Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-06-07

1EAif Inn StCOTU SHQtt OS UItH6u Tn
Heauen. Isaiah xxxiv., s.
Chaplain T. Dewitt Talmage preached
his annual sermon bsfors the Thirteenth
Regiment " g. $. n Y. in the BROOKLYN
Academy of Music. Tho staff officers and
members Of the regiment were Immediately
in front of the platform, and their fren Is
thronged the galleries. Ths hymn sing was
the national air
My country, It's OF thee,
Sweet ian / of liberty
The following is the scr.non in full:
Three hundred and tifty-one times does
the Bible speak of that sharp, Keen, curved
memorable weapon, which flashes upon US
from the text-the sword Sometimes tas
mention is explanatory and sometimes
damnatory, sometimes as drawn, sometimes
as sheathed In the Bible and in muea
secular literature, the sword represents all
jayelins, all muskets, all carbines, all guns
all police clubs, all battle AXIS all weaponry
for physical defense or attack. 1t would
be au interesting thing to give the history
of the Pow and follow its furrow all down
through the ages, from the first crop in
Chaldea TO the last crop in Minnesota 1t
would be interesting to allow the Pen as
1t has tracked its way on down through the
literature of nations, from its first word in
the f1rst book to the last word which some
author last night wrote as he close his
manuscript 1t would be an interesting
thing to count the echoes of tbs ham nsr
from the first nail driven, down through all
the mechanism of centuries to the last stroke
In the carpenters shop yesterday But in
this, my annual sermon as chaplain OF the
Thirteenth Regiment, ] propose taking up
weapon that has done work that neither
pillow nor pen nor hammer ever accom-
plished. My theme is the Sword-its mission
and its doom
The sword of the text was bathei in
heaven that is, it was sword OF righteous
ness, as another sword may be bathed in hell.
and the sword of cruelty and wrong Thers
Is great difference between the sword of
Winklereid aud the sword of Catalina be
tween the sword of Leonidas and the sword
Of Benedict Arnold In our effort to hasten
the end of war, we have hung the sworJ.
with abuses and excavations, when it has had
divine mission, and 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 of the Garden of Eden God
placed flaming sword to defend ths tree
OF life. OF the officer of the law St. Paul
declares: He beareath 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, most mighty" One of the
The sword OF the Lord and Of Gideon"
Christ, i'll great eyigency, 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 de-
clared: II come not TO send peace but a
sword" OF Christs second coming it is said:
Out of His mouth went sharp, two edged
sword Thus, sometimes fguratively, 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
Gideons sword, or David's sword, or Wash
ington's sword, or Marion's sword. or Lafay-
cites sword, or Welhngtons sword, or
Kosciusko's sword or Garibaldis sword or
hundreds of thousands of American swords
that have again and gain been bathed in
heaven. Swords of tlat kind have bsen
the best friends of the human race. They
have slain tyrannies, prie1 open dungeons,
and cleared the way for nations in their
march upward. 1t 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 if it must cringe and croueh
before the wrong Turn over the
leaves OF the worlds history, and find that
there has never heen a tyranny stopped or
nation liberated except by the sword. I
am not talking 10 you about the way things
OuRut 10 Dt, DUI HDDuT EnH way UneV n1VA
been. What force drove back the Saraeens
at Tours, and kept Europe from being over
whelmed by Mohammedanism, and subse-
quently, all America given over to Moham-
inedanlsm2 The sword of Charles Mar tel and
his men. Who can deal enough in infnities
to tell what was accomplished for the worlds
good by the sword of Joan of Are
In December last looked off and saw in
the distance the battlefield of Marathon, and
| asked myself what was it tnat, on that
most tremendous day in history, stopped tins
Persian hosts, representing not only Persia.
but Egypt, and Tripoh, and Afghanistan,
and Beloochstau. and Armenia, a host that
had Asia under foot, and proposed to put
Europe under foot, and if sue eessful in
that battle, would have submerged by Asiatic
barbarism European civilization, and as a
consequencein after time. American civiliza-
lion. The swords of Miltiades and Themisto
rles, and Aristides At the waving of these
words the eleven thousand lancars of Athens
on the run dashed against the one hundred
thousand insolent Psrsians, and tranpled
them down or pushed them back into the
sea. The sword of that DAY saved the bsst
part of the hemispheres, a trinity OF keen
steel flashing in the two lights-ths light of
the setting of the sun of barSarism, the light
of the rising sun of civilization. Hail to these
three great swords bathed in heavenl
What put an end to infamous Louis XVI's
plan of universal conquest, by which England
would have been made to knsel on the steps
of the Tuileries and the Auglo-Saxon racs
would have been halted and all Europe
paralyzsd? The sword Of Marlborough at
Blenheim. Time came when the Roman war
eagles, whose beaks had been punched into
the hearts 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, I'M
DIr l..
ceeded. What drove back the Roman
cavalry till their horses wounded flung their
riders and the last rider persisted, and the
Hercynian forest became the scene of Rome's
humiliation? The sword, the brave sword,
the triumphant sword of Armnius
While passing through France last Janu-
airy my nerves tingled with excitement AMI
/ rose in the car, the better to see the battle
field of Chalons the mounds and breast
works still visible though nearly five hun
dred years ago they were shoveled up.
Here, Attila, the heather monster, called
| by himself the 'Scourge of God, for the
punishment of Christians his life mas
sacre of nations came to ignominious de-
feat. and he put into ons great pile the
wooden saddles of his cavalry, and the
spoils of the cities and kingdoms he had
sacked, and placed on top of this holocaust
the women who had accompanied him in
his devastating march, ordering that the
torch be put TO the pile. What power broke
that sword, and stayed that red scourge of
cruelty that was rolling over Europe' The
sword of Theodore and Actius.
| To come down to later ages all intelligent
| Englishmen unite with all intelligent Amerl-
| cans in saying that it was the best thing that
! the American colonies swung of from the
| governr mt of Great Britain. II would
| have been the worst absurdty of 1000 years
| if this continent should have continued In
| loyalty TO throne on tie other side OF the
sea. No one would propose a governor
general for the United States as there is a
| governor general for Canada. We have
! had splendid queens il our American capital
| but we could hardly be brought to support
| Queen ON the other side of the Atlantic
| lovely and good as Victoria is The only use
we have for earls and lords and dukes IN this
| country is 70 treat them well when they pass
through to their hunting grounds in the
far West, or, when their fortunes have failei,
| reinforce them by wealthy matrimonial
| alliance. Imagine this nation yet part C..
English possessions! The trouble the mother
country has to-day with ireland would be a
| paradisaic condition compared with tbs
! trouble she would have with us Englani
| and the United States make excellent neigh.
| bors, but the two families are too large ta
! live in the same house What a godsend
that we should have parted. and parted long
ago. But / can think of no other way in
which we could have possibly achieved
| American independence. George III, tbs
half crazy King, would not have let us go.
| Lord North, his Prime Minister, would
| not have let us GO General Lord Corn
wallis would not have let US go, although
after Yorktown ne was glad enough TO hav;
us let him go. Lexington. and Bunker Hill
and Monmouth, and Trenton, and Valley
| Forge were proofs positive that they were not
! willing TO let us go. ANY COMMITTEES of A u,er
! leans going across the OCEAN to see what could