The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1899-03-24
DR.HALMAGE's sERMpN
1he Dminsnt Divtns's Sunday
Discourse.

lls ~ ~ -, tsss
Sabjset: .Brilliant Hittsrnsss,--AttiIst ths
Ken Deed - = Herrfbls Exam pls--Is
I I 2 2 He Type Of the wormwoed Mem
tioaed In Hevslatlens
Taxi: '.Thers fell great star from
). fell upon the third part of the rivers, and
upon the fountains OF waters, and the name
of the star Is called Wormwood. "--Revela-
tfon T., IL. - & 81 81 ss s.
Patrick and Lowth, Thomas Scott, Mat
thew Henry, Albert Barnes and some other
Of my text was a type OF Attila, king OF the
Huns. He was 10 called because he was
brilliant as star, and. like wormwood, he
imbittered everything he touched. We
the Morning Star OF Revelation and the
Star OF Peace, but my subject calls us to
gaze at the star Wormwoed. and my theme
might be called brilliant Bltterness.'
more extraordinary character history
King OF the Huns, The story goes that one
day wounded heller came limping along
through the fields. and . herdsman fol-
lowed its bloody track on the grass 20 see
where the heifer was wounded. and went on
back. farther and farther. until he came to
sword fast. in the earth, the point down
ward, as Thought had dropped from the
. heavens, and against the edges Of this
sword the heifer had been cut. The herds
man pulled mp that sword and presented It
TO Attila. Attila said that sword must
have dropped from the heavens from the
grasp or the god Mars, andfts being given
to him meant that Attila 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 zoe, 900 troops. mounted
on Cappadocian horses, he swept every
thing, from the Adriatic to the Black Sea.
he put his iron hee, on Macedonia and
Greece and Thrace. He made Milan and
mercy, which he bestowed not. The By
zantine castles. to meet his ruiuous levy
put up at auction massive silver tables
and vases of solid gold. When city was
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 bsauti-
Huns; the third GLASS, the aged men and
women, were robbed OF everything and
let go back to the city to pay heavy tax.
1t was common saying that the grass
never grew where the hoof OF Attila's horse
had trod. His armies Redeemed the waters
OF the Seine and the Moseile aud the Rhine
with carnage and fought on the Catalonian
plains the fisrcest battle since the world
stood-300, 900 dead left on the field. On
and on until all those who could not on
pose him with arms lay PROSTATE on their
faces in prayer, then cloud or dust was
seen in the distance, and a bishop cried,
''It is the aid OF God" and all the people
took MP 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 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 sign that he was to CAPTURE the
occurrence, resumed the siege and took
the walls at point from which
the stork had emerged. So brilliant
was the conqueror in attire that
his enemies could not look at him, but
shaded their ewes or turned their heads.
Slain on the evening OF his marriage by
his bride, Ildfco, who was hired for the as
sassinatton. his followers bewailed him,
not with tears, but with blood. outing
themselves with knives and lances. He
was put into three cofnns. the first OF iron,
the second of silver and the third OF gold.
He was buried by night, and into his
grave was poured the most valuable coins
aud precious stones. amounting to the
wealth of kingdom The gravediggers
and all those who assisted at the burial
were massacred, so that 1t would never be
known where SO much wealth was en-
tombed.
but Attila conquered the Roman empire.
He was right I'm calling himself n scourge.
but instead OF being "the scourge OF God"
he was the scourge OF hell.
Because OF his brllliancy and bitterness
the commentators might we'll have sup
posed him to be the star Worm wood OF the
text. As the regions he devastated were
ports most opulent with fountains and
streams and rivers, Won see how graphic
my text is: 'There fell great star from
heaven, burning as 1t were 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 embit-
tered lives there are all about US, misan-
thropic, morbid, acrfd saturnine? The
European plant from which wormwood Is
extracted, Artemisia absinthium, is per-
ennial plant and all the year round it is
man lives there Is perennial distillatfon
OF acrid experiences. Yea, there are some
whose whole work is to shed baleful in
fuence over others. There are Attilas Of
tilas of the church, Attilas Of the State, and
one-third of the waters Of all the world are
poisoned by the falling of the star Worm
wood. 1t is not complimentary to human
nature that most men. ms soon as they get
great power, become overbearing. The
more power men have the better, II their
power be used for good. The less power
men have the better, II they use it for evil.
But are any OF you the star Wormwood2
Do you scold and Rrowl from the thrones
paternai or maternal? Are your children
everlastingly pecked mt? Are you always
crying "Hush!" to the merry voices and
swift feet, and to the laughter, which
occasionally trickles through at wrong
times, and is suppressed by them until
they can hold 1t no longer, and all the
barriers burst into unlimited guffaw and
cachinnation, as In high weather the
\ water has triekled through slight open
ing In the milldam, but afterward makes
wider and wider breach until 1t carries all
before 1t with Irresistible freshet? Do not
be too much offended at the noise your