Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-03-13
THE TYPE OF ATTILA
DR. TALMAGE'S THEME THE STAT
WORMWOOD IN REVELATION.

erything He Touched - lessons
From the Life of the Barbarian.
copyright 1899, by American Press Asso
ciation.l
WASHINGTON. March 12.-The con
trast between life of selfshness and Il
life of kindness is set forth by Dr.. Tai
mage while discoursing upon the baleful
character of conqueror of olden time;
text. Revelation viii. 10, II. ''Thert
fell great star from heaven, burning
as it were lamp, and it fell upon the
third part CT the rivers, and upon the
fountains of waters. and the name of
the star is called NORWOOD
Patrick and Lowth. Thomas Scott,
Matthew Henry. Albert Barnes and
some other commentators say that the
star Wormwood of my text was type
of Attila, king of the Huns He was
so called because he was brilliant as
star. and. like NORWOOD, he imbitter-
ed everything he touched We have
studied the Star of Bethlehem, and the
Morning Star of Revelation and the Star
of Peace, but my subject calls us to gaze
at the star WOrmwood, and my theme
might be called Brilliant Bitterness.
more extraordinary character his
tory does not furnish than this man At
tia. the king of the Huns. The story
goes that one day a wounded heifer
came limsing along through the fields.
and a herdsman followed its bloody
track on the grass to see where the
heifer was wounded. and went on back,
farther and farther. until he came to a
sword fast in the earth. the point down
ward as though it had dropped from the
heavens, and against the edges of this
sword the heifer had been cut. The
herdsman pulled up that sword and
presented it to Attila. Attila said that
sword must have dropped from the
heavens from the grasp of the god Mars,
and its being given to him meant
that Attila should conquer and govern
the whole earth. Other mighty men
have been delighted at being called lib
orators or the Merciful or the Good, but
Attila called himself and demanded
that others call him 1.-The Scourge of
God. -
At the head of 700, 900 troops, mount
ed on Cappadocian horses, he swept ev-
erything. from the Adriatic to the Black
sea. He put his iron heel on Macedonia
and Greece and Thrace. He made Milan
and Pavia and Padua and Verona beg
for mercy, which he bestowed not. The
Byzantine castles. to meet his ruinous
levy, put up at auction massive silver
tables and vases of solid gold. When a
city was captured by him. the inhabit-
ants were brought out and put into
three classes. The first class, those who
could bear arms, must Immediately en-
list under Attila or be butchered; the
second class, the beautiful women, were
made captives to the Huns; the third
class, the aged men and women, were
robbed of everything and let go back to
the city to pay heavy tax.
Blight to the Earth.
It was common saying that the
grass never grew where the hoCf of At
tila's horse had trod. His armies red
dened the waters of the Seine and the
Moselle and the Rhine with carnage
and fought on the Catalonian plains the
fiercest battle since the world stood
300, 600 dead left on the field. On and
on until all those who could not oppose
him with arms lay PROSTATE on their
faces in prayer; then cloud of dust
was seen in the distance and a bishop
cried. lit is the aid of God" and all
the people took up the cry, ''It is the
aid of God. AS the cloud of dust was
blown aside the banners Of reinforcing
armies marched in to help against At
tia, 1.-the Scourge of God. The most
unimportant occurrences he used as
supernatural resource. After three
months of failure to capture the city of
Aquileia, when his army had given up
the siege. the flight of stork and her
young from the tower of the city was
taken by him as a sign that he was to
capture the city. and his army, inspired
with the same occurrence, resumed the
siege and took the walls at point from
which the stork had emerged So bril-
liant was the conqueror in attire that
his enemies could not look at him, but
shaded their eyes or turned their heads
Slain on the evening of his marriage
by his bride. Ildico. who was hired for
the assassination, his followers bewailed
him, not with tears. but with blood
cutting themselves with knives and
lances. He was put into three collins,
the first of iron. the second CT silver and
the third of gold. He was buried by
night. and into his grave were poured
the most valuable coins and precious
stones. amounting to the wealth of a
kingdom. The gravediggers and all
those who assisted at the burial were
massacred. SO that it would never be
known where so much wealth was en-
tombed.
The Roman empire conquered the
world. but Attila conquered the Roman
empire. He was right in calling him
self scourge. but instead of being 1.-The
scourge of Cod he was the scourge of
hell
Because of his brilliancy and bitter