Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-02-04

ing. From the piazza of my sum-
mer home, night by night, 1 saw
a lighthouse fifteen miles away,
not placed there for adornment,
but to tell mariners to stand off from
that dangerous point. So all the IRON
boupd 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 sometimes flashes of good conduct
in their lives worthy of imitation. God
sometimes 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 up from their
excited march. l hear the shouting of
the captains and the yell of the beseig-
ers. The swords clack sharply on the
parrying shields, and the vociferation
of two armies in death grapple is hor-
rible to hear. The battle goes on all
day; and as the sun is setting Abime-
lech 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 beg
gingly 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, be-
cause 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 sacked town.
AS look over the city, can find only
one building standing, and that is the
temple of the god Berth Some SOL
diers 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 Berth. They go with
in the door, shut it, and they say: Nov
we are safe. Abimelech has taken the
whole city, but he cannot take this tenn
pie of Berth. Here we shall be under
the protection of the gods" o Berth,
the god! do your best now for these ref
ugees. If 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 here fortified? Will they do
it with sword? Nay. Will they do it
with spear? Nay. With battering-
ram, rolled up by hundred-armed
strength crashing against the walls?
Nay. Abimelech marches his men to
a wood in Zalmon. With his axe he
news 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 commander.
There is a struggle as to who shall have
axes. The whole wood is full Of bend
ing boughs, and the cracking and the
hacking, and the cutting, until every
one of the host has the limb of tree
gut 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 re-
ply 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
Berth, 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 Berth there
is a pile of tree branches. The Shech-
emites look out from the window OF the
temple upon what seems to them child
tsh play on the part Of their enemies.
But soon the flints are struck, and the
lparks begin to kindle the brush, and
Nhe flame comes up all through the pile.
and the red elements leap to the case
nent, and the woodwork begins to
blaze, and one arm of flame is thrown
I'D on the right side of the temple, and
another arm Of fame Is thrown up on
ihe left side Of the temple, until they
clasp their lurid palms under the wild
night sky and the cry of Fire" with
In. and "Firew 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
shout, long and loud, from the stout
lungs and swarthy chests of Abimelech
and his men, as they stood amid the
ashes and the dust crying: Victory!
victory"
Now learn first from this subject.
the folly OF depending upon any one
form Of tactics in anything we have to
90 for this weird or for God. Look
over the weaponry of olden times-jave-
Inns, battle-axes, habergeons, and show
me a single weapon with which Abim-
elech and his men could have gained
such complete triumph. 1t Is no easy
thing to take a temple thus armed. /
have seen house where, during revo-
luJionary times, man and his wife
kept back a whole regiment hour after
hour, because they were inside the
house. and the assaulting soldiers were |
outside the house. Yet here Abimelech |
and his army come up, they surround |