The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1895-05-04
TALMAGE's SERMON.
The Stripping OF the Slain by tho
Philistines.
rhe Robbery of the Dead Saul and His
Army Initiated by the World To-
Day-The Rewards of an
IIl-spent Life.

p.usic. New York city, on the subject
after the Battle" basing it on the
! text:
And It came to pass OF the morrow, wher
! the Philstines came to strip the slain, tina
they found Saul and his three sons fallen II
Mount Gilboa.-L Samuel, XXI,
Some OF you were at South Noun
tain, or Shiloh, or Balls Bluff, or Get
! tysburg. on northern or southern side
and ! ask you IL there is any saddeI
sight than a battlefield after the guns
have stopped firing? l walked across
the field OF Antietam 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 vul.
| lures lowering over and around 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 wEe1 Scott went down into Mexico.
as when Napoleon marched up toward
Moscow, as when Won Moltke went to
Sedan. There is u similar scene in my
text:
Saul and his army had been horribly
cut to Ipieces. Mount Gilboa was
CHASTITY with the dead. On the morrow
the stragglers came on to the field, and
they lifted the latchet 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
let's 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 BRAY
cry, leaped upon the trunk OF his car
cass, and jeered at the fallen slain,
and whistled through the mouth of
his helmet. Before night those cor
morants had taken everything valua-
BILE from the field: "And it came to
shines came to strip the slain, that
they found Saul and his three sons fall
en- in Mount Gilboa"
Before get through to-dayI will show
you that the same process is going on
all the world over, and every day, and
that when men have fallen, Satan and
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 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 expecta-
tons The country lads sit down in
the village grocery, with their feet on
the iron rod around the red-hot stove,
In the evening, talking over the pros
poets Of the young man who has gone
off to the city. Two or three of them
think that perhaps he might get along
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-
ton in a 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 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 bar rooms and the sa-
looms 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 a mere corpse of what he once
was. The harpies of sin snuff up the
faint and come on the field. His gar
ments gradually give out. He has
pawned his watch. His health is fail
ing 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? Is it to help him back
to a moral and spiritual life? Oh, no!
+ / will tell you why they stay; they are
Philistines stripping the slain.
II There is another way, however, of
doing that same work. Here is man
who, through his sin, is PROSTATE. He
acknowledges that he has done wrong.
ANoW 10 buC LII you w RO W Via v
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 ON
nipotent grace of God, that is sufficient
for any poor soul. Now is the time to
go tell him how swearing John Bun
yam, through the grace Of God, after
ward came to the celestial city. Now
Is the time to go to that man and tell
him how prohigate Newton came,
through conversion, to be q world-re-
nowned preacher of righteousness.
Now is the time to tell that man that
multitudes who have been pounded
with all the fails of sin and dragged
through all the sewers of pollution, Mt
last have risen to positive dominion of
moral power.
You do not tell him that. do your
No. You say to him: Loan you
money? No. You are down. You
will have to go to the dogs. Lend you
dollar? would not lend you five
cents to keep you from the gallows.
You are debauched! Get out of my
sight. now! Down; you will have to
stay down!" And thus those bruised