The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1900-11-23
.TALMAGE'S SERMON.
GONE LESSONS IN CHRISTIAN
WARFARE.
Encouraging Words for Those Engaged
In the Battles OF Life - Gods Sol
diers Never Turn Backward - Divine
Promises.

Copyright, 1900. Louis Klopsch. N. 10
In this discourse DR.. Talmage fol-
lows Joshua on his triumphal march
and speaks encouraging words to ali
who are engaged in the battle of this
life; text, Joshua l. 5, There shall not
any man be able to stand before thee
all the days Of thy life."
Moses was dead. A beautiful tradi-
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 o2e
ready to replace him. The Lord does
not go looking around amid 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
able to stand before thee all the days
of thy life God fulfilled this prom
Use, although Joshua's first battle was
with the spring freshet, the next with
q stone wall, the next leading on
regiment Of whipped towards and the
next batting Sgainst darkness, wheel
ing the sun and the moon into his
battalion, and the last against the
king Of terrors, death-ive great vic
tories.
AS a rule when the general of an
army starts out in a war he would
like to have a 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 great
er than the leveling Of Fort Pulaski,
or the assault Of Gibraltar, or the
overthrow Of the Bastille. 1t was the
crossing Of the Jordan at the time Of
the spring frcshet. The SHOWS OF
Mount Lebanon had just been melt
ing, and they poured down into 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 Israel
ties, and they laugh and say: Aha,
they cannot disturb us until the fresh
cts fall! 1t is impossible for them to
reach u.s." But after awhile they look
across the water, and they see move
ment 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 try to march
across the river Jordan. Joshua is a
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 a 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 Almightj fiat, Jordan
parts. The army OF Joshua marches
right on without getting their feet wet,
over the bottom of the river, Path
of chalk and broken shells and peb-
bles, until they get to the other bank.
Then they law hold of the oleande"s
and tamarisks and willows and pull
themselves up a bank 80 or 40 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.
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 rueh down, and some of
the unbelieving Israelites say: ALAS,
alas, what misfortune! why cou.d
not those waters have staid parted?
Because perhaps we may want to so
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 mora
complete miracle IL the Lord had
parted tie 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
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-
taline gate of the Jordan to let Israel
pass through now swung shut the