The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-06-26
/ TAL4MAGE'S SERMON.
"A Strong Discourse on the Destiny
of Nations.
Tho Reverend Doctor Directs the Mind's
Eye Of His Congregation to tho
Star NORWOOD, that EN-
bittcrs Everything.


the following discourse on "The Des
tiny of Nations" before his Washington
congregation, taking for his text:
There fell great star from Heaven, burning
as it were lamp, and 1t fell upon third part
of the rivers, and upon the fountains of wa
tiers; and the name of the star is called Worm
wood.-Revelations viii, 10, IL.
Many commentators, like Patrick
and. Lowth, Thomas Scott, Matthew
Henry and Albert Barnes, agree in
saying that the star Norwood, men
toned in Revelation, was Attla, king
of the Huns. He was SO called be-
cause he was brilliant as star, and
like NORWOOD, he embittered every
thing he touched. We have studied
the Star of Bethlehem, and the Morn
ing Star of Revelation, and the Star
of Peace, but my present subject calls
us tn gaze at the Star Norwood, and
NV theme might be called Brilliant
Bitterness.
A more extraordinary character his
tory does not furnish than this man
thus referred to, Attila, the king of
the Huns One day wounded heifer
came limping along through the fields,
and herdsman followed its bloody
track on the grass to see where the
heifer was wounded, and went on
back further and further, until he
came to sword fast in the earth, the
point downward, as though 1T had
dropped from the heavens, and against
the edges of the sword the heifer had
been cut. The herdsman pulled up
that sword and presented it to Attila.
Attila said that that sword must have
dropped from the heavens from the
grasp of the god Mars, and its being
given to him meant that Attila should
conquer and govern the whole earth.
Other mighty men have been de-
lighted at being called liberators, or
the merciful, or the good, but Attila
called himself, and demanded that 9TH
ers call him, the Scourge of God. At
the head of 700, 600 troops. mounted on
Cappadocian horses, he swept every
thing from the Adriatic to the Black
sea. He put his iron heel on Mace
,donia and Greece and Thrace. He
made Milan and Pavia and Padua and
Verona beg for mercy, which he be-
slowed not. The Byzantine castles,
to meet his ruinous levy, put up
at auction, massive silver tables
and vases of solid gold. : A city cap
tured by him, the inhabitants were
brought out and put into three classes;
she first class, those who could bear
arms, who must Immediately enlist un-
der Attila or be butchered; the second
class, the beautiful women, who were
made captives to the Huns: the third
class. the aged men and women, who
were robbed of everything and let go
back to the city to pay heavy tax.
1t was common saying that the
grass never grew again where the
hoof of Attilla's horse had trod. His
sarmies Redeemed the waters of the
Seine and the Moselle and the Rhine
with carnage, and fought on the Cata-
Ionian plains the fiercest battles since
the world stood-3OO,000 dead left on
the field! On and on, until all those
who could not oppose him with arms
lay PROSTATE on their faces in prayer,
and, cloud of dust seen in the dis
trance, a bishop cried: 'It is the aid
of Godr' and all the people took up the
cry: 1T is the aid of God!' "As the
cloud of dust was blown aside the
banners of reinforcing armies
marched in to help against Attila,
the Scoruge of God. The most
unimportant occurrences he used
as supernatural resource, and after
three months of failure to capture the
City of Aquileia, and his army had
given up the siege, the flight of stork
and her young from the tower of the
city, and his army, inspired by the
same occurrence, resumed the siege,
and took the walls at point from
which the stork had emerged. So
brilliant was the conqueror in attire
that his enemies could not look at
him, but shaded their eyes or turned
their heads.
Slain on the evening of his marriage
by his bride, Ildico, who was hired for
the assassination, his followers, be-
walled him not with tears, but with
blood, cutting themselves with knives
and Iances. He was put into three
cofiins-the first of iron the second of
silver and the third of gold. He was
Ourleu ny nIgHI, anu inIo HIS grave
were poured the most valuable coin
and most precious stones, amounting
to the wealth of kingdom. The
grave diggers and all those who as
sisted at the burial were massacred, so
that it would never be known where
so much wealth was entombed. The
Roman empire conquered the
world, but Attila conqured the Ro-
man empire. He was right in calling
himself scourge, but instead of be-
ing the scourge of God, he was the