Connecticut western news., 1896-01-30
POWER OF EXAMPLE.
REV. pR. TALMAGE ON THE LESSON
 or ABiMElECA.

of Tactics--The Advantage of Concerted
 Action-The Danger of False Refuges-A
 Safe Tower.
 WASHINGTON, Jan. 26.-In his sermon for today Rev. Dr. Talmage took for his subject "The Power of Example. /" The text selected was Judges 9, AS: "And Abimelech took an ax in his hand and cut down bough from the trees and took it and laid it on his shoulder and said unto the people that were with him, What ye have seen me do make haste and do as have done And all the people likewise cut down every man his bongh.
 Abimelech is 8 name malodorous in Bible history and yet full of profitable suggestion. Buoys are black and un- comedy, but they tell where the rocks are. The snakes rattle is hideous, but 1t gives timely warning. From the pi- aga of my summer home night by night l saw lighthouse 5 miles away, not placed there for adornment, but to tell mariners to stand off from that danger ous Eoint Ss all the iron bound coast of moral danger is marked with Saul and Herod and Reboboam and Jezebel 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 their lives worthy of limitation. God some- times drives very straight nail with very poor hammer.
 The city of Shechem had to be taken, and Abimelech and his men were to do it. see the dust rolling mp from their excited march. I hear the shouting of the captains and the yell of the besieg- CTS. The swords clack sharply on the parrying shields, and the vociferation of twoermies in death grapple is hcsri- ble to hear The battle goes on all day, and as the sun is setting Abimelech and his army cry Surrender to the beat en foe, and, unable longer to resist, the city of Shechem~ 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 out for the last offices of kindness and affection. and 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 deadi Vail for Shechem, all ye who know the horrors of a sacked town.
 Strange Army.
 As look over the city I find only one building standing, and that is the tenn pie of the god Berith. Some soldiers outside of the city in 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 Berith. They go within the door. shut it, and they say: "Now we are safe. Abimelech has taken the whole city, but he cannot take this temple of Berth. Here we shall be under the pro- tection of the gods. '' o Berith, the god, do your best now fol these refugees If you have eyes, pity them. If you have hands, help them. If you have fhunderbolts, strike for them. But how shall Abimelech and his army take this temple of Berth and the men who are there fortified? Will they do it with the sword? Nay. Will they do it with the spear? Nay. With the battering ram rolled up by hundred armed strength crashing against the walls? Nay. Abim- elech marches his men to a wood in Zalmon. With his ax he hews off 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 CT. There is a struggle as to who shall have axes. The whole wood is full of bending boughs, and the cracking and the hacking, and the cutting, until ev cry one of the host has limb of a tree cut down, and not only that, but has put 1t on his shoulder just as Abimelech showed him how. Are these men all armed with the tree branchP The reply comes, "All armed" And they march on. Oh, what strange army, with that strange equipment! They come up to the foot of the temple at Berith, and Abimelech takes his limb of a 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 Berith there is a pile of tree branches. The Shechemites look out from the window of the temple npob what seems to them childish play on the part of their enemies But soon the fints are struck, and the spark begins to kindle the brush, and the flame comes up all through the pile, and the red ele- ments leap to 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 flame is thrown up on the left side of the tenn pie, nntil they clasp their lurid palms under the wild night sky, and the cry of .'Firer' within and "Fire'' without |. announces the terror, and the strangula- tion, and the doom of the Shecbemites, and the complete overthrow of the tenn pie of the god Berith. Then there went mp shout, long and loud, from the stout lungs and swarthy chests of Abim- elech and his men as they stood amid the ashes and the dust crying, Victory, pictory!" .-....
 Forms of Tactics.
 Now l learn first from this subject the folly of depending upon any one form of tactics in anything we have to do for this world or for God. Look over ahe weapoHry of olden times-jayelins, battleaxes, habergeons. and show me a single weapon with which Abimelech .and his men could have gained such complete triumph. It is no easy thing to take a, temple thus armed. have seen a house where, during Revolution ary times, man and his wife kept back a whole regiment hour after hour, be- cause they were inside the house and the assaulting soldiers ere outside the house. Yet here Abimelech and his army come up, they surround this tenn pie, and they capture it without the loss of single man on the part of Abime- lech, although suppose some of the old Israelitish heroes told Abimelech, "You are only going mp there to be cut to pieces" Yet you are willing to testify