The Monitor-register., 1896-01-31


Action The Danger of False Refugees
Safe Tower.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26.-1n his sermon
for today Rev. Dr. Talmage took for MI
subject 1.-THE Power of Example The
text selected was Judges 9, As: "Ano
Abimelech took an ak in his hand ano
cut down a bough from the trees ano
took it and laid it ON his shoulder and
said unto the people that were with
him, What We have seen me DO make
haste and do as I have done. And all
the neople likewise cut down every man
his bough.
Abimelech is a name malodorous IN
Bible history and yet full OF prohtaoie
suggestion. Buoys are black and un-
eomeiy, but they tell where the rocks
are. The snakes rattle is hideous, bus
it gives timely warning From the pl-
azaa of nv summer home night by night
saw a lighthouse 10 miles away nov
pIaced there for adornment, but TO tell
mariners to stand off from that danger
ons roint. So all the iron bound coast
of moral danger is marked WIN oau,
and Herod and Reboboam and JeZeDei
and Abimelech. These bad people are
mentioned in the Bible not only as
warnings. but because there were some
times flashes of good conduct IN thelf
lives worthy of imitation. God some
.i,nss drives a yery straight nail with
very poor hammer
The eitv of Shechem had to be taken,
mo Wpra tn d0
it. see the dust rolling up from their
.rcited march. hear the shouting of
the csptains and the yell of the besieg-
srs. The swords clack sharply on the
uarrving shields, and the vociferation
of two armies in death grapple is horri-
BILE to hear. The battle goes on all day,
and as the sun is setting Abimelech and
his army cry Surrender to the beat
On foe, and. unable longer to resist, the
city of Sbechem falls, and there are
pools of blood and discovered limbs and
glazed eyes looking up beggingly for
mercy that war never shows, and dying
soldiers with their head on the lap of
mother Or wife or sister, who have come
ont for the last Offices of kindness and
affection. and n groan rolls across the
city, stopping not, because there is no
spot for it to rest. so full is the place of
other groans. A city wounded A city
dying! A city dead Wall for Shechem,
all We who know the horrors of a sacked
town.
A Strange Army.
As look over the city find only one
building standing, and that is the tenn
pie Of the god Berth. Some soldiers
outside, Of the acity III tower, finding
that they can no longer defend Shechem,
now begin TO look out for their own
personal safety, and they fly to this
temple of Berth. They go within the
door, shut it, aud they say: Now we
are safe. Al,imelech has taken the whole
city. but he cannot take this temple of
Berth. Here we shall be under the pro-
lection Of the gods" o Berth, the
god. do your best now for these refugees.
II you have eyes, pity them. If you
have hands, help them. If you have
thunderbolts, strike for them. But how
shall Abimelech and his army take this
temple of Berth and the men who are
there fortified. viii they do it with the
sword? Nay Will they do it with the
spear? Nay With the battering ram
rolled mp by hundred armed strength
crashing against the walls? Nay. Abim-
elech marches his men TO wood in
Zalmon With his ak he hews off a
limb of & tree and puts that limb upon
his shoulder, and then he says to his
men, You do the same.
They are obedient to their command
er. There is Il struggle as to who shall
b have axes. The whole wood is full of
Rentling honghs, and the cracking and
the backing. and the cutting, until ev-
cry one Of the host has limb of a tree
cut down, and not only that, but has
put it on his shoulder just as Abimelech
showed him how. Are these men all
armed with the tree branch? The reply
comes, All armed" And they march
On. Oh, what 4 strange army, with that
strange equipment! They come up to
the foot of the temple at Berth, and
Abimelech takes his limb of tree and
throws it down, and the first platoon of
soldiers come up, and they throw down
their branches. and the second platoon,
and the third. until all around about the
temple of Berth there is pile of tree
branches. The Shechemites look out
from the window of the temple upon
what seems to them childish play on the
part of their enemies But soon the
fiints are struck. and the spark begins
TO kindie the brush, and the fame comes
up all through the pile, and the red ele-
ments leap 70 the easement, and the
woodwork begins to blaze, and one arm
OF flame is thrown up on the right side
of the temple, and another arm of fame
is thrown up On the left side of the tenn
pie, until they clasp their lurid palms
under the wild night sky, end the cry OF
Fire." within and Fire." without
announces the terror, and the strangula-
tion, and the doom of the Shechemites,
and the complete overthrow of the tenn
pie of the god Berth. Then there went
mp shout, long and loud, from the
stout lungs and swarthy chests of Abim-
eleoh and his men as they stood amid
the ashes and the dust crying, "Victory,
victory p
Eufhse VA lNcblchs
Now learn first from this subject
the folly OF depending upon any one
form of tactics i'll anything we have to
do for thisworld or for God. Look over
the weaponry of olden times-javelins,
battleaxes. habergeons, and show me
single weapon with which Abimelech
and his men could have gained such
complete triumph. 1t is no easy thing
to take temple TINS armed | have
seen house where, during Revolution
ary times, man and his wife kept back
whole regiment hour after hour, be-
cause they We're inside the house and
the asssultiDg soldiers were outside the
house Yet here Abimelech and his
army come mp. they surround this tenn
pie, and thsy capture it without the loss
OF single tGan on the part of Abime-
lech, although [ suppose some of the old
lsraelitish heroes told Abimelech, "You
are only going up there to be cut to
pieces. Yet you are willing to testify
today that by no other mode-certainly
not by ordinary modes--could that tenn
pie so easily, so thoroughly, have been
taken. Fathers and mothers, brethren
and sisters in Jesus Christ, what the
church most wants TO learn this day is
that any plan is right, is lawful, is best,
which helps to overthrow the temple of
sin and capture this world for God We
are very apt to stick to the old modes Of
attack. We put on the old style coat Of
mail. We come up with the sharp, keen,
glittering steel spear of argument, ex-
pecting in that way to take the castle,