The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1900-04-13
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
VICTORY OF RETREAT. LAST
SUNDAYS SUBJECT.
Much Accomplished by Waiting for OPP
portunIties-Joshua's Plan OF Ambus-
cade cited as Successful One for
tho Righteous.

| upon the city.
! One Sabbath evening, with my fam
! lily 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 it was. There
is the old city, shorter by name than
two letters, A, /, All. Joshua and his
men want to take it. How to do it is
the question. On a former occasion,
in a straightforward, face to face fight,
they had been defeated, but now they
are going to take it by ambuscade.
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 3d.
900 swarthy warriors moving in 81
lence, speaking only in whisper; no
clicking of swords against shields, lest
the watchmen of All discover it and
the stratagem be failure. If the ros-
tering soldier in the Israelitish army
forgets himself all along the line the
word is "Iush!"
Joshua takes the other division, the
one with which he is to march, and
puts it on the north side of the city
of All, and then spends the night in
accommodating in the valley. There
he is, thinking over the fortunes of the
coming day with something of the feel
ings of Wellington the night before
Waterloo or of Meade and Lee the
night before Gettysburg. There he
stands in the night and says to him
self. "Yonder is the division in am
bush on the west side of All. Here is
the division | have under my especial
command en- the north side of All.
There is the old city slumbering in its
sin. Tomorrow will be the battle. y
Look! The morning already begins
to tip the hills. The military officers
of All look out in the morning very
early, and while they do not see the
division in ambush, they behold the
other division of Joshua and the cry
, "To 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 A
pour through the gates an infurlatet
/, torrent, and their cry is, Come, wei
make quick work with Joshua and hi
, troops.
A Seeming Repulse.
No sooner had these people of A
come out against the troops of Joshua
: than Joshua gave such command a.
| he seldom gave-"Fall back" Why
they could not believe their own ears
Is Joshua's courage failing him? Tht
retreat is beaten, and the Israelite'
: are flying, throwing blankets and can
, teens on every side under this worse
than Bull Run defeat. And you ough
to hear the soldiers of All cheer ant
, cheer and cheer. But they huzza too
soon. The men lying in ambush are
, straining their vision to get some sig
nal from Joshua that they may know
what time to drop upon the city. Josh
: ia takes his FURNISHED spear, glitterine
in the sun like shaft of doom, ant
, points it toward the city, and when the
= men I'D yonder in the ambush see ii
, with hawklike swoop they drop upon
All and without stroke of sword OF
stab of spear take the city and put ii
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 Halt" one strong
t arm driving back torrent of flying
} troops. And then. as he points his
| smear through the golden light toward
that fated city, his troops know that
t they are to start for it. What scene
| II was when the division in ambush
which had taken the city marched
down against the men of Al on the
one side, and the troops under Joshua
doubled on their enemies from the
other side. and the men of Al were
caught between these two hurricanes
of Israelitsh courage. thrust before
and behind, stabbed in breast and
back. ground between the upper and
the neither millstones of Gods indigna-
ton, Woe to the city of All! Cheer
for Israel!
Victorious Retreat.
There Is such a thing as victorious
retreat. Joshua's falling back was the
first chapter in his successful besiege-
mont. And there are times in your
life when the best thing you can do is
TO run. You were once the victim of
strong drink. The demijohn and the
decanter were your fierce foes. They
came down upon you with greater fury
than the men Of Al came upon the men
of Joshua. Your only safety is to get
away FROM them. Your dissipating
companions will come around you for
your overtl row. Run for your life.