Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1900-11-22
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
SOME LESSONS IN CHRISTIAN
WARFARE.
Encouraging Words for Those Engaged
! In the Battles OF Lifc - Gods Sol
diers Never Turn Backward - Divine
Promises.

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 thea
all the days OF thy life"
Moses was dead. A beautiful tradf-
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 a 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
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
stone wall, the next leading on n
regiment of whipped towards and the
next battling against darkness, wheel
battalion, and the last against the
king Of terrors, death-five great VIC
tories.
AS rule when the general of an
army starts out in war he would
like to have a small battle in order
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 freshet. 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
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 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
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 oleanders
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 a
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
mile-they rush down, and some Of
the unbelieving Israelites say: ALIAS,
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 IL we want to go
back? Would 1t not have been a more
complete miracle IL the Lord had
parted the waters to let us come
through and kept them parted to let
us go back IL 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
amethystine and crystalline gate OF
the Jordan to keep the Israelites from
going back. Victory ahead, but water
30 feet deep behind, surging to death
and darkness and woe. But you say,
"Why did not these Canaanites, when
they had such splendid chance,
standing on the top Of the bank 30
or 40 feet high, completely demolish
those poor IsraelitesP down in the
river?" / 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 long grove of trees. and at
the end of the grove is city. 1t is
city with arbors, city with walls
seeming to reach to the heavens. to
buttress the very sky. 1t Is the great
metropolis that commands the noun
tain pass. 1t Is Jericho. That city
was afterward captured by Pompey