Connecticut western news., 1900-04-12
VICTORY IN RETREAT
DR. TALMAGE SAYS TRIUMPH OF THE
 WICKED IS SHORT.

Calamity May He Averted by Run ming Away From Evil.
 WASHINGTON, April S.-From an old time battle scene Dr. Talmage in this discourse makes some startling sugges- tons as to the best styles of Christian work and points out the reason of so many pious failures; text, Joshua viii, |, Then shall ye rise up from the am bush and seize upon the city"
 One Sabbath evening, with my fam fly around me, we were talking over the scene of the text. In the wide open eyes and the quick interrogations and the blanched cheeks realized what a thrilling drama 1t was. There is the old city, shorter by name than any other city in the ages, spelled with two letters, A, 1, Ali. Joshua and his men want to take it. How to do it Is the question. On a former occasion, in straightforward, face to face fight, they had been defeated, but now they are going to take 1t by ambuscade. Gen eral Joshua has two divisions in his nI "y AhC ohC ohNioloh IhC bahtiO worn commander will lead himself, the other division he sends off to en- camp in an ambush on the west side of the city of Al. No torches, no lanterns, no sound of heavy battalions, but 30,- 900 swarthy warriors moving in si- lence, speaking only In a whisper; no clicking of swords against shields, lest the watchmen of Al discover it, and the stratagem be failure. If the roist- ering soldier in the Israelitish army forgets himself, all along the line the word Is "Hushr'
 Joshua takes the other division, the one with which he Is to march, and puts it on the north side of the city of Ali and then spends the night in recon noitering in the valley. There he is, thinking over the fortunes of the com ing day with something of the feelings of Wellington the night before Water loo or of Meade and Lee the night be- fore Gettysburg. There he stands in the night and says to himself: Wonder is the division in ambush on the west side of Al. Here is the division 1 have under my especial command on the north side of Ali. There is the old city slumbering in its sin. Tomorrow will be the battle." Look! The morning already begins to tip the hills. The military officers of Al look out In the morning very early, and, while they do rot see the division in ambush, they behold the other divisions of Joshua, and the cry ITO arms! To arms!' rings through all the streets of the old town, and every sword, whether hacked and bent or newly welded, is brought out, and all the inhabitants of the city of Ali pour through the gates, an infuriat- ed torrent, and their cry is, Come, we'll make quick work with Joshua and his troopsv'
 No sooner had these people of Al come out against the troops of Joshua than Joshua gave such a command as he seldom gave-"Fall backv' Why, they could not believe their own ears! Is Joshua's courage failing him? The retreat Is beaten, and the Israelites are flying, throwing blankets and canteens on every side under this worse than Bull Run defeat. And you ought to hear the soldiers of Al cheer and cheer and cheer. But they huzza too soon. The men lying in ambush are straining their vision to get some signal from Joshua that they may know what time to drop upon the city. Joshua takes his furnished spear, glittering in the sun like a shaft of doom, and points it toward the city, and when the men up yonder in the ambush see it with hawklike swoop they drop upon Al and without stroke of sword or stab of spear take the city and put it to the torch.
 So much for the division that was in ambush. How about the division under Joshua's command? No sooner does Joshua stop in the flight than all his men stop with him, and as he wheels they wheel, for in a voice of thunder he cried "Halty' one strong arm driving back a torrent of flying troops. And then, as he points his spear through the golden light toward that fated city his troops know that they are to start for 1t. What a scene it was when the division in ambush which had taken the city mfrched down against the men of Ali on the one side, and the troops under Joshua doubled up theil enemies from the other side, and the men of Ali were caught between these two hurricanes of Israelitish courage thrust before and behind, stabbed 1T breast and back, ground between tho upper and the neither millstones o1 f,~l tO o{@ o, Ali! Cheer for Israel!
 Victorious Retreat.
 ! Lesson the first: There is such { thing as victorious retreat. Joshua. falling back was the first chapter il his successful besiegement And ther' are times in your life when the bes thing you can do is to run. You wer' once the victim of strong drink. Th 'demijohn and the decanter were you fierce foes. They came down upon yo,
 with greater fury than the men of A
 upon the men of Joshua. Your onl.
 safety is to get away from them. You
 dissipating companions will com
 around you for your overthrow. Rul
 for your life. Fall back! Fall bacl
 from the drinking saloon! Fall bacl
 from the wine party! Your flight 1
 your advance; your retreat is your vic
 tory. There is a saloon down on tn
 next street that has almost been tn
 ruin of your soul. Then why do yo
 go along that street? Why do you no
 pass through some other street rathe
 than by the place of your calamity
 "A spoonful of brandy taken for medic
 inal purposes by man who 20 year before had been reformed from drunk
 enness hurled into inebriety and tn
 graSs one of the best friends I eve
 had Retreat Is victory!
 Turn Your Back on UnbeIief.
 Here is converted infidel. He is S
 strong now in his faith in the gospe
 he says he can read anything. Wha are you reading? Bolingbroke? An