The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-03-19
CHRIST THE CAPTAIN
REV. DR.. TALMAGE breaches A SER
MON OF MARTIAL ELOQUENCE.

The Saviour Is the Leader, the Cross the
Standard, and All May Serv" In the
Great Army Fighting For IA Glorious
Cause.
WASHINGTON, March 14.-At this
time. when our national capital has
for ten days been ablaze with our ma.
tional flag, the imagery of this sermon
of DR.. Talmage seems very vivid and
appropriate The text is Psalms Xxx, 5,
Sin the name of God we will set up our
banners.
l hate war. In my boyhood we may
have read the biography of Alexander
or of some Revolutionary hero until our
young heart beat high and we wished
we had been born over 100 years ago
lust for the glory of striking down a
Hessian. For rusty swords hung up on
the rafters and bullets cut out of log
houses in which they were lodged dur
ing the great strife we had unbounded
admiration, or on some public day,
clothed in our grandfather's soldierly
accouterments, we felt as brave as Gar
ibaldi or Miltiades. We are wiser now,
for we make vast distinction between
the poetry and the prose OF war, The
roll of drums and the call of bugles,
and the champing of stceds foaming
and paving for the battle, a hundred
thousand musSets glittering among the
dancing plumes, "God Save the King"
waving up from clarinets and trum-
pets and rung back from deep de-
files or the arches of PROSTATE city,
distant capitals Of Kingdoms illuminated
at the tidings, generals returning home
under flaming arches and shOwering
amaranths and the shout of empires
that is poetry.
Chilled and half blanketed, lying on
the wet earth, feet sore with the march
and bleeding at the slightest touch,
hunger pulling on every fiber of flesh or
attempting to satisfy itself with scanty
and spoiled ration, thirst licking up the
dew or drinking out Of filthy and tram
pied pool, thoughts of home and kindred
far away while just on the eve Of a
deadly strife where death may leap on
him from any one of hundred bayo-
nets, the closing in of two armies now
changed to Il hundred thousand maniacs,
the ground slippery with blood and shat
tered flesh, fallen ones writhing under
the hoofs of unb1idled chargers madden
ed with pain, the dreadfulness of night
that comes down when the strife is
over, the struggle of the wounded ones
crawling out over the corpses the long,
feverish agony Of the crowded barrack
and hospital, from whose mattresses the
fragments of men send up their gIOans
the only music of carnage and butchery,
desolate homes from which fathers and
husbands and brothers and sons went
off, without giving any dying message
or sending kiss to the dear ones at
home, tumbled into the soldiers grave
trench, and houses in which a few
weeks before unbroken family circles
rejoiced now plunged in the great sor-
rows of widOwhood and orplranage-
that is prose.
No Quarter Will Be Given.
But there is now on the earth king
dom which his set itself up for conflicts
without number. In it's march it tram
pies no grainfields; it sacks no cities; it
impoverishes no treasures; it fills no
hospitals; it bcreaves no families. The
courage and victory of Solferino and
Magenta without carnage-the kingdom
of Christ against the kingdom of satan
that is the strife now raging We will
offer no armistices We will make no
treaty. Until all the revolted nations
of the earth shall submit again to King
Emmanuel ''in the name of God we will
set up our banners.
Every army has its ensigns. Long be-
fore the time when David wrote the text
they were in use. The hosts of Israel
displayed them. The tribe of Benjamin
carried flag with the inscription of
wolf, the tribe of Dan representation
of cherubim, Judah lion wrought into
the groundwork of white, purple, Grim
son and blue. Such flags from their
folds shook fire into the hearts of such
numbers as were in the field when Abb
jah fought against Jehoram, and there
were / 200, 600 soldiers, and more than
5O0,O were left dead on the field.
These ensigns gave heroism to such
numbers as were assembled when Asa
fought against Zerah, and there were
1850, 900 troops in the battle. The
Athenians carried an inscription of the
owl, which was their emblem of wis
DOM The flags of modern nations are
familiar to you all, and many of them
so inappropriate for the character of the
nations they represent it would be i'm
polite to enumerate them. These en-
signs are stroamers borne on the point
of a lance and ON the top of wooden
shafts. They are carried in the front
and rear of armies. They unroll from
the main topgallant masthead of an ad-
mirals flagship to distinguish it among
other ships Of the same squadron. They
are the objects Of national pride. The
loss of them on the field is ignOminious.
The three banners of the Lords hosts
are the banner of proclamation, the ban
ner of recruit and the banner of victory.
When a nation feels its rights infringed
or its honor insulted, when its citizens
have in foreign chimes been oppressed
and no indemnity has been offered to
the inhabitant of the republic or king