Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1900-12-01
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
SOME LESSONS IN CHRISTIAN
WARFARE.
Encouraging Words for Those Engaged
in the Battles of Life - Gods SOL
diers Never Turn Backward = Divine
Promises.

In this discourse Dr. TaImage fol-
lows Joshua on his triumphal march
and speaks encouraging words to all
who are engaged in the battle of this
life; text, Joshua i, 5, There shall not
any man be able to stand before thee
all the days of thy life"
Moses was dead. A beautiful tradi-
ton says the Lord kissed him and in
that act drew forth the soul of the dy-
ing lawgiver. He had been buried, only
one person at the funeral the same
one who kissed him. But God never
takes man away from any place of
usefulness until he has some one
ready to replace him. The Lord does
not go looking around amid a great
variety of candidates to find some one
especially fitted for the vacated posi-
ton 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
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, who gave him the promise at-the
start, There shall not any man be
of thy life God fulfilled this prom
ise, although Joshua's first battle was
with the spring freshet, the next with
a stone wall, the next leading on a
regiment of whipped towards and the
next battling against darkness, wheel
ing the sun and the moon into his
battalion, and the last against the
king of terrors, death-five great vic
tories.
No Going Backward.
AS the hand OF the Lord God is
taken away from the thus uplifted wa
ters-waters perhaps unified half a
mile-they rush down, and some of
the unbelieving Israelites say: ALAS,
alas, what misfortune! Why could
not those waters have staid parted?
Because perhaps we may want to go
back o Lord. we are engaged in a
risky business. Those 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 defeated?" My
friends, God makes no provision for |
a Christian retreat. He clears the path
all the way to Canaan. To go back
is to die The same gatekeepers that |
swung back the amethystine and crys- |
talline gate of the Jordan to let Israel |
pass through now swung shut the 7
amethystine and crystalline gate of +
the Jordan to keep the Israelites from |
going back. Victory ahead, but water |
80 feet deep behind, surging to death /
and darkness and woe. But you say,
why did not these Canaanites, when
they had such a splendid chance, +
standing on the top of the bank so /
or 40 feet high, completely demolish
those poor Israelites down in the I
river?" 1 will tell you why. God had /
made promise, and he was going to
keep it There shall not any man be
able to stand before thee all the days
OF thy life
But this is no place for the host to
stop. Joshua gives the command,
Forward, march!" In the distance
there is a long grove of trees, and at
the end of the grove is a city. 1t is
e. city with arbors, a city with walls
seeming to reach to the heavens, to
buttress the very sky 1t is the great
that commands the noun
tain pass. 1t is Jericho. That city
was afterward 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 a rams horn. The
horn of the slain ram was sometimes
taken, and holes were punctured in
1t, and then the musician would put
the instrument to his lips. and he
would run his fingers over this rude
musical instrument and make a 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 go around the city every day
for six days-one a day for six days
and then one the seventh day they
were to go around blowing these rude
musical instruments seven times. and
then at the close of the seventh blow
ing of the rams horns on the seventh
day the peroration of the whole scene
was to be a shout. at which those
great walls should tumble from cap
stone to base.
Victory Follows Defeat.
The seven priests with the rude mu-
sicaI instruments pass all around the /
city walls on the first day and score a |
failure. No so much as a piece of
plaster broke loose from the wall, not
so much as loosened rock, not so
much as piece of mortar lost from |