The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-03-24
THE TYPE OF ATTILA
DIR. TALMAGE,S THEME THE STAR
WORM WOOD In REVELATION
The King of the Huns Like Wormwood
Because He lmbittered Everything
He Touehed-Lessons From the Life
of the Barbarian
of the

Because He 1mbittered Everything
He Touched-Lessons From the Life
of the Barbarian
Copyright, 1899, by American Press
Association.)
The contrast between a life of
selfshnes9 and a life of kindness
is set forth by DR.. Talmage while
d~iscoursing upon the baleful char
acter of a conqueror of olden time:
text, Revelation viii, 10, IL, Ther
fell a great star from heaven, burning
as it were a lamp, and 1T fell upon the
third part Of 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 a type
Of Attila, king Of the Huns He was
so called because he was brilliant as a
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 Norwood, and
my theme might be called Brilliant
Bitterness"
A more extraordinary character his
tory does not furnish than this man
Attila, the king Of the Huns. The story
goes that one day a heifer
came limping along through the fields,
and a herdsman followed it's bloody
track on the grass to see where the
LaifaT vrrou tycI1n6n1 nn1 yrvnnt IN An4ly
farther and farther, until he came to a
sword fast in the earth, the point down.
ward, as though it had dropped from
he heavens, n against the edges of
his sword the heifer had been cut. The
herdsman pulled UP that sword and
presented it to Attila. Attila said that
sword must nave dropped from the
heavens from the grasp of the god
Mars, and it's being given to him
meant that Attfla should conquer and
govern the whole earth. Other mighty
men have been delighted at being called
liberators or the Merciful or the Good,
but Attila called himself and demanded
that others call him the ScOurge of
God"
At the head Of 700, 900 troops, mount
ed on Cappadocian horses, he swept
everything, from the Adriatic to the
Black sea. He put his iron heel on
Macedonia and Greece and Thrace. He
IIlduc AIlldH anu IdNld anu Iduud anu
Verona beg for mercy, which he be-
slowed 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 inhabitants were brought out
and put into three classes. The first
class, those who could zeal arms, must
Immediately enlist under Attila or be
butchered; the second class, the beau
tiful women, were made captives to
the Huns; the third class, the aged
men and women, were robbed Of every
thing and let go back to the city to pay
a heavy tax.
A BLIGHT TO THE EARTH.
1t was a COMMON saying that the
grass never grew where the hoof 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 f%iercest battle since the world
~stood-300, 900 dead left on the field. On
n on until all those who could not
oppose him with arms lay PROSTATE on
their faces in prayer; then a cloud of
dust was seen in the distance, and a
bishop cried, 1T 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 re-
enforcing armies marched in to help
against Attila, the Scourge of God"
The most unimpOrtant occurrences he
used as a supernatural resource. After
three months of failure to capture the
city of Aquileia, when his army had
given up the siege, the flight of a Stork
and her young from the tower of the
city was taken by him as a sign that
he was to capture the city, n his
army, inspired with the same occur
renee, resumed the siege and took the
walls at a point from which the stork
had emerged. So brilliant was the con-
queror 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 bewail-
ed 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 Of silver
n 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
m~assacred, 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
Sell d SCOuISe, Dul IUSlSdu Ol USlLS Tie
scourge of God" he was the scourge of
hell.
Because of his brilliancy and bitter
ness, the commentators might we'll have
supposed him to be the star NORWOOD
of the text. AS the regions he devas-
tated were parts most opulent with
fountains and streams and rivers, you
see how graphic my text is: There fell
a great star from heaven, burning as
it were a lamp, n it fell upon the
third part of the rivers, and upon the
fountains of wters, and the name of the
star is called Wormwood."
IMBITTERED LIVES ABOUT US.
Have you ever thought how many
imbittered lives there are all about us,
misanthropic. morbid, -acrid, satur-
nine? The European plant from which
wormwood is extracted, Artemisia alb
sinthium, is a perennial plant, and all
the year round it is ready to exude it's
oil. And in many human lives there
is a perennial distillation Of acrid ex-
periences. Yea, there are some whose
whole work is to shed a baleful inf1u-