The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1895-05-02
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THIS EMINENT DIvINE's SUNDAY
SERMON.
Subject: "After the Battle"

| slaln, that they found saul and his three eor
fallen in Mount Gilboa. i Samuel xxi,
Some of you were at South Mountain c
Shiloh or Balls Bluff or Gettysburg o
| Northern or Southern side. and [ ask you
there is any sadder sight than BATTLEFIELD
| after the guns have stopped fring2 1walke
| across the field Of Antietam Just after tn
| conflict. The scene was so sickening I sha
| not describe it. Every valuable thing ha
| been taken from the bodies of the dead 70
there are always vultures lowering over an
around about an army, and they pick II
| the watches, and the memorandum books
and the letters, and the daguerreotypes, an,
| the hats, and the coats, applying them t.
| their own uses. The dead make no resis
tance. So there are always camp follower
| going on and after an army, as when Scot
| went down into Mexico, as when Napoleon
| marched up toward Moscow, as when Vol
| Moltke went to Sedan. There is SINH
| lar scene in my text.
Saul and his army had been horribly cut t.
| pieces. Mount Gilboa was CHASTITY with tn,
| dead On the morrow the stragglers cam,
| on to the field, and they lifted the latchet o
| the helmet from under the chin of the dead
they picked up the swords and bent them or
their knee to test the temper of the metal
and they opened the wallets and counted the
coin. Saul lay dead along the grouud, eight
or nine feet in length. and 1 suppose the
NONdluiy HlllotlutS, W SHOW IutlT DTdNbTy,
leaped upon the trunk of his carcass and
Jeered at the fallen slain and whstled 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 strip
the slain, that they found Saul and his three
sons fallen in Mount Gilboa"
Before l 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 remorselessly to take what little there
IS left, thus stripping the slain.
There are tens of thousands of young men
every year coming from the country to our
great cities. They come 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
sfove, 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 fine position in a
dry goods store. The month is over. He
gets his wages. He is not accustomed to
have so much money belonging to himself.
He is a little excited 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 barrooms and the saloons of
the city. Soon that young maa 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
harp1es OF sin snuff up the faint and come
on the field. His garments gradually give
out. He has pawned his watch. His health
Is falling 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 moral and spiritual life?
Oh, no. will tell you why they stay. They
are Philistines stripping the slain.
Do not look where l point, but yonder
stands man who once had beautiful home
in this city. His house had elegant furni-
ture, his children were beautifully clad, his
name was synonymous with honor and use
fulness, but evil habit knocked at his front
door, Knocked at his back door, knocked at
his parlor door, knocked at his bedroom
door. Where il the piano? Sold to pay the
rent. Where is the hatrack? Sold to meet
the butchers bill Where are the carpets?
Soldto get bread. Where is the wardrobe?
poiu w Stl rum. NHtTc dTt tnt uuuVQCerS(
Working their fingers off in trying to keep
the family together. Worse and worse until
everything is gone. Who is that going up the
front steps of that house? That is q creditor
hoping to find some chair or bed that has not
been levied upon. Who are those two gen.
tlemen now going up the front steps2 The
one is a constable; the other is the sheriff
Why do they go there? The unfortunate is
morally dead, socially dead, financially dead
Why do thew fhprpo T will FOL 1.,b,,
the creditors and the constables and the
sheriffs go there. They are, some on their
own account and some on account of the law,
stripping the slain.
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. l am diving
dying on a borrowed bed, covered by Dor
rowed sheet, in a house built by public
charity. Bury me under that tree in the mid
die OF the field, where shall not be crowded,
Tor have been crowded all my life" Where
were the jolly politicians and the dissipating
comrades who had been with him. laughing
at his jokes, applauding his eloquence and
plunging him into sin? They have left Whyf
His money is gone. his reputation is gone,
his wit Is gone, his clothes are gone-every-
thing is gone. Why should they stay any
longer? They have completed their work
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 tc
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 tel
how swearing John Bunyan, through the
| grace of God, afterward came to the Celestial
City. Now is the time to go to that man and
tell him how profigate Newton came
| through conversion, to be world renowned
| preacher OF righteousness. Now is the tim,
to tell that man that multitudes who have beer
pounded with all the fails of sin and dragged
through all the sewers of pollution at las
have risen to positive dominion of mora
| powers.
You do not tell him that, do you? No
You say to him, LOAN you money? No
You are down. You will have to go to tn,
dogs. Lend you dollar? l would not lenC
you five cents to keep you from the gallows
Yod are debauched. Get out of my sight
now! Down! You will have to stay down.
And thus those bruised and battered men ar
sometimes accosted by those who ought t.
lift them up. Thus the last vestige of hop,
is taken from them. Thus those who ough
to go and lift and save them are guilty o
| stripping the slain.