The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-03-19
THE FLAGS HOISTED.
REV. RR. TaLMAGE breaches A
VIVID, APPROPRIATE SERMON

the Right Kind Of Martial Spirit Words
Of Glowing and Picturesque Exhorta.
ton.
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 ap-
p~Topriate. The text is Psalms Xxx. 5, I'm
the name of God we will set up our BAN
ners."
/ hate war. In my boyhood we may
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. just 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 during the great strife
we had unbounded admiration, or on some
public day, lothe in our grandfather's
soldierly accouterments, we felt as brave
as Caribaldi or Miltiades. We are wise
now, for we make a vast distinction be-
tween the poetry and the prose of war.
The roll Of drums and the call of bugles
and the champing of steeds foaming and
paving for the battle, 100, go muskets
glittcring among the dancing plumes,
God Save the King" waving up from
c~Iarinets and trumpets and runs back
from deep defiles or the arches of a pros
trate city distant capitals of kingdoms
Illuminated at the tidings, generals re-
turning home under flaming arches and
ShOWering amaranthS ana the shout of
EN- pireS-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 3ttpnnt
ing to satisfy itself with a scanty and
spoiled ration; thirst licking up the dew
or drinking out of filthy and trampled
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 a hundred bullets; the closing
in of two armies, now changed to 100, 900
maniacs; the ground slippery with blood
and shattered flesh; fallen ones Writhing
under the hoofs of unbridled chargers
maddened 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 groans,
the only music of carnage and butchery:
deSOlute homes, from which fathers and
husbands and brothers and sons went off
without giving any dying message or
sending a 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 sorrows Of widow
hood and Orphanage. That is prose.
Blu there is now or the earth a king
dom which has set itself up for conflicts
without number. In it's march it tramples
no grainfields, it sacks no cities, it i'm
poverishes no treasures, it fills no hos
pitfalls, it bereaves no families. The cour-
age 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 the King of Emmanuel
'in the name of God we will set up our
banners"
THE ENSIGN.
Every army has its e~nsigns. Long be-
fore the time when David wrote the text
they were in use. The hosts Of Israel dis
PLAYED them, the tribe of Benjamin car
ried a flag with the inscription of a wolf:
cheruhim, Judah a lion wrought into the
groundwork of white. purple, crimson and
blue. Such flags from their folds shook
fire into the hearts Of such numbers as
were in the field when Abiiah fought
against Jehoram, and there were 1900 on
soldiers, and more than SOC, 900 were left
heroism to such numbers as were as,
sembIed 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 SC
tlifii ia 'bi l loi TIC !" I"'tCt - liz lI
tons they represent 1t would be in0O-
little to epumerate them. These ensigns
are streamers borne on the point of {
lance and on the top of modern shafts
They are carried in the front and rear OF
armies. Thew unroll from the main tor
gallant masthead of an admirals flagship
same squadron. They are the objects o.
national pride. The loss of them on thu
field is ignCniniOuS.
The three banners Of the Lords host:
are the banner of proclamation. the ban
nor of recruit and the banner of victory
When a nation feels it rights infringed OF
its honor insulted, when its citizens havt
in foreign chimes been oppressed and NJ
indemnity has been offered to the inhabi
tant of the u of kingdom; a procla
batteries and arSenalS and custom house:
and revenue offices flags are immediately
swung out. All who look unon then
realize the fact that uncOmprOm1sing wa
is declared. Thus it is that the church o
Jesus Christ. jealous for the honor of it
sovereign and determined to get bacl
those who have been carried off captiv,
into the bondage of satan and intent upo1
the destruction of those mighty wrong
which have so long cursed the earth ant
reign Of mercy. in the name of God set,
up its banner of proclamation.
The church makes no assault upon tn,
world. I do not believe that God eve
made a better world than this. 1t is mag
nificant in its ruins: Let us stop talking
so much against the world. God pro
bounced it very good at the beginning
Though a wandering child Of God, I Sc,
IN 1t yet the great Fathers lineaments
Though tossed and driven by the storm,
Of 5000 years, she sails bravely. yet. an,
as at her launching in the beginning tn,
morning stars sang together and all tn,
sons of God shouted for joy, SO at last
when coming into the calm harbor o
Gods mercy. she shall be greeted by tn
Nuzzas of glorifed kingdoms. 1t is no
he world against which we contend. bu
80 transeressions. Whatever is obstinat
N the will. degrading in passion. harm
Ful in custom. false in friendship. hypo
'rttiCal in profeSsion-against all thi
Nhrist makes onset. From false profes
ion he would tear the mask. From CD
Nression he would snatch the rod. Fron
ride he would rend off the plumes. Fror
'nvenge he would exercise the devil
While Christ loved the world so mucl
V died to save it. he hates sin so vel
hat to eradicate the last trace of its pol
'1tion he will utterly consume the con
'irents and the oceans. At the gate o
Eden the declaration of perpetual enmit
vas made against the ~sernent. The tn
0ult round about Mount Sinai was onl
he rOar and fash of Gods ~artiller,
'cairst sin: Sodnm on fire was only on
E Gods flaming bulletins announ