The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-16
THE ALLEvIATIoNS OF WAR.
TALMAGE TRIES TO CHEER PEO-
PIE SADDENED By WAR.

North md south One of the AlIevi-
sttons Found by the Preacher.
Washington, May 15.-Most pertinent to
s~.y exciting times through which We are
now passing is this sermon of DR., Tai
mage. in which he purposes to cheer the
people who are saddened by the horrors
of war. Text: Psalms 27:S: Though
war should rise against me, in this will 1
be confident"
The ring of battle-axes and the clash Of
shields. and the tramp of armies. are
heard all up and down the Old Testament;
and YOU find godly soldiers like Moses,
and Joshua, and Caleb, and Gideon, and
scounderly soldiers like sennacherib. and
shaImaneser, and Nebuchadnezzar. The
High Priest would stand at the head OF
the army and say: Hear o Israel, We
approach this day unto battle against your
enemies. let not your hearts faint, fear
not and do not tremble, neither be We
terrified because of them" and then the
officers would give command 10 the troops
saying: what man is there that hath
built new house and hath not dedicated
1t? Let him go and return to his house,
lest he die in The battle and another man
dedicate il. And what man is he that hath
planted a vineyard and hath not
eaten of it? let him also go and return
unto his house, lest he die in the battle
and another man eat of ii. And what man
is there that hath betrothed wife and
hath not taken her? let him go and return
unto his house lest ne die in the battle
and another man take her" Great armies
marched and fought. In time of Moses
and Joshua all the men were soldiers.
When Israel came out of Egypt they were
10000 fighting men. Abjah commanded
100000. Jeroboam commanded 100000 men,
of whom $4,000 were slain in one battle.
Some of these wars God approved, for
they were for the rescue of oppressed ma
lions, and some of them he denounced,
but in all cases it was a judgment upon
both victors and vanquished. David knew
Just what war was when he wrote in the
text: Though war should rise against
me, in this will be confident"
David rs encouraging himself In stormy
times, and before approaching battles adj
ministers TO himself the consolatory. So
to-day my theme is the "Alleviations of
War" War is organized atrocity. 1t is
the science of assassination. 1t is the con-
vocation of all horrors. It is butchery
wholesale. 1t is murder glorified. 1t is
death on a throne of human skeletons. It
is the coffin in ascendency. 1t is diabol-
ism at a game of skulls. But war is here,
and it is time now to preach on its allevi-
ations.
First, / find an alienation In the fact
that II has consolidated the North and the
South after long continued strained rela-
lions. 1t is thirty-three years since our
civil war closed, and the violences are
al gone and the seventies have been
hushed. But ever and anon, in grafton. in
sermon, in newspaper editorial in maya
zine article, on political stump. and in
congressional hail, the old sectional diff
ference has lifted its head: and for the
first time within my memory, or the mem
ory Of any one who hears or reads these
words the North and the South are one.
BY a marvellous providence. the family
that led in opposition to our government
thirty years ago, is represented at the
front In this present war. Nothing else
could have done the work of unification
SO suddenly or so completely as this con-
fiict At Tampa. at Chattanooga, at
Richmond, and in many other places the
regiments are forming, and il win be side
by side, Massachusetts and Alabama
New York and Georgia, Illinois and
Louisiana, Maine and South Carolina
Northern and Southern men will together
unlimber the guns and rush upon the for
tification and charge upon the enemy and
shout the triumph. The voices of mill
tary officers who were under Sidney john
nd Will civ >
mand on the same side. The old sec
tonal grudges forever dead. The name
of Grant on the Northern side and of Lee
on the Southern side will be exchanged
for the names of Grant and Lee on the
same side. The veterans in Northern and
Southern homes and asylums are stretch
ing their rheumatic limbs TO see whether
they can again keep step in a march, and
are testing their eyesight to find whether
they can again look along the gun barrel to
successfully take aim and fire. The old war
cry of "On 10 Richmond" and "On to
Washington has become the war cry of
''Ou to Havana ION to Porto Ricor'
"On to the Philippine Isiandsr The
two old rusty swords that in other days
FLASHED at Murfreesboro and South
Mountain and Atlanta are now lifted to
strike down Hispanic denominations.
Another alienation of the war Is the
the ages. While the commercial rights
of our wronged citizens will be INDICATED
that Is not the chief idea Of this war. II
is the rescue of hundreds of thousands OF
people from starvation and multiform NAL.
treatment. A friend who went out under
the flag of the Red Cross two years age
10 assuage suffering In Armenia and whC
has been on the same mission, under the
same flag, in Cuba, says that the suffer
ings in Armenia were a comedy and fare,
compared with the greater sufferings o.
Cuba At least two hundred thousand
graves are calling to us to come on and re
member by what process their occupants
died. II is the twentieth century cryins
out 10 the nineteenth: DO you mean I,
pass down TO us the curse with which you
have been blasted? Or will you let M
begin under new auspices and turn tn
island Of desolation into an island Edenic p
1t is a war inspired by mercy, which Il
an attribute in man initiative of the sam
attribute of God. In no other age of tn
world could such a war have been waged
The gospel of Kindness needed to be re
cognized throughout Christendom ii
order TO make such a war possible. Til
chief reason why most OF the European
nations are not now banded togethe
against ~ is because they dare not tax
the pait OF that behemoth of cruelty, th