The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-06-02
MISSION OF THE SWORD.
REV. TALMAGE BREACHES TO TIE
THIRTEENTH REGIMENT.

Bright and Sharp-Militiamen the
Reliance of the Country.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, June Chaplain T.
Dewitt Talmage this evening preached the
annual sermon before the Thirteenth Regi-
ment, in the Academy of Music. The staff
officers and members Of the regiment were
Immediately in front of the platform, and
their friends thronged the galleries. The
hymn sung was the National Air:
My country, tits Of thee,
Sweet land Of Liberty.
The subject of the sermon was: "The
Sword-Its Mission and its Doom" The
text. Isaiah xxxiv, 5: "My sword shall be
bathed in heaven"
Three hundred and fifty-one times does
the Bible speak Of that sharp, keen, curved,
inexorable weapon which flashes upon us
from the text-the sword. Sometimes the
mention is applaudatory 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 carDfnes, all guns,
all police clubs, all battle-axes, all weaponry
for physical defense or attack. 1t would be
an interesting thing to give the history Of
the pillow aud follow its furrow all down
through the ages, from the first crop in
Chaldea to the last crop in Minnesota.
It would be interesting to follow
the pen as 1t has tracked its way on down
through the literature Of nations, from ita
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 inter-
esting thing to count the echoes Of the
hammer from the first nail driven, down
through all the mechanism OF centuries to
Ioa -.
terday. But in this, my annual sermon as
chaplain of the Thirteenth regiment, pro-
pose taking up weapon that has done
work that neither plow nor pom nor
hammer ever accomplished. My theme Is
the sword-its mission and it's doom.
The sword of the text wes bathed in
heaven; that is, it wss a sword of right
eousness, as another sword may be bathed
in hell, and the sword of cruelty and wrong.
sword Of Winklereid and the sword Of
Ca 'allne, between the sword of LJonidas
and the sword Of Benedict Arnold. In our
effort to hasten the end of war we have
hung the sword with abuses and execra-
tions, when it has had divine mission, and
when in many crises of the worlds history
it has swung for liberty and JUS
tice, civilization and Righteousness and God.
AT the very opening OF the Bible, and on
east side of the Garden Of Eden, God placed
a flaming SWORD to defend the tree of life.
OF the officer of the law, st. Paul declares:
"He beareth not the sword in vaiu.n
Through Moses God commanded: "Put
every man his sword by his side.n David,
In his prayer, says: "Gird thy sword upon
thy thigh, o most mighty.n One of tho
old battle shouts of the Old Testament was,
Gideon" Christ, in a great exigency,
said that such weapon was
more important than a coat, for he de-
clared: "He that hath no sword, let him
sell his garment and buy one." Again he
declared: II come not to send peace but
sword" or Christ's second coming it is
said: "Out of his mouth went a sharp, two
edged sword. " Thus. sometimes figuratively,
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 Lafayettes sword. or Yelling
toms sword, or Kosciusko's sword, or Carl
baldis 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 tyraunies,
pried open dungeons, and cleared the way
for nations in their march upward. It was
better for them TO take the sword and be
free. than lie under the oppressor's heel
and suffer. There is something worse than
death, and that is life II it must cringe and
crouch before the wrong. Turn over the
leaves Of the worlds history, and find that
there has never been a tyranny stopped or
a nation liberated except by the sword. I
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
at Tours, and kept Europe from being
overwhelmed by Accommodation, and,
subsequently,, all America given over to
Mohanmedanisma The sword of Charles
Martel and his men. Who can deal enough
In infinities to tell what was accomplished
for the worlds good by the sword Of Joan
of Arcs In December last looked OFF and
saw in the distance the battlefield of Mara
thon, and | asked myself what was it that,
on that most tremendous day in history,
stopped the Persian hosts, representing not
only Persia, but Egypt, and Tripoli, and
Afghanistan, and Beloochistan, and Ar
menia; a host that had Asia under foot and
II successful In that battle, would
have submerged by Asiatic barbarism.
European civilization, and. as a conse-
quence in after time, American civilizations
The swords Of Miltiades, and Themistocles,
and Aristides. A. the waving of these
swords, the eleven thousand iancerS OF
Athens on the run, dashed against the one
hundred thousand ins)lent Persians, and
trampled them down or pushed them back
into the sea. The sword Of that day saved
the best part Of the hemispheres trinity
of keen steel flashed in the two lghts-the
light of the setting sun of barbarism, the
light of the rising sun OF civilization.
Hail to these three great swords bathed in
heavenl
What put an end to infamous Louis
XVL's plan of universal conquest by which
England would have been made to kneel on
the steps of the Tuilleries and the Anglo
Saxon race would have been halted and all
Europe paralyzedl The sword OF Marl-
borough at Blenheim. Time came when
the Roman war eagles, whose beaks had
been punched into the heart of nations
must be brought down from their eyries.
All other attempts had disgracefully
failed, but the Germans, the mightiest
nation for Drawn and brain, undertook the
work, and, under God, succeeded. What
drove back the Roman cavalry till the
horses. wounded, flung their riders and the
last rider perished, and the Hercynian
forest became the scene Of RoEas's hus=iha-
tion2 the sword, the brave sword. the
triumphant sword of Arminius. While
passing through France last January my
nerves tinged with excitement and rose in
the car, the better to see the battlefield of
Chalons, the mounds and breastworks still
visible, though nearly 1,500 years ago they
were shoveled up. Here, Attilla,