The Penn's Grove record., 1895-04-26
REV. DIR. TAIMAGK
TIE BROoKLYN DIvrNE,s SUE
DAY sERMOM.
Subject: .'AfGsr the Battle"

- $3.50 NtAALo w IL IA
slain, that they found Saul and histhree SONS
iallen In Mount Gilboa II Samuel XXI, 8
Some of you were at South Mountain OF
Shiloh or Balls Bluff or Gettysburg or
Northern or Southern side, and [ ask you IL
there IS any sadder sight than a battlefield
alter the guns have stopped firing? Iwalked
across the field Of Antietam Just after tbs
conflict. The scene was SO ~sickening / shall
not describe it. Every valuable thing had
been taken from the bodies of the dead, fol
there are always ~vulturcs lowering over and
around about an army, and they pick Ut
the watches, and the memorandum books,
and the letters, and the daguerreotypes, and
the hats, and the coats, applying them to
their " uses. The dead make no resis
tanee. 80 there are always camp followers
going on ard after an army, as when Scott
went down into Mexico, as when Napoleon
marched up toward Moscow, as When Vor
Moltke went to Sedan. There is a SINH
lar scene in my text.
Saul and his army had been horribly cut ia
pieces. Mount Gtlboa was CHASTITY with the
dead. On the morrow the ~stragglers cams
on to the field, and they lifted the latchet OF
me helmet from under the chin of the lead,
they picked up the swords and bent them on
their knee to test the temper of the metal,
and they opened the wallets Inc counted the
coin. Saul lay dea | along the ground, eight
or nine feet in length, and / suppose tha
cowardly Philistines, to show their bravery,
leaped upon the trunk of his carcass and
ieered at the fallen slain and whistled through
the mouth of his helmet. Before night those
cormorants had taken everything valuable
from the field. "And it came to pass on the
morrow, when the Philistines came to strir
the slain, that they found Saul and his three
sons fallen in Mount Gilboa."
Before | get through to-dayI will show
you that the same process Is going on all the
world over, n every day, INT that when
men have fallen satan and the world, so fal
from plying them or helping them, 20 ia
work remorselessly to take what little there
Is left, thus stripping the slain.
There are tens of thousands OF young mes
avery year coming from the country to ouI
great cities. They come witt brave hearts
and grand expectations. The country ladi
sit down in the village grocery, with theii
teet on the iron rod around the redhot
stove, in the evening, talking over the
prospects OF the young man who has gond
of to the city. Two or three of them thini
that perhaps he may get along very well AMI
| succeed, but the most of them rophesi
failure, for it is very hard to think thai
those whom we knew in boyhood will eyej
| make any great success in tho world,
But our young man has q fine position in I
dry goods store. TIL month Is over. HI
gets his wages. He is not accustomed Il
have so much money belonging to himself
az 10 q III 6ACtttl dDu uOtS nOB KNOW
exactly what to do with it, n h spends 1
In some places where he ought not. SooI
there come up new companions and acquaint
ances from the barrooms and the saloons O.
the city. Soon that young ma1 begins t.
wayer in the battle of temptation, and soor
his soul goes uown In a few months or few
years he has fallen. He Ia morally dead. HI
Is a mere corpse OF what he once was. Thu
harpies of sin snuff up the faint and comt
-on the field. His garments gradually givi
out. He has pawned his watch. His health
Is failing him. His credit perishes. a. d
too poor to stay in the city, and he Is TOT
poor to pay his way home to the country
Down, down! Why do the low fellows o
the city now stick to him so closely2 Is 1t II
help him back to a moral and spiritual life
Oh, no. ! will tell you why they stay. Thel
are Pbilistlnes stripping the slain.
