Connecticut western news., 1900-11-22
THEFAITH OF RAHAB
DR. TALMAGE SAYS THERE IS MERCY
 FOR ALL SINNERS.


 Are Engaged In Life's Battles. Meaning of the sun's Standing still ] Upon Gtbeon.
 WASHINGTON, Nov. 1S.-In this dis course Dr. Talmage follows Joshua on his triumphal march and speaks en- couraging words to all who are engag- ed in the battles of this life; text, Josh- ua 1, 5, 'There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life"
 Moses was dead. A beautiful tradi- tion 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 great variety of candidates to find some one especially fitted for the vacated po- sition. He makes a 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 wns a 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 tho start, "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life" God fulfilled this promise, al- though Joshua's first battle was with the spring freshet, the next with a stone wall, the next leading on a regi- ment of whipped towards and the next battling against darkness, wheeling the sun and the moon into his battalion and the last against the king of ter TOTS, death-f1ve great victories.
 Parting the Jordan.
 As rule, when the general of an ar my 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 under taking of Joshua was greater 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 fresh ct. The snows of Mount Lebanon had just been melting, and they poured down the valley, and the whole valley was raging torrent So the Canaan ites 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. It is impossible for them to reach us." But after awhile they look across the water, and they see . movement in the army of Joshua. They say: What is the matter now? Why, there must be a 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, marchw 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. It is the ark of the covenant. And they come down, and no sooner do they just touch 
 than, by an Almighty flat, 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 pebbles, until they get to the other bank. Then they lay hold of the oleanders and tama- risks and willows and pull themselves up bank 30 or 40 feet high, and, hay ing 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 anchor age. As the hand of the Lord God h taken away from the thus uplifted wa ters-waters perhaps uplifted half a mile-they rush down, and some of the unbelieving Israelites say: Alas, alas, what a misfortunel Why could not those waters have staid parted, be cause, 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 1t not have been a more com plete miracle If the Lord had parted the waters to let us come through and kept them parted to let us go back il we are defeated"
 Gods Promise.
 My friends, God makes no provision for Christians retreat. He clears the path all the way to Canaan. To go back Is to die. The same gatekeepers that swung back the amethystfne and crystalline gate of the Jordan to lei Israel pass through now swing shu, the amethystine and crystalline gate of the Jordan to keep the Israelites from going back.
 Victory ahead, but water 30 feet deer behind, surging to death and darkness. and woe. But you say, Why did no1 these Canaanites, when they had sucf a splendid chance, standing on the tor of the bank 30 or 40 feet high, com pletely demolish those poor Israelite. down in the riverY l will tell yol why. God had made promise, and h, was going to keep 1t. "There shall no any man be able to stand before the' all the days of thy life"
 But this Is no place for the host t stop. Joshua gives the command, For ward, marchH In the distance ther' Is long grove of trees. and at the en, of the grove Is city. It Is city witt arbors, a city with walls seeming t. reach to the heavens, to buttress tn very sky. 1t Is the great metropoli that commands the mountain pass. Is Jericho. That city was afterwart captured by Pompey and once by Her cd the Great and once again by the Mo Eammedans, but this campaign tn Lord plans. There shall be no swords no shields, no battering ram; there shall be only one weapon of war, ant that a rams horn. The horn of thu slain ram was sometimes taken, ant boles were punctured in it, and theI the musician would put the instrumen to his lips, and he would run his fin gers over this rude musical instrumen