The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-06-07
THE SWORDS USES.
A Sermon to the Military BY Rev.
T. Dewitt Talmage.

LIE OWOhDS USES.
A Sermon to the Military By Rev.
T. Dewitt Talmage.
What the Sword Has Achieved In the
Worlds History-The Mission and Doom
of the Great weapon-ArbItratIon
Sure TO Come.
Dr. Talmage recently preached the
annual sermon to the Thirteenth regi-
ment at Brooklyn. His subject was:
The Sword 1t Mission and Its Dooms''
The text, Isaiah xxxiy., 6us2fyeewora
shall be bathed IN Heay1n. u
Haros hnn1rz3 sd s1E5hs ~
does the ~ 81 that 8iinrp
keens curved. ine&orabi6 weapon, which
laNhes upon us from the text-the
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 1avelins, 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 az 1t
has tracked its way on down through
the literature of nations, from it's first
word in b 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
centuries to the last stroke in the car
penter's shop yesterday. But in this,
my annual sermon al 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 It's doom.
The sword Of the text was bathed in
Heaven; that is, ii was a sword of right
eousness, rs 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 excavations when 1t
has had a divine mission, when in many
crises o fthe worlds historyit 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 q flaming sword to defend
tho 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 nan 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 q great exigency said hat
such q weapon was more important than
q coat, for He declared: "He that hath
no sword, let him sell his garment and
buy one" Again He declared: 81
como not to send peace but a 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
Marion's sword, or Lafayette's sword, or
YVallfn ofnnfa uuynr1 90 Knaot,1g,
sword, or Garibaldi's 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 the way for ma
lions in their march upward. 1t was
better for them TO take the sword and be
free, than lie under the oppressor's heel
IND suffer. There Is something worse
than death, and hat is life IL It must
cringe and crouch before the wrong.
Turn over the leaves OF the worlds his
tory and find hat there has never been
q tyranny stopped or a nation liberated
except by the sword. ] 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 over
whelmed by Mohammedanism, and,
subsequently all America given over TO
Accommodation? 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 Arc?
In December last / looked off and saw
in the distance the battlefield OF Mara
thon, and / asked myself what was 1t 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
Armenia; a host that had Asia under
foot, and proposed to put Europe under
foot, and IL successful in that battle
would have submerged by Asiatic bar
barism European civilization and as a
consequence, in after me. American
civilization? The swords of Miltiades
and Themistocles and Aristides. At
the waving of these swords the eleven
run dashed against the one hundred
thousand insolent Persians and trampled
them down or pushed them back into
the sea. The sword Of that day saved
the best part OF the hemispheres. a
trinity of keen steel flashing in the two
lights-the light of the setting SUI Of
the light of the rising sun Of
Hail to these three great
swords bathed in Heaven!
What put an end to infamous Louis
XIV.'s plan OF universal conquest by
which England would have been made
to kneel on the steps of the Tuileries
and the A~nglo-Saxon race would have
been halted and all Europe paralyzedP
The sword of Marlborough at Blenheim.
Time came when the Roman wal eagles,
beaks had been plunged into the
heart Of nations, must be Drougt down
from their eyries. All other attempts
had disgracefully failed, but the Cor
mans, the mightiest 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 per-
ished, and the Hercynian forest became
the scene of Rome's humiliation? The
sword, the brave sword, the triumphant
sword of Arminius. While passing
through France last January my nerves
tingled with excitement and ! rose in
the car, the better to see the battlefield
of Chalons, the mounds and breastworks
still visible, though nearly 500 years
ago they were shoveled up. Here At
tia, the heather monster, called by
himself the "Scourge of God, for the
punishment Of Christians" his life a
"a -ationa rana IN i~nunIninir