Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1895-04-27
THE WAGES OF SIN.
Ev. DE WITT TALMAGs ON LATTER
THE BATTLE

'ev DE WITT TALmA6s ON LATTER
THE BATTLE"
tripping the slain-The Mercilessness Of
sln-A Tragedy on the Street Corner.
The Temptation. the Choice and the
Outcome.
NEW YORK, April 81. There is no
diminution in the vast numbers that as
semble from Sunday to Sunday to listen
to the eloquent sermons of Rev. DR..
Talmage Today he chose for his sub
iect After the Battle, the text select
ed being 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 Mountain
or Shiloh or Balls Bluff OF Gettysburg
Oh northern or southern side, and ask
you if there is any sadder sight than a
battlefield after the guns have stopped
firing? walked across the field OF An
tietam Just after the conflict. The scene
was SO sickening shall not describe it.
Every valuable thing had been taken
from the bodies of the dead, for there
are always vultures lowering over and
around about an army, and they pick
up the watches, and the memorandum
books and the letters, and the daguerre-
otypes, 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
q 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 latchet Of the helmet
from under tho 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 wallets
and counted the coin. Saul lay dead
along the ground, s or feet in length,
and suppose the cowardly Philistines,
to show their bravery, leaped upon the
trunk of his carcass and jeered at the
fallen slain and whistled through the
mouth of his helmet. Before night those
cormorants had taken everything valu-
able from the field 'And it came TO
! ,,ooo m, tho ,,oorrox,, xuhap fha phi
tines came to strip tho slain, that they
found Saul and his three sons fallen in
Mount GilJoa.
Satan ard His Work.
Before | get through today | will
show You that the same process is going
OH all tho world over, and every day,
and that when men have fallen satan
aud the world, so far from plying them
or helping them, go to work remorse
lessly to take what little there is left,
thus stripping the sain.
There are tens of thousands Of young
men every year coming from the coun-
try to our great cities. They como with
brave hearts and grand expectations
/ The country lads sit down in the village
grocery, with their feet on the iron rod
around the redhot 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 success in the world.
But our young man has q fine position
i'll dry goods store The month is over
He gets his wages. He is not accus.
toned to have SO much money belong
ing to himself. He is little excited
and does not know exactly what to do
with it, and be spends it i'll some places
where he ought not. Soon there come
up new companions and acquaintance
from the barrooms and the saloons of
the city. Soon that young man begins to
waver in the battle of temptation, 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 faint and come on the field
His garments gradually 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 70 pay his way home to the
country Down, down. Why do the low
fellows of the city now stick to him so
closely? Is it to help him hack TO NOR
al and spiritual life? Oh, no. Twill tell
you why they stay. They are Philistines
stripping the slain.
Do not look where point, but yon-
der stands n man who once had beau
tiful home i'll 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 bedroom
door. Where is the piano? Sold to pay
the rent Where is the hatrack? Sold to
meet tho butchers bill. Where are the
| carpets? Sold to get bread Where is the
wardrobe? Sold to get rum, Where are
the daughters? Working their fingers off
III lryluS W hStu bue lalnliy together
Worse and worse until everything is
gone. Who is that going up the front
steps Of that house? That is a 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 unfortunate is morally dead, social
ly dead financially dead. Why do they
go there? will tell you why the cred
itors anG tile constables and the shcriffs
go thert> They are, some on their own
account and some on account of the
law, stripping the slain.
Pathetic Request.
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 | am
dying-dying on borrowed bed, cover
Ell by borrowed sheet, in house built
by public charity Bury me under that
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