Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-02


preached the annual sermon be-
fore the Thirteenth Regiment, in the
academy OF music. The staff officers and
members of the regiment were immedi-
ately in front of the platform. and Their
friends thronged the galleries. The
hymn sung was the national air:
my country, tits of the,
Sweet land OF liberty
The subject of the sermon was. s'The
Sword = Its Mission and Its Doom. -
The text, Isaiah xxxiv. 8: nMy sword
shall be bathed in heaven. -
Three hundred and fifty-one times does
the Bible speak of that sharp, keen,
eurved, memorable weapon, which
flashes upon us from the Textile sword =.
Sometimes the mention is applaud
atory and sometimes damnatory i,
sometimes as drawn, someti mes
as sheathed. In the Bible, and
In much secular literature, the sword
IT presents all javelins, all muskets, all
carbiues, all guns, all police clubs, ali
battle-axes, all weapons for physical de-
fence or attack. 1t would be an inter-
,ssting thing to give the history of the
9sngh, and follow its furrow all down
through the ages, from the first crop in
Chaldes to the last crop in Minnesota.
1t would be Interesting to follow the pen
as 1t has tracked its way on down through
the llterature OF nations, from its 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 CEN
turtles to the last stroke in the carpenter s
shop yesterday. But in this my annual
sermon as chaplain of the Thirteenth
regiment, propose to take up weapon
that has done work that neither pillow
NOR pen nor hammer ever accomplished.
Ny theme Is tine sword--its mission and
Its doom.
The sword of the text was bathed IN
heaven; that is, it was sword of right
eousness, as another sword MY be
sfafHed in hell, and the sword of cruelty
|sahd wrong. There is a great difference
between the sword of Winklereid and the
sword of Catalina, 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
sabeses and excavations, when it he's had
q divine mission, and when in many
SWUNG FOR LIBERTY AND JUSTICE,
civilization and righteousness and God.
At tbs. very opening of the Bible and on
side of the Garden of Eden, God
aplaced a flaming sword to defend
the tree of life. OF the officer of
the law, st. Paul declares: f'He beareth
not the sword in VAIN Through Moses
I'D nd Dnf
Ssword by his side - David in his prayer
gays: ''Gird thy sword upon thy thigh,
o most mighty - One of the old battle
shouts of the Old Testament was, 1.-the
sword of the Lord and of Gideon. 4"
Christ, in q great exigency, said that
v6i&ch a weapon was more important than
q coat, for He declared: 'tHe that hath
mo sword, let him sell his garment and
buy one.' Again He declared: "I
come not to send peace but q sword. -
OF Christ's second coming it is said;
''Out of his mouth went a sharp, two
edged sword. - Thus, sometimes fig
nratively, but oftener literally, the
divine mission of the sword is announced.
What more consecrated thing in the
world than Joshua's sword, or Caleb g
sword, or Gideon's sword, or David g
sword or WaBhington's sword, or Ma
rion s sword, or Lafayette's sword. or
Wellington's sword, or Kosoiusko's
sword, or Garlbald g sword, or hundreds
of thousands of American swords that
have again and again been bathed in
heaven. Swords of that kind have been
lthe best friends of the human race.
They have slain tyrannies, pried open
dungeons, and cleared the way for ma
tions in their march upward. IL was
better for them to take the sword and be
free, than lie under the oppressor' heel
aud suffer. There is something worse
than death, and that is life if it must
oringe and crouch before the wrong Turn
over the leaves of the worlds
history and find that there has never
been q tyranny stopped or a nation lib
Grated except by the sword. 1 am not
talking to you about the way things
ought to be, but
ABOUT THE WAY THEY HAVE BEEN.
,SSshat force drove back the Saraeens at
Tours, and kept Europe from being over