareth not
the sword in 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 Gideon. ="
Christ in a great exigency said that
such a 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 second coming it is said:
"Out of his mouth went n sharp, two
edged sword" Thus, sometimes figura-
lively, but oftener literally, the divine
mission of the sword is announced.
What more consecrated thing in the
world than Joshua's sword, or Caleb's
sword, or Gideon's sword, or David's
sword, or Washington's sword, or
Marion's sword, or Lafayette's sword. or
Weilington's sword, or Kosciusko's
sword, or Garibaldrs sword, or hundreds
of thousands of American swords that
have again and again been bathed in
Heaven Swords of that kind have been
the best friends of the human race.
They have slain tyrannies, pried open
dungeons and cleared tho way for ma
tions in their march upward. 1t was
better for them TO take the sword, and be
free, than lie under the oppressors heel
and suffer. There Is something worse
than death, and that Is life If 1t mus
cringe and crouch before the wrong
Turn over the leaves of the worlds his
tory and find that there has never beer
tyranny stopped or a nation liberated
except by the sword. j 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 a
Tours, and kept Europe from being over
whelmed by Mohammedanism, and
subsequently all America given over U
Mohammedanism? The sword O
Charles Martel and his men. Who cal
deal enough in inhnities to tell wha
was accomplished for the worlds goo'
by the sword of Joan of Arc?
In December last looked of and say
in the distance the battlefield of Mara
thon, and asked myself what was 1t thai
on that most tremendous day in history
stopped the Persian hosts, representinI
not only Persia but Egypt and Tripod
and Afghanistan and Beloochistan an,
Armenia; q host that had Asia unde
foot, and proposed to put Europe unde
foot, and II successful in that BATH
would have submerged by Asiatic bar
barism European civilization and as
civilization? The swords of Miltiade
and Themistocles and Aristides- A
the waving of these swords the clever
thousand lancers of Athens on tn
run dashed against the one hundre,
thousand insolent Persians and trample,
them down or pushed them back int,
the sea- The sword of that day save,
the best part of the hemispheres,
trinity OF keen steel flashing in the tw
lights-the light of the setting sun O
barbarism, the light of the rising sun O
civilization Hail to these three grea
swords bathed in Heaven!
What put an end to Infamous Loui
XIV's plan of universal conquest b.
which England would have been mad
TO kneel on the steps Of the Tuilerie
and the Anglo-Saxon race would hav
been halted and all Europe paralyzed
The sword of Marlborough at Blenheim
Time came when the Roman war eagles
whose beaks had been plunged into tn
heart of nations, must be DrOugt dow
from their eyries. All other attempt
had disgracefully failed, but the GEL
mans the mightiest for Drawn an
brain. undertook the work, and, unde
God, succeeded. What drove back tn
Roman cavalry till the horses, wounded
flung their riders and the last rider pei
ished, and the Hercynisn forest becam
the scene of Rome's humiliation? Tn
sword, the brave sword. the triumphan
sword OF Arminius- While passin
through France last January my nerve
tingled with excitement and rose Il
the car. the better to see the BATTLEFIELD
of Chalons, the mounds and breastwork
az Nd