Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1898-05-06
CONSECRATED SWORDS.
TO cRlNcE AND CROUCH TO WRONG
IS WORSE THAN DEATH

Louis Nvrs Infamous Plan EstopPed-
American Colonies and EngIand-Ths
Sword Doomed. Has Developed Grand
est Natures DIR. TalmaEe's Sermon.
TEIr; ny sword shall be bathei In
heaven Isaiah, xxxiv.. 3.
1t has come at last-the war that we
nave PRAYED Almighty God might be
ayerted. The pow OF the battle-ships are
eating the seas. and troops from all the
States Of the American Union are on the
way to the front. Ali the arts Of diplomacy
have failed, and mOmentous questions ART
to be decided In attic ON sea and land.
Three results viii be demonstrated-the in-
dependence of Cuba, tn -ebuke OF Spanish
cruelty, and the triumph OF the United
States army and navy.
Three hundred and flfty-one times does
the Bible speak Of that sharp, keen, curved,
memorable weapon, which flashes upon Us
from the textile sword Sometimes the
mention Is applaudatory, and sometimes
damnatory, sometimes as drawn. some
times as sheathed. In the Bible and in
much secular literature, the sword repre-
sents all layelins, all muskets. all carbines,
all guns, all police clubs, all battle-aNes.
all wcauonry for physical defense or attack.
1t would be an interesting thing to give the
history OF the pillow, and follow its furrOw
all lown through the ages, from the first
crop in Chaldea to the last crop in Mime
sofa. Ii would be interesting to follow the
pen "a II has tracked its way on down
through the literature of nations, from its
first wOr. in the first book to the last word
which some author last night wrote as he
closed his manuscript. II would be an ia
teresting thing to count the echoes OF the
hammer from the first nail driven down
through all the mechanism of centuries to
the last stroke in the carpenters shop OF
yesterday. propose to-day speaking OF "a
weapon that has done work that neither
pillow nor pen nor hammer ever accom-
plished. My theme is the sword, its mis-
sion. and its doom.
The sword Of the text was bathed in
heaven; that IL, it was n sword of right
cOusness, as another sword may be bathed
in hell, ana the sword OF cruelty and
wrong. There is a great difference be-
tween the word of Winklereld and the
sword Of Cataline, between the sword of
Leonidas aud the sword of Benedict Arnold.
In our effort to hasten the end of war We
have hung the sword with abuses and exc
crations, when it has had divine mission,
as when in many crises of the worlds his
tory 1t has swung for liberty and justice,
civilization and righteousness and God.
At the very opening OF the Bible and on the
Il flaming sword to defend the tree of life.
OF the officer of the law, ST. Paul declares:
He beareth not the sword in vain
Through Moses God conn anded: Put
every man his sword by his side David,
IN his prayer. says: Grid Thy sword upon
Thy thigh, o most mighty One of the
battle-shouts of the Old Testament was:
The sword of the Lord and Gideon
Christ, in great exigency, said that such
a weapon was more important than a coat,
for he declare |: He that hath no sword
let him sell his garment and buy one.'
Again he declared: Il come not to send
peace, but a sword. OF Christ's second
coming, it is said: Out of His mouth went
a sharp twO-edged sword. Thus. some
times ilguratively, but often literally, the
divine mission OF the sword is announced.
What more consecrated thing in the
world than Joshua's sword, or Calebs
sword, or GldeOn's sword, or Davids
sword, or Washington's sword. or Marions
sword, or Lafayette's sword, or Yelling
tons sword, or Garibaldis sword. or hum
dreds of thousands of American swords
that have again and again been bathed in
heaven. Swords OF that kind have been
the best friends OF the human race. They
have slain tyrannies pred open dungeons,
and cleared the way for nations in their
onward march. 1t was better for them to
take the sword and be free, than lie under
the Oppressor's heel and suffer.
There is something worse than death,
and that Is life If 1t must cringe and crouch
before the wrong. Turn over the leaves of
the worlds history, md find that there has
never been tyranny stopped or nation
liberated except by the sword. am not
talking to you about the way things ought
70 be, but about the way they have been.
Whaf l.
Tours, aud kept Europe from being over
whelmed by Mohammedanism and, sub
sequently, all America given over to
Mohammedanism? The sword of Charles
Martell and his men. Who can deal enough
in infinitles to tell what was accom- lished
for the worlds good by the sword OF Joan
of Are? Years ago I looked off and saw In
the distance the battlefield of Marathon,
and | asked myself what was 1t that on
that most tremendous day in history
stopped the Persian hosts, representing not
only Persia, but Egypt, and Tripoli, and
Afghanistan, and Beloochistan, and
Armenia Il host that had Asia under foot
and proposed to put Europe under foot
and, If successful in that battle, would
have submerged by Asiatic barbarism
European civilization, and, as a eonse-
quence, in after time, American civili2a-
ton? The swords of Mitiades, and
Themostocles, and Aristides. At the waving
OF these swords the eleven thousand Ian
GERS of Athens, on the run, dashed against
the one hundred thousand insolent Persians
and trampled them down or pushed them
back into the sea. The swords of that day
saved the best part of the hemispheres, a
trinity of keen steel flashing in the two
lights-the light of the setting sun of bar
barism, the light of the rising sun OF civil
Hail tn lie
bathed in heaven,
what put an end to infamous Louis
XVI. s plan of universal conquest, by which
England would have been made to kneel
on the steps of the Tuileries, and the Anglo
Saxon race would have been halted and all
Europe paralyzed? The sword OF MARI
borough at Blenheim. Time came when
the Roman war eagles, whose beaks had
been punched into the heart Of nations,
must be brought down from their eyries.
All other attempts had disgracefully failed
but the Germans the mightiest nation for
Drawn and brain, undertook the work, and
under God, succeeded. What drove back
the Roman cavalry till the horses, wounded,
flung their riders and the last rider per-
ished, and the Hercynian forest became the
scene of Rome's humiliation? The brave
sword, the triumphant sword OF Arminius.
While passing through France my nerves
tingled with excitement, and rose in the
car the better to see the battlefield of
Chalons, the mounds and breastworks still
visible, though nearly five hundred years
ago they were shoveled up. Here, Attla,
the heather monster, called by himself the
'Scourge of God, for the punishment of
Christians, his life massacre of nations,
came to ignominious defeat and he put into
one great pile the wooden saddles of his
cavalry, and the spoils of the cities and
kingdoms he bad sacked and placed on top
OF this holocaust the woman who had ac-
companied him in his devastating march
Nrlnrinn TINT the tnrnh hn laIlt to tho ri Ia