The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-05-20
BLESSINGS OF War.
DIR. TALNAGE PORTRAYS THE
BRIGHT SIDE OF THE CONTEST.
AIleviatIons Of Quo Hosfilities With
spain, Might and Right Going Hand
In Hand. No Room For Barbarian
on the Western Continent.


Copyright, 1898, by American Press
Association.)
Washington, May 15.-Most pertinent
to the exciting times through which we
are now passing is the sermon Of DR..
"Talmage, in which he proposes to cheer
the people who are saddened by the
horrors Of war; text, Psalms xxVii, 3,
Though war should rise against me,
in this will I be confident"
The ring of battleaxes, and the clash
of shields, and the tramp of armies,
are heard all up and down the Old
Testament, and you find godly soldiers
ike Moses and Joshua and Caleb and
Gideon and scoundrelly soldiers like
Sennacherib and Shalmaneser 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 enc
mics, let not your heart faint, fear
not and do not tremble, neither be We
terrified because of them" And then
the officers would give command to
the troops, saying: What man is
there that hath built a new house and
hath not dedicated it? Let him go
and return to his house, lest he die in
the battle and another man dedicate it.
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 an
other man eat of it. And what man is
there that hath betrothed a wife and
hath not taken her? Let him go and
return unto his house, lest he die in
the battle and another man take her"
Great armies marched and fought. In
times Of Moses and JOshua all the men
were soldiers. When Israel came out
of Egypt, they were 600, 900 fighting
men. Abijah commanded 400, 900. ,Je-
robOam commanded 500, 900 men, of
whom 500, 900 were slain in one battle.
Some of these wars God approved, for
they were for the rescue of oppressed
nations, and some of them he de-
nounced, but in all cases it was a judg-
ment upon both victOrs and vanquish-
ed. David knew just war was
when he wrote in the text, Though
war should rise against me, in this
will I be confident"
David is encouraging himself in
stormy times, and before approaching
battle administers to himself the. con-
sOlatOry. SO today my theme is the
"Alleviations of War;" War is organ
lied atrocity. 1t is the science of as
s~assination. It is the cOnvocatiOn of
all horrors. 1t is butchery wholesale.
1t is murder glorified. 1t is death on a
throne of human skeletons. 1t is the
coffin in a~scendency. 1t is diabOlism at
a game of skulls. But war is here, and
it is time now to preach on it's allevi-
atoms.
REUNION OF NORTH AND SOUTH.
First, 1 find an alienation in the
fact that it has consolidated the north
and the south after long continued
strained relations. 1t is SO years since
our civil war closed, and the violences
are all gone and the seventies have
been hushed. But ever and amor in
grafton, in sermon, in newspaper edito-
rial, in magazine article, on political
stump and in congressional hall the old
sectional difference has lifted it's head,
n for the first time within my men,
DRY or the memory of any one who
hears or reads these words the north
and the south are one. By a marvel
Gus providence the family that led in
opposition to our government 30 years
Age is representing at the front in this
present war. Nothing else could have
done the work of u~nification so sudden
ly or SO completely as this conflict. At
Tampa, at Chattanooga, at Richmond
n in many other places the regiments
are forming, and it will be sid by side,
Massachusetts and Alabama, New
York and Georgia, Illinois and Louis
lana, Maine and South Carolina. North
ern and southern men will together IN
timber the guns and rush upon the
fertilization and charge upon the enc
my and shout the triumph. The voices
of military officers who were under
Sidney Johnston n Joseph Hooker
will give the Command on the same side,
the old sectional grudges forever dead
The name of Grant on the northern
side n of Lee OF the southern side
will be exchanged for the names Grant
and Lee on the same. The veterans
in northern and southern homes and
asylums are stretching their rheumatic
limbs to see whether they can again
keep step in a march and are testing
their oversight to find whether they
can again look along the gun barrel to
successfully take aim and fire. The
old war cry of ION to Richmond" and
ION to Washington has become the
warcry of ION to Havana" ION to
Puerto Rico" ION to the Philippine Is
lands!' The two old rusty WORD
that in other days clashed at Murfrees-
boro and South Mountain and Atlanta
are now lifted to strike down Hispanic
denominations.
AN UNSELFISH WAR.
Another alienation of the war is the
fact that it is the most unselfish war of
the ages. While the commercial rights
of our wronged citizens will be vindica-
ted, that is not the chief idea of this
war. 1t is the rescue of hundreds Of
thousands Of people from starvation
n multiform maltreatment. A friend
who went out under the flag of the
Red Cross two years ago to asuage
suffering in Armenia, and who has
been or the same mission, under the
same flag, in Cuba, says that the suf-
ferings in Armenia were a comedy and
a farce compared with the greater suf-
f~eringssof Cuba. At least 200, 900 graves
are calling us to come on and remember
by what process their occupants died.
1t is the twentieth century crying out
to the nineteenth: DO you mean to
pass down to us the curse with which
you ave been blasted? Or will you let
me begin under new auspices and turn
the island of desolation into an island
Edenic?"
1t is a war inspired by mercy, which
is an attribute in man initiative of the
same attribute of God. In no other