Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-06-12
THE SWORDS USES.
A Sermon to the Military By Rev.
7. Dewitt Talmage.
What the Sword Has Achieved in the
Worlds HistOry-The Mission and Doom
of the Great MISREPRESENTATION
Sure to Come.

Dr. Ialmage recently preached the
annual sermon to the Thirteenth regi-
ment at Brooklyn. His subject was;
THE Sword-Its Mission and It's Doom. -
The text, Isaiah xxxiv., ), MY sword
shall be bathed in Heaven"
Three hundred and ffty-one times
does the Bible speak of that sharp,
keen, curved, memorable weapon, which
flashes upon US from the textile
sword. Sometimes the message is APP
plaudatory, and sometimes damnatory,
sometimes as drawn, sometimes as
sheathed. In the Bible, and in much
secular literature, the sword represents
all javelins, all muskcts, 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 it
has tracked its way on down through
the literature of nations, from it's first
word in the first book to tho 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
centuries to the last stroke in the car
pentcr's shop yesterday. But in this,
my annual sermon as chapla of the
Thirteenth regiment, propose taking
y ba%
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
eousnesS, as another sword may be
bathed in hell. and the sword of cruelty
and wrong. There is a 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 exccrations when it
has had II divine mission, when in many
crises Ofthe worlds history it has swung
for liberty and justice, civilization and
righteousness and God.
AC the very opening of the Bible and
OF the east side of the Garden of Eden
God placed flaming sword to defend
the tree of life. or 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 weapon was more important than
u coat, for He declared: "He that hath
no sword, let him sell his garment and
buy one" Again He declared: 81
come not TO send peace but sword"
Of Christ's second coming it is said:
''Out of his mouth went a 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
darion's sword, or Lafayette's sword, or
sword, or KOsciusko's
sword, or Garibaldi's sword, or hundreds
If thousands of American swords that
lave again and again been bathed in
heaven. Swords of that kind have been
he best friends of the human race.
They have slain tyrannies, pried open
dungeons and cleared the way for ma
ions in their march upward. 1t was
letter for them to take the sword and be
rec, than lie under the oppressor's heel
nd suffer- There is something worse
han death, and that is life if it must
ringe and crouch before the wrong.
Turn over the leaves of the worlds his
Dry and find that there has never been
tyranny stopped or a nation liberated
kept by the sword. ] am not talking
o you about the way things ought to be,
ut about the way they have been.
What force drove back the Saracens at
ours, and kept Europe from being over
Inclined by Mohammedanism, and,
all America given over TO
1ohammedanism? The sword of
har.es Martel and his men. Who can
cal enough in infinities to tell what
'as accomplished for the worlds good
v the sword of Joan of Arc?
In December last l looked off and saw .
n the distance the battlefield of Mara ,
hon, and asked myself what was it that, ]
n that most tremendous day in history, {
topped the Persian hosts, representing ,
OF only Persia but Egypt and Tripoli I
nd Afghanistan and Beloochistan and I
rmenia; a host that had Asia under $
Dot, and proposed to put Europe under {
rot, and if successful in that battle I
ould have submerged by Asiatic bar I
arism European civilization and as a c
in after me, American
The swords of Miltiades /
nd Themistocles and Aristides. At a
ne waving of these swords the eleven t
lancers of Athens on the {
AZ dashed against the one hundred l
inSolent Persians and trampled 1
lem down or pushed them back into r
lie sea. The sword of that day saved i
he best part of the hemiSpheres, a Y
Unity of keen steel flashing in the two C
ghts-the light of the setting sun of ,
Arb arism, the light of the rising sun of c
Hail to these three great il
words bathed in Heaven! c
What put an end to infamous Louis I
Tvs plan of universal conquest by a
hich England would have been made il
kneel on the steps of the Tuileries "
nd the Anglo-Saxon race would have "
zen halted and all Europe paralyzed? a
he sword of Marlborough at Blenheim. b
ime came when the Roman war eagles, n
hose beaks had been plunged into the "
sart of nations, must be Drougt down
ON their eyries. All other attempts "
I'd disgracefully failed, but the Ger n