Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1897-03-24
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
ThV Whole World is Engaged in a Ter
rife Strife
For and Against the Kingdom Of Christ
No Douct ct thc Victory of .Jchoyah..
Forces Over tho Great Army of Sin
ana Darkness


hate war. In my boyhood we may
have read the biography of Alexander
or of some revolutionary hero until
our young heart beat high aud we
wished we had been born a hundred
years ago. Just for the glory of strill-
ing down "a llessian. For rusty swords
hung up ON the rHttcrs and bullets cut
out o. log houses IN which they were
lodged during the great strife we had
unhoundcd admiration, or on some
puolic day, clothed in our grand
fathers Soldiery ACCOMPLISHMENTS, we
felt rs brave as Garabaldi or Mil.
TIA les. We are wiser now. for we
make vast distinction between the
poetry and prose of war. The roll OF
drums and the call of bugles, and the
cIamping OF stccds foaming and paw
ing Cor the battle, "A hundred thousand
musketS glittcring among the dancing
piumes: God save the king wavin 2
up from clariuncts and trumpcts and
rung back from deep defiles or the
arches of a PROSTATE city; distant CAPT
tails % Kingdoms illuminated at the
tidinCS; generals returning home under
hamiug arches aud showering anna
ranths and the shouts OF empires. that
is poetry Chilled and half-blanketed,
lying on the wet earth: feet
sore with the march and bleed
ing at the slightest touch:
hunger pulling on every fiber of flesh
or attempting to satisfy itself with a
soanty aud spoiled ration; thirst lick
ing up the dew or drinking out of
filthy anu iramplcd pool $; thoughts of
home and kindred far away while inst
. H.. r. g.
may leap on him from any one Of a
hundred uayonets, the closing in of
two armies, now changed to a hum
drei thousand mnniacs; the ground
slippery with blood and shattered
flesh; fallen ones writhing under
the hoofs of uubridlcd chargers
maddencd with pain; the drcadfulness
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 barraclS and hospital
from whose mattresses the fragments
of men send up their groans, the only
music of carnage and butchcry; desc
late homes from which fathers and
husbands and brothers and sons went
oil, without giving any dying message
Z
home, tumbled into the soldiers grave
trench, and houses in which a few
weeks before unbrollen family circles
reloiced, now plunged in the great sor-
rows of widowhood and orphanare:
that is prose.
But there is now on the earth king
dom which has set itself up for con-
hicts without number In its march
1t tramPles no grain fields, it sacks no
cities, II impoverishcs no treasures. it
bereaveS no families. The courage and
victory OF Solfcriuo and Magenta with
out courage. The kingdom OF Christ
against the kingdom OF Satan That
Is the strife now raging. We will offer
no armisticcs we will make no treaty.
Unit. all the revolving nations of the
earth shall submit again TO King
Emanuel In the name OF God we will
set up our banners"
Every army has its cusigns. Long
before the time when David wrote the
text they were in use The hosts OF
Israel displayed them The tribe of
benjamin carried a flag with the in
scription of wolf. The tribe of Dan
representation Of cherubim Judah
a lion wrought into the ground
work OF white, purple, crimson
and blue, such flags from their
folds shook ire into the hearts of
such numbers as were in the field
when Aoijah Ought against Jchoram.
and there were d.. 200. 600 soldiers and
more than 100000 were left dead on
the heid. Tiles" ensigus gave hcroism
70 sucn numbers as were Assem- OIcd
when Asa fought agains, Icrah. and