The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-06-07
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Annual Address 70 the Gallant
Thirteenth Brooklyn.
Words OF Congratulation and Welcome to
the Veterans Who RIsked All to save
the Union-A Lesson From the
Feats of Joshua.

Rev. 7. Dewitt delivered his annual
sermon as chaplain of the Thirteenth
regiment n. g. S. n. Y. at Embury Me-
mortal church, Brooklyn. He took for
his subject: '@rhe Greatest Soldier OF
All Time" basing it on the text:
There shall not be any man able to stand be-
fore thee all the days Of thy life.-Joshua T., s
For the most part, when the general
of an army starts out in a conflict he
would like TO have a 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 Pu-
laski, or the laundering down of Glib
raltar, or the overthrow of the Bastile.
1t 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
q raging torrent. So the Canaanites
stand on the bank and they look
across and see Joshua and the Israel
ties, and they laugh and say: "AhaI
aha! they can not disturb us until the
fresbet falls; 1t is impossible for them
to reach us" But after awhile they
look across the water and they see n
movement in the army of Joshua.
They say: whats the matter now?
Why, there must be a 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 chief
tain of the text, looks at his army and
cries: Forward, marchl" and they
start for the bank of the Jordan.
One mile ahead go two priests car
rying a Rlittering box four feet long
and two feet wide. It is the ark of
the covenant. And they come down,
and no sooner do they just touch the
rim of the water with their feet than
by an Almighty fat, Jordan parts
The army of Joshua marches right on
without getting their feet wet, over
the bottom of the river, a path of
chalk and broken shells and pebbles,
until they get TO the other bank. Then
they lay hold of the oleanders and
tamarisks and willows and pull them
selves up a bank thirty or forty
feet high, and having gained
the other bank, they clap
their shields and their cvmbals.
and sing the praises of the God of
Joshua. But no sooner have they
reached the bank than the waters be-
gin to dash and roar, and with a ter
rifle rush they break loose from their
strange anchorage. Out yonder they
have stopped; thirty miles up yonder
they halted. On this side the waters
roll off toward the salt sea. But as the
hand of the Lord God is taken away
from the thus uplifted waters-waters
perhaps uplifted half a mile-as the
Almighty hand is taken away those
waters rush down, and some of the un-
believing Israelites say: 'Alas, alas;
what misfortune! Why could not those
waters have stayed parted? because
perhaps we may want to go back,
Oh, Lord, we are engaged in a risky
business. Those Canaanites may eat
us up. How If we want to go back?
Would it not have been a more COM
plete miracle if the Lord had parted
the waters to let us come through and
kept them parted to let us go back if
we are defeated?" My friends, God
makes no provision for a Christians
retreat He clears the path all the
way to Canaan. To go back is to die.
The same gatekeepers that swing back
the amethystine and Crystalline gate
of the Jordan to let Israel pass
through, now swing shut the
Rmethystine and crystalline gate of
81
from going back. / declare it in your
hearing to-day, victory ahead, water
forty feet deep in the rear. Triumph
ahead, Canaan ahead; behind you
death and darkness and woe and hell.
But you say: "Why didn't those
Canaanites, when they had such a
splendid chance-standing on the top
of the bank thirty or forty feet high,
completely demolish those poor Is
raelites down in the river?" l will tell
you why. God had made a promise,
and He was going to keep it. There
shall not any man be able to stand be-
fore thee all the days of thy life"
But this is no place for the host to
stop. Joshua gives the commands:
Forward, march," In the distance
there is long grove of trees, and at
the end OF the grove is a city. 1t is q
city of arbors, city with walls seem
ing to reach to the heavens, to buttress
the very sky. 1t is the great metrop-
oils that commands the mountain pass.
It is Jericho. That city was afterward
captured by Pompey, and it was af>
terward captured by Herod the Great,
and it was afterward captured by
the Mohammedans; but this cam
paign the Lord plans. There
shall be no swords, no shields, no bat
tering ram There shall be only one
weapon of war, and that a rams horn.
The horn of the slain ram was some
times taken and holes were punctured
in it, and then the musician would put
the instrument to his lips, and he
would run his fingers over this rude
musical instrument, and make a great
deal of sweet harmony for the
people. That was the only kind
Of weapon Seven priests were
to take these rude, rustic musical
instruments. and they were to 90
around the city every day for six days
once a day for six days, and then on
the seventh day they were to go
around blowing these rude musical in
struments seven times, and then at the
close of the seventh blowing of the
rams horns on the seventh day the
peroration of the whole scene was to
be shout at which those great walls
should tumble from capstone to base.
The seven priests with the rude mu-