Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1895-06-01
THE HEROIC JOSHUA.
HOW HE COMMANDED THE SUN TO
STAND STILL.

4 STAND STILL.
Trey. DR.. Talmage breaches Another Ser
mon OF Surprising Interest and Power.
" The Greatest Soldier of All Time-The
Il Gallant Thirteenth.
BROOKLYN, May 26.-In the Embury
& Memorial church a large audience as
K sembled this evening to listen to the an
! nual sermon of Chaplain T. De Witt Tai
8 mage of the Thirteenth regiment, N. G.
rs N. Y. The members of the regiment
s.occupied the body of the church. DIR.
Talmage chose for his subject "The
sGreatest Soldier of All Time" the text
! being Joshua i, ., "Thero shall not any
iman be able to stand before thee all the
days of thy life. ;"
] The gallant Thirteenth, us this reg
! ,mont is generally and appropriately
called, has gathered tonight for the wor-
iship of God and to hear tho annual
sIsermon. And fir. l look with hearty
1salutation into the faces of the veterans,
4who, though now not in active service,
lhaye the Same patriotic and military en-
/ Enthusiasm which characterized them
twhen, in 1863, they bade farewell to home
land loved ones and started for the field
land risked all they held dear Oh earth for
Il the establishment Of the falling Unit
Fed States government. "All that man
lhath will he give for his life, +" and you
showed yourselves willing to give your
J-lives. We hail you'll We thank you We
fbless you, the veterans of the Thirteenth.
! ,Nothing can ever rob you of the honor
of having been soldiers i'll one of the
! most tremendous wars of all history, q
iwar with Grant and Sherman and Han
fscock and Sheridan and Farragut on one
Aside, and Lee and Stonewall Jackson
and Longstreet and Johnston Oh the
bother.
& As in Greek assemblages, when speak
lers would rouse the audience, they shout
FED Marathon r' so if I wanted to stir
+ you to acclamation I would only need
Ito speak the words, Lookout Noun
itain." Charlottesville, "Gettys-
burg" And though through the passage
kof years you are forever free from duty
Ieof enlistment, if European nations should
Eitoo easily and too quickly forget the
Monroe doctrine and set aggressive foot
Enpon this continent l think your ankles
lsTould be supple again, and your arms
fwould grow strong again, and your eyes
Isgould be keen enough to follow the stars
ssof the old flag wherever they might lead.
A Great Fighter.
And next I greet the colonel and his
ksstaff, and all the officers and men of this
ETegiment 1t has been an eventful year
sn your history. If never before, Brook
Gyn appreciates something of tho value
lssf its armories, and the importance of
the men who there drill for the defense
I5and safety Of the city. Tho blessing of
sGod be upon all of you, my comrades OF
the Thirteenth regiment And looking
i.about for a subject that might be most
ibelpful and inspiring for you, and our
sgeterans here assembled, and the citizens
gathered tonight with their good wishes,
"a have concluded to hold up before you
4 the gfesa; est-soldier of-all tino--Joshna,
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,
greayes 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. F." "Oh," you say, "any-
body could have courage with such q
backing up as that. Why, my friends,
l 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 60 out in
the service of God, and no moro than
that was offered to Joshua God fulfill
ed this promise Of my text, although
Joshua's first battle was with the spring
freshet, and the next with stone wall,
and the next leading on regiment OF
whipped towards, and the next battle
against darkness, wheeling the sun and
the moon into his battalion, and the last
against the king Of terrors, death-fve
great victories.
For the most part, when the general
of an army starts out in conflict he
would like to have small battle III
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. 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 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 cam
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 movement in the
army of Joshua. They say: whats
the matter nowf 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 lunatic.' But Joshua, the
chieftain Of the text, looks at his army
and cries, Forward, march !" and they
start for the bank Of the Jordan
Sure of the Promise.
One mile ahead go two priests, carry
ing glittering box 4 feet long and 2
feet wide. IL IS the ark Of the covenant.
And they come down, and no sooner do
they just touch the rim of the water
/