Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-05-27
THE HEROIC JOSHUA.
HOW He COMMANDED THE SUN TO
STAND STILL.


BROOKLYN, May 26.-In the Embury
Memorial church large audience as
sembled this evening to listen to the an
nual sermon of Chaplain T. De Witt Tai
mage of the Thirteenth I@iment, N. G..
S. n. Y. The members = the regiment
occupied the body of the church Dr.
Talmage chose for his subject .sThe
Greatest Soldier of All Time the text
being Joshua i, 5, ''There shall not any
man be able to stand before thee all the
days of thy life. -
The gallant Thirteenth, " as this reg
iment is generally and appropriately
called, has gathered tonight for the wOr
ship of God and to hear the annual
sermon. And first [ look with hearty
salutation into the faces of the veterans,
who, though now not i'll active service,
have the same patriotic and military en-
thusiasm which characterized them
when, in 1868, they babe farewell to home
and loved ones and started for the field
and risked all they held dear on earth for
the establishment of the fSling Unit
ed States government. "All that man
hath will he give for his life, - and you
showed yourselves willing to give your
lives. We hail you'll We thank you! We
bless you, the veterans of the Thirteenth.
Nothing can ever rob you of the honor
of having been soldiers in one of the
most tremendous wars of all history, a
war with Grant and Sherman and Han
cock and Sheridan and Farragut on one
side, and Lee and StOnewaQ Jackson
and Longstreet and Johnston on the
other.
As in Greek assem- blages, when speak
ers would rouse the audience, they shout
ed "Marathon!'' so if I wanted to stir
you to reclamation would only need
to speak the words, lookout Noun
tain,'' Charlottesville, - "Gettys-
burg ARD though through the passage
of years you are forever free from duty
of enlistment, if European nations should
too easily and too quickly forget the
Monroe doctrine and set aggressive foot
upon this continent think your ankles
would be supple again, and your arms
would grow strong again, and your eyes
would be keen enough to follow the stars
of the old flag wherever they might lead.
Great Fighter.
And next I greet the colonel and his
staff, and all the officers and men of this
regiment. 1t has been an eventful year
in your history. If never before, Brook
Ign appreciates something of the value
of it's armories, and the Importance of
the men who there drill for the defense
and safety of the city. The blessing of
God be upon all of you, my comrades of
the Thirteenth regiment! And looking
about for subject that might be most
helpful and inspiring for you, and our
veterans here assembled, and the citizens
gathered tonight with their good wishes,
/ have concluded to hold up before you
the greatest soldier of all time-Joshua,
the hero of my text.
He was magnificent fighter, but he
always fought ON the right side, and he
never fought unless God told him to
fight. In my text he gets his military
equipment and one would think it must
have been plumed helmet for the brow,
greaves of brass for the feet, habergeOn
for the breast. "There shall not any
man be able to stand before thee all the
days of thy life. " ooh, you say, "any-
body could have courage with such q
backing up as that. :" Why, my friends,
I have to tell you that the God of the
universe and the Chieftain of eternity
promises to do just as much for us as for
him. All the resources of eternity are
pledged in our behalf, if we go out in
the service of God, and no more than
that was offered to Joshua. God fulfill
ed this promise of my text, although
Joshuas first battle was with the spring
freshet, and the next with a stone wall,
and the next leading ON a regiment of
whipped towards, and the next battle
i
the moon into his battalion, and the last
against the king of terrors, death-five
great victories.
For the most part, when the general
of an army starts out in a conflict he
would like to have small battle in
order that he may get his courage up
and he may rally his troops and get
them drilled for greater conflicts, but this
first undertaking of Joshua was greater
than the leveling of Fort Pulaski, or
the laundering down of Gibraltar, or
the overthrow of the Bastille. It was
the crossing of the Jordan at the time
of the spring freshet. The SHOWS of |
Mount Lebanon had just been melting,
and they poured down into the valley,
and the whole valley was raging tor
rent. So the Canaanites stand on one
bank, and they look across and see
Joshua and the Israelites, and they
laugh and say: aha! aha! They can
not disturb us until the freshets fall 1t |
is impossible for them to reach US.
But after awhile they look across the
water, and they see a movement in the
army of Joshua. They say: whats
the matter now? Why, there must be
panic among these troops, and they are
going to fly, or perhaps they are going
to try to march across the river Jordan
Joshua is a lunatic' But Joshua, the