Do not look where l point, but yonde
stands a man who once had a beautifulhom,
In this city. His house had elegant furnt
ture, his children were beautifully clad. hii
~fulness, but evil ~habrsknocked at his from
door, knocked at his back door, knocked al
his parlor door, knocked at his bedroom
door. Where Is the piano? Sold to pay the
rent. Where is the hatrack2 Sold to meet
the butchers bill. Where are the ~carpetsi
Soidto get bread. Where Is the wardrobei
Sold to get rum. Where are the daughtersi
Working their fingers off In trying to keer
the family together. Worse and worse until
everything Is gone. Who is that going up thu
front steps OF that house? That is o creditor.
hoping to find some chair or bed that has mol
been levied upon. Who are those two gen,
tlemen now going up the front steps2 Ths
one is a constable; the other is the sheriff.
Why do they go there? The unfortunate /.
morally dead, socially dead, financially dead
Why do they go there2 / will tell you VIII
the creditors and the constables and thu
sheriffs go there. They are, some on theii
W account and some on account of the law
stripping the slain.
An ex-member of Congress, one of tn,
most eloquent men that ever stood In th,
House of Representatives. said in his last
moments: This is the end. I am diving
dying ona borrowed bed, covered by a Dor
rowed sheet, in a house built by public
charity. Bury me that tree in the mid.
die of the field, where / shall not be crowded
for l have been crowdeda all my life.' Where
were the jolly politicians and the dissipatina
comrades who had been with him, LAUGHING
at his jokes, applauding his eloquenoe and
| plunging him into sin? They have left, Whyi
His money is gone, his reputation Ii gone.
his wit is gone, his clothes are -gone-every.
thing Is gone. Why should they stay any
They have stripped the slain.
There is another way, however, Of doing
the same work. Here is a man who, through
his sin, is PROSTATE. He acknowledges that
he has done wrong. Now is the time for you
to go to that man and say, Thousands OF
people have been as far astray as you are
and got back Now Is the time for you to
/, go to that man and tell him of the omnipo-
tent grace Of God, that is sufficient for any
/! poor SOUL. Now Is the time to go and tell
how swearing John Bunyan, through the
grace OF Goo, afterward came to the Celestial
City. Now is the time to go to that man and
tell him how prefigate Newton came,
through conversion, 90 be a world renowned
preacher OF Righteousness. Now Is the time
totell that man that multitudes who have been
pounded with all the fails Of sin and dragged
through all the sewers of pollution at last
have risen to positive dominion OF mora
powers.
You do not tell him that, do youP No,
1ou say to him, Loan you money? No
You are down. You will nave to 20 to the
dogs. Lend you a dollar? Iwould not lend
you five cents to keep you from the gallows.
Yod are de~bauched! Get out OF my sight.
nowl Down. You will have to stay down!i
And thus those bruised and battered men are
sometimes aecosted by those who ought to
lift them up. Thus the last vestige of hope
is taken from them. Thus those who ought
to go and lift and save them are gJslty OF
stripping the slain.
The point 1 want to make is this: Sin Ia
hard, cruel and mereiless. Instead of help
ing a mar up it helps him down, and when,
like Sau and his comrades, you lie on the
field, it will come and steal your sword and
helmet and shield, leaving you to the iackal
and the CROW.
But the world ana satan do not do their
work with the outcast and Abandoned. A
respectable impenitent man comes to die.
He Is fat on his back. He could not get up
1.-THE house was on fire. Adroitest medical
skill and gentle nursing have been a failure.
He has some to his last hour. What does
satan do for such a man? Why, he fetches
up all the inapt, disagreeable and narrowing
things in his life. He says: do you remem-
Der those chances you had for heaven and
missed? Do you remember all those lapses
in conduct? Do you remember all those OPP
.probrious words and thgs'ghts and ~actionsi
5on'tr remember them, Ell? I'll make you re-
member them" And then he takes all the
,ast and empties it on that deathbed, as the
nailbags are emptied on the postof1ce floor.
The man is sick. He cannot get away from
them.
Then the man says to satan; s'You have
deceived me. You told ne that all would be
vel. You said there would be no trouble at
The last. You told me IL 1 did so and SO you