Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1896-01-31
POWER OF EXAMPLE.
REV. DR.. TALMAeE ON THE LESSON
OF ABlMELEcH.


The Folly OF Depending Upon One Form
Of Tactics-The Advantage of Concerted
Action-The Danger Of False Refugcs-A
Safe Tower.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26.-In his sermon
for today Rev. DIR. Talmage took for hie
subject "The Power Of Example. " The
text selected was Judges 0, 4S: "And
Abimelech took an AK in his hand 9Dd
cut down a 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 l have done. And all
the people likewise cut down every man
his bough.
Abimelech is o name malodorOus in
Bible history and yet full Of profitable
suggestion. Buoys are black and IN
comely, but they tell where the rocks
are. The snakes rattle is hideous, but
it gives timely warning. From the pi-
azza of my summer home night by night
l saw lighthouse 10 miles away, not
placed there for adornmeut, but to tell
mariners TO stand off from that danger
ous roint. So all the iron bound coast
Of moral danger is marked with Saul
and Herod and Rehoboam 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 imitation. God some
times drives a very straight nail with a
very poor hammer.
The city Of Shechem had to be taken,
and Abimelech and his men were to do
it. l see the dust rolling up from their
excited march. hear the shouting Of
the captains and the yell of the besieg-
ers. The swords clack sharply on the
parrying 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 RI" 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 a 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 ye who know the horrors Of sacked
town.
A Strange Army.
ASH look over the city find only one
building standing, and that is the tenn
pie 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 60 within the
door, shut it, aud 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-
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? 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 ak he hews of a
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 command
er. 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 ey-
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 q strange army, with that
strange equipment They come up to
the foot Of the temple at Berth, and
Abimolech takes his limb Of a tree and
throws it Gown, 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
flints 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 fame 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, until 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-
ton, and the doom Of the Shechemites,
and the complete overthrow of the tenn
pie Of the god Berth. Then there went
up 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,
victory ~
Forms Of Tactics.
Now 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-jayelins,
battleaxes, habergeons, and show me a
single weapon with which Abimelech
and his men could have gained such
complete triumph. 1t is no easy thing
to take a temple thus armed. l have
seen house where, during Revolution
airy times, man and his wife kept back
a whole regiment hour after hour, be-
cause they were inside the house and
! a.. - i.;.,., eoldiors warn Outsido the