Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-12-13
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

Subject: The Faith of Rahab-There is
Mercy For All Sinners = Cheer For All
! Who Are Engaged in Life's Battles
Meaning of the SUMS Standing Still.
] Copyright 1901
! WASHINGTON, d. C.-In this discourse
| DR.. Talmage follows Joshua on his tri-
umphal march and speaks encouraging
! words to all who are engaged in the bat
| ties of this life; text, Joshua j, 5, There
shall not any man be able to stand before
thee all the days of thy life"
Moses was dead. A beautiful tradition
! says the Lord kissed him and in that act
! drew forth the soul of the dying lawgiver
/ He had been buried; only one person at
the funeral-the same One who kissed him.
! But God never takes a man away from
any place of usefulness until He has some
one ready to replace him. The Lord does
not 60 looking around amid great va
riety of candidates to find some one especi-
ally fitted for the vacated position. He
makes man for that place. Moses has
! passed off the stage, and Joshua the hero,
puts his foot on the platform of history
SO solidly that all the ages echo with the
tread. He was a magnificent fighter, but
he always fought on the right side, and he
never fought unless God told him to fight.
! He got his military equipment from God,
There shall not any man be able to
stand before thee all the days of thy life"
God fulfilled this promise, although JOSH
ua's first battle was with the spring fresh
et the next with stone wall, the next
, leading on regiment of whipped cow
ards and the next battling against dark
ness, wheeling the sun and the moon into
his battalion and the last against the king
of terrors, death-fve great victories.
AS rule, when the general of an army
starts out in a war he would like to have
small battle in order that he may get
his own courage up and rally his troops
and get them drilled for greater conflicts,
but the first undertaking of Joshua was
greater than the leveling of Fort Pulaski
! or the assault of Gibraltar or the over
throw of the Bastille. 1t was the crossing
freshet. The SHOWS of Mount Lebanon had
just been melting, and they poured down
the valley, and the whole valley was a
raging torrent So the Canaanites stand
on one bank, and they look across and see
Joshua and the Israelites and they laugh
and say: "Aha! They cannot disturb
us until the freshets fall. 1t is impossible
for them to reach u.s." But after awhile
they look across the water, and they see
movement in the army of Joshua. They
say: What is the matter now? Why,
there must be panic among those troops,
and they are going to fly, or perhaps they
are going to march across the river Jor-
dan. Joshua is lunatic" But Joshua,
the chieftain, looks at his army and cries,
Forward, march," and they start for the
bank of the Jordan. One mile ahead go
two priests carrying glittering box four
feet long and two feet wide. 1t is the ark
of the covenant. And they come down,
and no sooner do they just touch the rim
of the water with their feet than, by an
Almighty fiat, Jordan parts. The army
of Joshua marches right on without get
ting their feet wet over the bottom of
the river, path of chalk and broken
shells and pebbles, until they get to the
other bank. Then they lay hold of the ole
anders and tamarisks and willows and pull
themselves up a bank thirty or forty feet
high, and, having gained the other bank,
they clap their shields and their cymbals
and sing the praises of the God of Joshua.
But no sooner have they reached the bank
than the waters begin to dash and roar,
and with terrific rush they break loose
from their strange anchorage. As the
hand of the Lord God is taken away from
the thus uplifted waters-waters perhaps
uplifted half a mile-they rush down, and
some of the unbelieving Israelites say
"Alas, alas, what a misfortune. Why
could not not those waters have staid
parted. because, perhaps, we may want
to go back? O Lord we are engaged in
risky busnessl These Canaanites may
eat us up. How if we want to go back?
Would it not have been a more complete
miracle if the Lord had parted the waters
to let us come through and kept them
parted to let us go back if we are de-
feated?"
But this is no place for the host to
stop. Joshua gives the command. For
ward, march!" In the distance there is
a long grove of trees. and at the end of the
grove is city. 1t is city with arbors,
a city with walls seeming to reach to the
heavens, to buttress the very sky. 1t is
the great metropolis that commands the
mountain pass. 1t is Jericho. That city
was aiterward captured by Pompey and
once by Herod the Great and once again
by the Mohammedans. but this campaign
the Lord plans. There shall be no swords
no shields, no battering ram; there shall
be only one weapon of war, and that n
rams horn. The horn of the slain ram
was sometimes taken, and holes were
punctured in it, and then the musician
would put the instrument to his lips, and
he would run his fingers over this rude
musical instrument and make great deal
OF sweet harmony for the people. That
was the only kind OF weapon. Seven
priests were to take these rude, rustic
musical instruments, and they were to
60 around the city every day for six days
once a day for six days-and then on the
seventh day they were to go around blow
ing these rude musical instruments seven
times and then at the close Of the seventh
blowing OF the rams horn on the seventh
day the peroraton OF the whole scene
was to be a shout, at which those great
walls should tumble from capstone to base.
The seven priests with the rude musical
instruments pass all around the city walls
ON the first day and score failure. Not
81 much as piece OF plaster broke loose
from the wall, not So much as a loosened
rock, not So much as piece OF mortar lost
from it's place. There" say the unhe-
leying lsraetes. 'did not tell you so.
Why, those ministers are fools. The idea
OF going around the city with those musi-
cal instruments and expecting in that
way 20 destroy IL. Joshua has been spoiled.
lie thinks because he has overthrown and
conquered the spring freshet he can over
throw the stone wall. Why. Il IL not
philosophic. do you not see there is no
relation between the blowing OF these
musical instruments aud the knocking
down OF the wall! IL Is not philosophie."
And | snppose there were many wiseacres