The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-06-19
EMBITTERED FOUNTAINS
Dr.. Talmage Disoourses on the
Destiny of Nations
He Tells Of Peoples and Nations Visited
by the Heavy Hand OF Almighty
Dispieasure for sius Un-
repented.

In late sermon at Washington Rev.
T. De Witt Talmage took his text from
Revelations viii:lO-1l: There fell a
great star from heaven, burning as 1t
were a lamp. and it fell upon the third
part of the rivers, and upon the foun-
tains of water; and the name of the
star is called NORWOOD" The noted
preacher said:
Many commentators like Patrick and
Lowth, Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry
and Albert Barnes agree in saying that
the star Worm wood, mentioned in Rev
Citations, was Attila, king of the Huns
He was 30 called because he was brill
liant as star and, like wormwood, he
smbittered everything he touched.
We have studied the star of Bethle-
hem, and the morning star of the Rev
Citations, and the star of peace, but my
present subject calls US to gaze at the
star NORWOOD, and my theme might
be called Brilliant Bitterness
A more extraordinary character his
tory does not furnish than this man
thus referred to, Attila, the king of
came limping along through the fields,
and herdsman followed its bloody
track on the grass to see where the
heifer was wounded, and went on back
further and further, until he came to
a sword fast IL the earth, the point
downward, as though it had dropped
from the heavens, and against the
edges of this sword the heifer had been
cut The herdsman pulled up that
sword and presented it to Attila
, Attila said that sword must have
. dropped from the heavens from the
grasp of the god Mars, and it's being
given to him meant that Attila should
conquer and govern thewhole earth.
Other mighty men have been de-
lighted at being called liberators, or
: the merciful, or the good, but Attila
/ called. himself, and demanded that
: others call him, the scourge
: of God. At the head of 200, 600 troops,
: mounted on Cappadocian horses, he
swept everything from the Adriatic to
1 the Black sea. He put his iron heel on
Macedonia and Greece and Thrace. He
5 made Milan and Pavia and PaGua and
Verona beg for mercy, which he be-
: slowed not The Byzantine castles, to
meet his ruinous levy. put up at auc-
ton massive silver tables and vases of
solid gold A city captured by him,
' the inha bitants were brought out and
l put into three classes; the first class
those who could bear arms, who must
t Immediately enlist under Attila, or be
= butchered; the second class, the beauti-
full women, who were made captives to
the Huns; the third class, the aged
men and women, who were robbed OF
' everything and let go back to the city
to pay heavy tax.
1t was a common saying that the
grass never grew again where the hooi
of Attila's horse had trod. His armies
: redeemed the waters of the Seine and
the Moselle and the Rhine with car
mage, and fought on the Catalonian
plains the fiercest battle since the
world stood-3C0. 600 dead left on the
field1 On and on, until all those who
could not oppose him with arms lay
PROSTATE on their faces in prayer, and,
cloud of dust seen in the distance,
bishop cried: 1T is the aid of God!'
and all the people took up the cry, AT
is the aid of God" As the cloud OF
dust was blown aside the banners OF
; reinforcing armies marched in to help
; against Attila, The scourge OF God.
The most unimportant occurrences he
use as a supernatural resource, and
after three months of failure to cap
ture the city of Aquileia, and his army
had given up the siege, the fight OF
: stork and her young from the tower OF
the city was taken by him as sign
that he was to capture the city, and
his army. inspired by the same occur
renee. resumed the siege and took the
walls at q point from which the stork
had emerged. So brilliant was the
conoueror Ia attire that his enemies
could not look at him, but shaded their
ewes or turned their heads
Slain on the evening of his marriage
nv his bride. Ildico, who was hired for
the assassination. his followers be-
walled him not with tears. but with
blood, cutting themselves with knives
and lsnces He was put into three
cofins-the 6rst of iron, the second of
silver and the third of gold. He was
buried by night, and into his grave
were poured the most valuable coin
and precious stones, amounting to the
wealth of kingdom. The grave dig
gers and all those who assisted at the
burial were massscred, so that it would
never be known where SO much wealth
was entombed. The Roman empire
conquered the world, but Attila con-
quered the Roman empire. He was
right in calling himself a scourSe, but
instead of being the scourRe of God,
he was the scourge of hell. Because
of his brillianee and bitterness the
commentators were right in believing
him to be the star Norwood. AS the
regions he devastated were parts most
opulent with fountains and streams
and rivers. you see how graphic is this
reference in Revelation: There fell q
great star from heaven, burning as IL
were a lamp. and it fell upon the third
part of the rivers and upon the foun-