The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-02-05
HOW TO TAKE A CITY.
ASlMELECH WAS A RASCAL, SUI He
KNEW HOW TO FIGHT.

KNEW HOW TO Fight.
Rev. DIR. TaluaSe Shows How God Some
times Drives :. Straight Nail with a Poor
Hammer--The iseseiSed City Of Sl'"chei"
and Its Lesson.
WASHINGTON. Jan. 26.-In his ser
mon for today Rev. Dr.. Talmage took
for his subject The Power Of Exam
ple.' The text selected was juSgeslN,
Is: And Abimelech took an akin his
hand and cut down bough from the
trees and and took itand laid i. 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 do wn
every man his bough.
Abimelech is a name 'maladorous IN
Bible history yet full Of profitable
suggestion. BuoyS are black and I'M
com,ly, but they tell where the rocks
are. The snakes rattle is hideous, but
it gives timely warning From the
piazza Of my summer nome, night by
night, I saw lighthouse Is miles
away, not placed there for aaornment,
but to tell mariners to stand OIL rom
that dangerous point. SO all the iron,
bound coast of moral danger Is marked
with Saul and Herod and Rehoooam
and Jezebel and Ablmelech: IheSe
bad people are mentioned IN the biote
not only as warnings, but because
there were sometimes flashes Of good
conduct in their lives worthy OF lml-
tation. God sometimes drives a very
straight nail with very poor nam
mer.
The city of Shechem had to be tax
en- and Abimelech and his men were
to do it. I see the dust rolling up
from their excited march. | hear the
shouting OF the captains and the yell
of the besiegers. The swords clacS
sharply on the parrying shields. and
the vociferation of two armies N death
erapple is horrible to hear. The bat
tie goes on all day, and as the sun is
setting Abimelech and his army CRY,
Surrender" to the beaten 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 sol:
6iers, with their head on the lap OF
mother or wife or sister, who have
come out for the last offices Of kind
ness and affection, and a groan rolls
across the city, stopping not, because
there is no spot for it to rest, so ful! IS
the place Of other !groans. a city
wounded. A city dying. a city
dead! Wall for Shechem, all ye who
know the horrors of sacked town.
AsI look over the city I can find
only one building standing and that is
the temple of the god Berth. Some
soldiers outside of the city in tower,
finding that they can no longer de,
fend Shechem, now begin to look out
for their own personal safety, and
they fv to this temple of Berth. They
60 within the door, shut it, and they
say, "Now we are safe. Ablmelech
has taken the whole city, but he can
not take this temple of Berth. Here
we shall be under the protection OF
the gods" O Berth, the god, do your
best now for these refugees. Ifyou
have eyes, pity them; if you have
hands, help them, if you have thUn-
derbolts, 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 sword? Nay, Will they do il
with spear2 Nay! With battering
ram, rolled up by hundred armed
strength, crashing against the walls:
Nay! Abimelech marches his men to
wood in Zalmon. With his ak he
hews off limb of tree and puts that
limb upon his own shoulder, and then
he says to. his men, ''You do the
same"
They are obedient to their command
er. There is struggle as to who shall
have axes. The whole wood is full OF
bending boughs, and the cracking,
and the hacking, and the cutting, un-
til every 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
branch2 The reply comes, AL
armed" And they march on. Oh,
what strange army, with
that strange equipment. They
come up to the foot of the tenn
pie at Berth, and Abimelech takes
his limb of a 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 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 aints are struck, and the spark be-
gins to kindle the brush, and the
flame comes up all through the pile,
and the red elements leap to the case
ment, 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 temple, until they
clasp their lurid palms under the wild
night sky, and the cry of Fire " with
in and Fire" without announces the
terror, and the strangulation, and the
doom of the Shechemites, and the COM
plete overthrow of the temple OF the
god Berth. Then there went up a
shout, long and loud, from the stout
lungs and swarthy chests of Abime-
lech and his men as they stood amid
the ashes and dust crying, Victory,
victory"
Now I 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 the weaponry of olden times
javelins, battleaxes, habergeons-and
show me a single weapon with which
Abimelech and his men could have gain