The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-02-21
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE NOTED DIvIERs SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.
subjects "The Power Of Ezampls.''

What ye have seen me do make haaie and
DO as have done Aud az the pe0nle like
wise cut down every man his bough. -
Judges tx. As.
Ablmelech "a namo maiodorous IN Blblo
history and yet full Of profitable suggestion.
buoys are black and uueomely, but they tell
where the rocks are. The snakes rattle 81
hideouH, bat u gives Timely warning. From
the pinz1n 81 my summer home night hv
night saw q lighthouse fifteen miles away.
not placed there for ndomment. but 10 tell
mariner TO stand on from thai dangerous
point 30 all the ir0n-b0und coast OF moral
danger "a marked with Saul and Herod and
kehoboum and Jezobel and Ammeleeh.
These bad people are mentioned IN the Bible
not only as warnings, but because there were
sometimes flashes Of good conduct In their
lives worthy OF imitation. God sometimes
drives a very straight nail with a very poor
hammer.
The city Of schochem had 10 be taken, and
Ablmeiech and his men we're 20 do A. 500
the dust rolling up from their excited march.
/ hear the shouting Of the captains and tho
yell OF the besieger. The swords ciack
sharply on the parrying shields, and the vo-
oiter0tlOn OF two armies IN death grappla Is
horrible 20 hear The battle goes on all day.
and rs thesun Il setting Ablmelech and his
army cry Surrender" 10 the beaten foe.
aud, unable longer 10 resist, the city OF
shechem falls, and there are pools Of blood
and discovered limbs and glaz8d eyes look
ing up begglngly for mercy that war never
shows, and dying soldiers with their mead on
the lap Of mother or wife or sister, who have
come ont for the last offices OF kindness and
affection, and groan rolls across the city,
stopping not. because there Is no spot for It
/ 90 rest, so full Is the place OF other groans.
A city wounded A city dyingl A city deadl
Wall for shechem, all ye who know the hor-
rors Of a sacked town.
As / look over the city find only one
! building standing, ana that Is the temple Of
| the god Berth. Some soldiers outside Of
| the city In a 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 20 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 protec-
/ ton Of the gods" o Berth, the god, 40
/ your best now for these refugees. II you
/ have eyes. pity them. II you have hands,
help them. If you have thunderbots strike
| for them. But how shall Abimelech and his
army take this temple Of Berth and the men
! who are there fortifed2 Will they do Il with
the sword2 Nay. viii they do It with the
| spear2 Nay. With the battering ram rolled
/ up by hundred armed strength crashing
/ against the walls? Nay. Abimelech marches
his men to a wood In Zalmon. With his AK
he hews of limb Of a tree and puts that
limb upon his shoulder, and then he says to
his men. "You do the same"
They are obedient to their commander.
! 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 every one OF the host has a
limb OF a tree cut down, and not only that,
but has put it on his shoulder just as abb
| melech showed him how. Are these men all
armed with tho tree branch? The reply
comes, "All armed" And they march on.
Oh, what a 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 1t 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 a
pile Of tree branches. The Shechemites look
out from the window Of the temple upon
what seems to them childish play on the
parts Of their enemies. But soon the flints are
struck, aud the spark begins to kindle the
brush, and the fame comes up all through
the pile. and the red elements 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 OIL
flame is thrown up on the left side of the
temple, until they clasp their lurid palms
under the wild night sky, and the cry Of
"Fire" within and Fire" without announces
the terror, and the strangulation, and the
doom of the Sheehemites, and the complete
overthrow of the temple OF the god Berth
Then there went up shout, long and loud
from the stout lungs and sWarthy chests o
Abimelech and his men as they stood amid
the ashes and the dust crying, "Victory
victoryg'
Now I learn first from this subject the foil,
OF depending upon any one form of tactic
In anything we have to do for this world o
for God. Look over the weaponry of Older
times-iayehns, battleaXes, habergeons, ant
show me q single weapon with which Abime
lech and his men could have gained suc
complete triumph. tits no easy thing to tax
q temple thus armed, have seen a hous
where, during Revolutionary times, a mai
and his wife kept back a whole regimen
hour after hour, because they were insid
the house and the assaultng soldiers wer
outside the house Yet here Abimelech an
his army come up, they surround this ten
pie, and they capture it without the loss of
single man on the part Of Abimelech. althoug
suppose some of the old Israelitish herot
told Abimelech, "You are only going u
there to be cut to pieces" Yet you are will
ing to testify to-day that by no other mode
certainly not by ordinary modes could this
temple so easily, so thoroughly have bee
taken. Fathers ana mothers, brethren an
sisters in Jesus Christ, what the church mo
J wants to learn this day is that any plan
right, is lawful, is best, which hell
to overthrow the temple of sin an
} capture this world for God. v
are very apt to stick to the old modes Of a
} tack. We put on the old style coat of mai
We come up with the sharp, keen, glitterir
steel spear Of argument, expecting in tn
I way to take the castle, but they have
a thousand spears where we have ten. And
the castle OF sin stands. Oh, my friend
: we will never capture this world for GOD
!. any keen saber Of sarcasm, by any glitteril
lances of rhetoric, by any sapping and mi
q ing OF profound disquisition, by any GU
= powdery explosions Of indignation,
! sharpshootings Of wit, by howitzers
o mental strength made to swing shell Fl
miles, by cavalry horses gorgeously capar
8 soned paving the air. In vain all the Z
o tempts on the part of these ecclesiastic
foot soldiers, light horsemen and grenadiel
Z NV frinudq 7 uronOga n different gfvie