The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1895-04-24
SINS CRUELTY.
DR.. Talmage Discusses the Penal
ties for Wrong Doing.
1t Robs the Sinner of All That Is Good In
Life-A Lesson from the Robbery Of
the Dead by Philistines-A Turn.
ing Point in Every Per-
sons Life.


New York Academy of Music, was
"After the Battle" the text selected
being l. Samuel XXI. s: "And it came
to pass on the morrow when the Philis-
tines came to strip the slain, that they
found Saul and his three sons fallen in
Mount Gilboa."
Some of you were at South Noun
tain, or Shiloh, or Balls Bluff, or Get
tySburg, on northern or southern side,
and | ask you if there is any sadder
sight than battlefield after the guns
have stopped firing? | walked across
the field of Antietam just after the
conflict. The scene was so sicllening
/ shall not describe it. Every valuable
thing had been taken from the bodies
of the dead, for there are always vul-
lures lowering over and around about
an army, and they pick up the watches,
and the memorandum books, and the
letters, and the daguerreotypes and
the hats, and the coats, applying them
to their own uses The dead make no
resistance. SO there are always camp
followers going on and after an army,
as when Scott went down into Mexico,
as when Napoleon marched up toward
Moscow, as when Won Moltke went to
Sedan. There is a similar scene in my
text.
Saul and his army had been horribly
cut to pieces. Mount Gilboa was ghast-
ly with the dead. On the morrow the
stragglers came on to the field, and
they lifted the lachet of the helmet
from under the chin of the dead, and
they picked up the swords and bent
them on their knee to test the temper
of the metal, and they opened the wal
lets and counted the coin. Saul lay
dead along the ground, eight or nine
feet in length, and l suppose the cow
ardly Philistines, to show their bra
very, leaped upon the trunk of his car
cass, and jeered at the fallen slain, and
whistled through the mouth of his he'll
met. Before night those cormorants
had taken everything valuable from
the field. "And it came to pass on the
morrow, when the Philistines came to
strip the slain, that they found Saul
and his three sons fallen in Mount
Gilboa."
Before l get through to-day will
show you that the same process is go
ing on all the world over, and every
day, and that when men have fallen.
Satan and the world, so far from pity
ing them or helping them, go to work
remorselessly to take what little there
is left, thus stripping the slain.
There are tens of thousands of young
men every year coming from the coun-
try to our great cities They come with
brave hearts and grand expectations.
The country lads sit down in the viii
lage grocery, with their feet on the
iron rod around the red-hot stove, in
the evening, talking over the prospects
OF the young man who has gone off to
the city. Two or three of them think
that perhaps he may get along very
well and succeed, but the most of them
prophesy failure, for it is very hard to
think that those whom we knew in
boyhood will ever make any great sue
cess in the world.
But our young man has fine posi-
tion in dry goods store. The month
is over. He gets his wages. He is not
accustomed to have so much money be-
longing to himself. He is a little ex-
cited, and does not know exactly what
to do with it, and he spends it in some
places where he ought not. Soon there
come up new companions and acquaint-
ances from the barrooms and the sa-
looms of the city. Soon that young man
begins to waver in the battle of temp
tation, and soon his soul goes down.
In few months, or few years, he has
fallen. He is morally dead He is
mere corpse of what he once was. The
harpies of sin snuff up the taint and
come on the field. His garments grad
ually give out. He has pawned his
watch. His health is failing him. His
credit perishes. He is too poor to stay
in the city, and he is too poor to pay his
way home to the country. Down! down!
Why do the low fellows of the city now
stick to him so closely? Isit to help him
back to moral and spiritual life? o,
no! 1 will tell you why they stay; they
are Philistines stripping the slain.
Do not look where l point, but yon-
der stands man who once had beau
tiful home in this city. His house had
elegant furniture, his children were
beautifully clad, his name was synony-
nous with honor and usefulness; but
evil habit knocked at his front door,
knocked at his back door, knocked at
his parlor door, knocked at his bed
room door. Where is the piano? Sold
to pay the rent. Where is the hat rack?
Sold to meet the butchers bill. Wh6e
are the carpets? Sold to get bread.
Where is the wardrobe? Sold to get
rum. Where are the daughters? Work
Npg their fingers off in trying to keep
the family together. Worse and worse
until everything is gone. Who is that
going up the front steps of that house?
That is creditor, hoping to find some
chair or bed that has not been levied
upon. Who are those two gentlemen
now going up the front steps? The one
is constable, the other is the sheriff.
Why do they go there? The unfortu-
nate is morally dead, socially dead,
financially dead. Why do they go
thereP Twill tell4ou why the credi-
tors, and the constables, and the sher-
iffs go there. They are, some on their
own account, and some on account of
the law, stripping the slain.
An ex-member OF congress, one of the
most eloquent men that ever stood in
the house of representatives, said in
his last moments: "This is the end. l