Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-03-30
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: "Bri1liant Bitterness"-Attflat the
Hun Used as Horrible Example-Is
He a Type of the Wormwood Mem
toned in Revelation?

He Type of the Wormwood Mem
toned in Revelation?
TEXT: "There fell great star from
heaven, burning as 1t were 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 Wormwood. ."-Revela-
zion X, IL.
Patrick and Lowth, Thomas Scott, Mat
thew 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 a star, and, like wormwood, ne
imbittered 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 Worm wood. and my theme
might be called brilliant Bitterness"
more extraordinary character history
ioes not furnish than this man Attila, the
king of the Huns The story goes that one
day wounded heifer came limping along
through the fields, and herdsman fol-
lowed its bloody track on the grass to see
where the heifer was wounded. and went on
back farther and farther, until he came to
sword fast in tho earth, the point down
ward, as though 1t had dropped from the
heavens, and against the edges of this
sword the hetfer had been cut. The herds
man pulled up that sword and presented it
to Attila. Attila said that sword must
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
liberators or the Mercful or the Good but
Attila called himself and demanded that
others call him 'sthe Scourge of Cod
At the head of 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
Pavia and Padua and Verona beg for
mercy, which he bestowed not. The By
zantine 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 bear arms,
must Immediately enlist under A.tila or
be butchered the second class, the beauti-
full 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.
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 Moselle and the Rhine
with carnage and fought on the Catalonian
plains the flercest battle since the world
stood-300, 900 dead left on the field. On
and on until all those who could not op-
faces in prayer, then u cloud or dust was
seen in the distance, and bishop cried,
1T is the aid Of God" and all the people
took up the cry. sit 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
God.'' The most unimportant occurrences
be used as supernatural resource. After
three months Of failure to capture tie city
ofAquileia, when his army had given up
the siege, the flight of stork and her
young from the tower Of the city was taken
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 brilliant
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 as
sassination, his followers bewailed him,
not with tears, but with blood, cutting
themselves with knives and lances. He
was put into three cofSns, 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
and precious stones, amounting to the
wealth Of a kingdom. The gravediggers
and all those who assisted at the burial
were massacrsd, so that 1t would never be
known wEe-e 50 much wealth was en-
tombed.
The Roman empire conquered the world
but Attila conquered the Roman empire.
He was right in calling himself u scourge,
but instead OF being 'the scourge of God"
he wss the scourge of hell.
Because OF his brilliancy 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
my text is: "There fell a 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-
te-ed lives there are all about US, misan-
thropic, morbid, acrid, saturnine? The
European plant from which wormwood Is
extracted, Artemisi8 absinthium, is per-
eInial plant, and all the year round it is
readyt to exude Its oil. And in many hui
men lives there Is perennial distillation
of acrld experiences. Yea, there are some
whose whole work Is to shed a baleful in
fluence over others. There are Attilas of
the home, Attilas of the social circle At
tilas Of the church, Attilas of the State, and
one-third Of the waters of oil the world are
poisoned by the falling Of the star Worm
wood. 1t is not complimentary to human
nature that most men, as soon rs they get
great power, become overbearing. The
more power men have the better, if 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 growl from the thrones
paternal or maternal? Are your children
everlastingly pecked at? 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 it no longer, and all the
barriers burst into unlimited gutfaw and
cachinnation, as in high weather the
water has trickled through slight open
ing in the milldam. but afterward makes
wider and wider breach until it carries all
before it with irresistible freshet? Do not
be too much offended at the noise your
children now make. 1t will be still enough
when one of fthem is dead. Then you would
give your right hand to hear one shout
from the silent voice. or one step from the
still foot. You will not any of you have to
Tait very long before your house is stiller
han you want it, Alas that there are so
many homes not known to the Society for
tha Prevention Of Cruelty to Children,
where children are whacked and cuffed and
,ar pulled, and senselessly called to order,
md answered sharply and suppressed, un-
ii 1t is wonder that under such processes