Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-05-10
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON .
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
kubject: Victory in Retreat-The Tri-
umph of tho Wicked is Short-Flee
From Temptation-Calamity May BE
Averted by Running Away From Evil.


lCopyright lauol
WASHINGTON, d. C.--From an old time
battle scene DIR. Talmage in this discourse
makes some startling suggestions as to the
best styles of Christian york and points out
the reason OF so many pious failures; text,
Joshua vii., Z, 'Then shall ye rise up from
The ambush and seize upon the city,"
One Sabbath evening, with my family
around me, we were talking over the scene
Of the text. In the wide open eyes and the
quick interrogations aud tue blanched
cheeks l realized what n thrilling drama
1t was. There is the old city, shorter by
name than any other city in the ages,
spelled with two letters, A, l, All. Joshua
and his men want to take it. How to do
it is the question. On Il former occasion,
in II straightforward, face to lace fight, they
had been defeated, but now they are going
10 take it by ambuscnde. General Joshua
has two divisions In his army. The one
division the battle-worn commander will
lead himself, the other division he sends
off to encamp in an ambush on the west
side OF the city OF All. No torches. no
lanterns, no sound OF heavy battalions,
but $4,000 swarthy warriors moving in
silence, speaking only in whisper; no
clicking OF swords against shields, lest the
watchmen of All discover it, and the strata
gem be n failure. II tho rosteriug soldier
in the lsraeitish army forgets himself, all
slong the line the word is "Hush!'
Joshua takes the ether division, the one
with which he Is to march, aud puts it on
the north side Of the city of All and then
spend the night in accommodating In the
valley. There he is, thinking over the for
tunes of the coming day with something OF
the feelings of Wellington the night before
Waterloo or of Meade and Lee the night
before Gettysburg. There he stands in the
night and says to himself: "Yonder is the
division in ambush on the west side OF Al.
Here is the division have under my espec-
ial command on the north side OF Al. There
is the old city slumberng in its sin. To-
morrow wild be the BATTLE" Lookl The
morning already begins to tip the hills. The
military officers of Al look out In he morn
ing very early, and, while they do not see
the division In ambush, they behold the
other divisions Of Joshua, and the cry ITO
armsl 70 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 All pour through the gates, an
infuriuted torrent, and their cry is, "Come,
we'll make quick work with Joshua and
his troops1'
No sooner had these people of All come
out against the troops OF Joshua than
Joshua gave such n command as he seldom
gave-"Fall backv' Why, they could not
believe their own earsl Is Joshua's eour-
age failing him? The retreat is beaten,
and the Israelites are flying, throwing
blanket and cauteens on every side under
ought to hear the soldiers of Al cheer and
cheer and cheer. But they huZza too soon.
The men lying in ambush are StraiuinG
their vision o 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 u shaft OF
loom, and points II 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
Joshuas command? No sooner does
Joshua stop in the flight than all his men
stop with him, and ns he wheels they
wheel. for in II voice OF thunder he cried
"Halt!'' one strong arm driving bnck II
torrent OF hying troops. And then, us he
points his spear through the goloen light
toward that fated city, his troops know
that they are to start for it. What Il scene
IL was when the division in ambush which
had taken the city marched down against
the men OF All on the one side, and the
troops under Joshua doubled up their
enemies from the other side, and the men
of All were canght between these two hurri-
canes of Israelitish courage, thrust before
and behind, stabbed in breust and back,
ground between the upper ana the neither
inilsiones of Gods iDdignation! Woe to
the city of Al! Cheer for Israel!
Lesson the first: There is such thing as
victorious retreat. Joshua's falling back
was the first chapter Ia his successful be-
siegement. And there are times in your
:ife when the best thing you can do is to
:un. You were once the victim OF strong
lrink. The demijohn and the decanter
were your fierce foes. they came down
1pon you with greater fury than he men OF
ii upon the men OF Joshua. Your only
;nfetY is to get away from them. Your
lissipating companions will come around
.,nII or R1n "a
,ifel Fall back! Fall back from the drink.
ing saloon! Fall back from the wine
pnrtyl Your flight is your advances; your
retreat is your victory. There is Il saloon
Town on the next street that has almost
oeen the ruin of your soul. Then why do
,ou go along that street? Why do you not
pass through some other street rather than
ny the place II your calamity A spoon
fu of bra .dy taken for medicinal pur-
poses by man who twenty years before
lad been reformed from drunkenness
nurled into inebriety and tho grave one OF
he best friends L ever had. Retreat is
victory!
Here is a converted inlldel. He is so
strong now in his faith in the Gospel he
says he can read anything. What are you
reading? Bolingbroke? Andrew Jackson
Dnvis's trncts? TyndalPS Glasgow Uni
tersity address? Drop them and run. You
viii be an infdel before you die unless you
luit that. These men OF All will be too
much for you. Turn your back on the rank
and ile of unbelief. Fly before they cut
you with their swords and translX you
with their iavelins.
So, Also there is victorious retreat in the
religious world. Thousands of tim es the
Kingdom Of Christ has seemed to fall back.
When the blood of the Scotch Covenanters
gave deeper dye to the heath r OF the
highlands, when the Vuudois 1of Franco
those extermination rather than make an
inchristian surrender, when on st. Bartho-
lomew's day mounted ussassins rode
through the streets of Paris, crying "Kill!
Bloodletting is good in August! Kill!
Death to the Huguenots! XIII" when
Lady Jane Grey's head rolled from the
sxecutioner's block, when Calvin was I'M
prisoned In the castle, when John Knox
lied for the truth, when John Bunyan lay
rottiDg In Bedford Jail, saying, "If God
will help me and my physical life con-
tinues, | will stay here until the moss
grows on my eyebrows rather than give up
my faith" the days of retreat for the
church were days OF victory.
The pilgrim fathers fell back from the
other side of the sea TO Plymouth Rock,
put now are marshallng II continent for
the ChristianiZation OF tho world The