The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-03-17
BITTERNESS OF LIFE.
DR.. Talmage Draws a Contrast Be-
tween Sslfishness and Kindness.
should Make the World n Pleasant
PIace-Scatterers of WOrmTOOd
Are Likencd to AttiIa
the Hun.
Washington, +


washington, Copyright, 1893.
The contrast between a life of Self
forth by DR.. Talmage while discours-
ing upon the baeful character of a
conqueror of olden time; text, Rev
elation viii. 10. II: There fell a great
star from heaven, burning as ii were
a lamp, and it fell upon the third part
of the rivers and upon the fountains
of water, and the name of the star is
called Wormwood."
Patrick and Lowth, Thomas Scott,
Matthew Henry, Albert Barnes and
some other commentators say that
the star Norwood 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 wormwood, he en-
bittered 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 'Bril-
liant Bitterness"
A more extra ordinary character his
tory does not furnish than this man
AttiIa. the king of the Huns. The
story goes that one day a wounded
heifer came limping along through the
fields, and a herdsman followed its
bloody tracks on the grass to see
where the heifer was wounded, and
went on back farther and farther un-
til he came to a sword fast in the
earth, the point downward, 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. AAila said that sword
must have dropped from the heavens
from the grasp of the god Mars, and
its being given to him meant that At
tia should conquer and govern the
whole earth Other mighty men have
been delighted at being called liber-
ators, or the Merciful. or the Good.
but Attila called himself and demand
ed that others call him 'the Scourge
of God"
At the head of 100000 troops, mount
ed on Cappadocian horses, he swept
everything from the Adriatfc to the
Black sea. He put his iron heel on
Macedonia and Greece andThrace. He
made Milan and Pavia and Padua
and Verona bee 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 city was cap
tured by him. the inhabitants were
brought out and put into three classes.
The first class, those who could bear
arms, must Immediately enlist 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 a heavy tax.
IT was a common saying that the
grass never grew where the hoof of
AttiIa's horse had trod. His armies
redeemed the waters Of the Seine and
the Moselle and the Rhine with car
mage and fought on the CataIonian
plains the fiercest battles since the
world stood-3OO,O 900 dead left on the
field. On and on until all those who
could not oppose him with arms lay
prostrate on their faces in prayer
then a cloud of dust was seen in the
distance, and bishop cried: 'It is
the aid of God" and all the people
took up the cry: at is the aid of God. >
As the cloud of dust was blown aside
the banners of reinforcing armies
marched in to help against Attila,
"the Scourge of Cod" The most un-
important 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, and his army,
inspired with the same occurrence,
resumed the siege and took the walls
at point from which the stork had
emerged.
Slain on the evening of his marriage
by his bride, Ildico, who was hired
for the assa assinatiOn, his followers be-
walled him not with tears, but with
blood, cutting themselves with knives
and lances. He was put into three
cofins, the first of iron, the second Of
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 kingdom. The gravedig-
gers and all those who assisted at the
burial were massacred, so that it
would never be known where so much
wealth was entombed.
The Roman empire conquered the
world, but Attila conquered the Ro-
man empire. He was right in calling
himself a scourge, but instead of be-
ing "the Scourge of God" he was the
scourge of hell.
Because Of his brilliancy and bitter
ness the commentators might well have
supposed him to be the star Wormwood
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, and it fell upon the
third part of the rivers and upon the
fountains of waters, and the name of
the star is called Wormwood."
Have you ever thought how many
embittered lives there are all about
US, misanthropic, morbid, acrid. satur-
nine? The European plant from which
wormwood is extracted. Artemisia a b.
sinthium, is perennial plant, and all
the year round it is ready to exude its