Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1900-04-13

THE EMINENT DIVINH'S SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.


Subject: Victory In Rotreat-The Tri-
unph of the Wicked js Short-Flee
From Tempta atom Calamity May BE
Avcrtcd by Running Away From Evil.
copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, D. C.--From an old time
battle scene DR.. Talmage in this discourse
makes some startling suggestions as to the
best STYLES of Christian work and points out
the reason of so many pious failures; text,
Joshua wifi, 7, Then shall ye rise up from
tie ambush and soize upon the city.
One Sabbath evening. with my family
around me, we were talking over the scene
OF the text. In tho wide open eyes and tue
quick interrogations and tho blanched
cheeks realized what u thrilling drama
it was. There is the old city shorter by
name than any other city in the ages,
spelled with two letters, A, l, Al. Joshua
and his men want to take it. How to do
IL is the question. On former occasion,
in a straightforward, face to face light, they
had been defeated, but now they are going
TO take 1t by ambuscade. General Joshua
has two divisions III his army. The ono
division the battle-worn commander VIII
lead himself, the other Division he sends
off TO encamp in an ambush on the west
side Of the city Of Al. No torches. no
lanterns, no sound Of heavy battalions,
Lut $4,000 swarthy warriors moving III
silence speaking only in n whisper; no
clicking of swords against shields, lest the
watchmen of Al discover 1t, and the strata
gem be failure. Ii the rolstering soldier
in the Israelitish army torgets himself, all
along the line the word Is "Hash!"
Joshua takes the other division, the one
with which he is to march, aud puts 1t on
the north side of the city of Al and then
8 a ,sr,hF In
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 tue
night and saws 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 slumbering in it's sin. To-
morrow will be tho battle" Look! The
morning already begins to tip the hills. The
military officers Of All look out In the morr-
ing very early, and, while they do not see
the division in ambush, they behold the
other divisions OF Joshua, and tho cry ITO
arms! 10 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 CT
the city Of All pour through the gates, an
Infatuated torrent, and their cry is, "Come,
we'll make quick work With Joshua and
bis troops"
No sooner had these people OF All come
out against the troops Of Joshua than
Joshua gave such command as he seldom
yave-"Fall back" Why, they could not
believe their own ears! Is joshua's cour-
age failing him2 The retreat Is beaten,
and the Israelltes are flying, throwing
blankets and canteens on every side under
this worse than Bull Run defeat. And you
ought to hear the soldiers OF Al cheer and
cheer and cheer. But they huzza too 5000.
The men lying III ambush are straining
their vision to get some signal from Joshua
that they may know what time to drop
upon the city. Joshua takes his FURNISHED
spear, glitterlng in the sun like shaft Of
doom, and points 1t toward the city, and
when the men up yonder in the ambush seq
it with hawklike swoop they drop upon A!
and without stroke NJ sword or stab OF
spear take the city and put 1t TO the torch.
So much for the division that was IN
ambush. How about tho division under
Joshua's command? No sooner docs
Joshua stop in the flight than all his men
stop with him, and as he wheels they
wheel, for i'll IL voice OF thunder be cried
"Halti' ono strong arm driving back n
torrent OF flying troops. And then, as he
toward that fated city, his troops know
that they are to start for it. What scene
it was When the division IN ambush which
had taken the city marched down against
the men OF al on the one side, and tho
troops under Joshua doubled up their
enemies from the other side, and the men
OF All were caught between these two hurrl-
canes OF Israclltish courage, thrust before
and behind, stabbed In breast and back,
ground between the upper and the neither
milIstones Of Gods indignation! Woe to
the city OF Al! Cheer for Israeli
Lesson the first: There is such thingns
victorious retreat. Joshua's falling back
was the first chapter in his successful be-
,iegement. And there are times In your
Ifo when tho best thing you can do is to
run. You were once the victim OF strong
drink. Tho demijohn and the decanter
were your fierce foes. They came down
upon YOU with greater fury than the men OF
Al unon the men of Joshua. Your only
safety is to get away from them. Your
dissipating companions Will come around
YOU for your overthrow. Run for your
lifei Fall back! Fall back from the drink
ing saloon! Fall back from the wine
partyl Your flight is your advance; your
retreat is your victory. There Is saloon
down on the next street that has almost
been the ruin OF your soul. Then why do
YOU 20 along that street? Why do you not
pass through some other street rather than
by the place Of your calamity? spoon
ful of brandy taken for medicinal pur-
poses by man who twenty years before
had been reformed from drunkenness
hurled into nebriety and the grave one of
the best friends l ever had. Retreat Is
Victoryl
Here is a converted inflde. Ho is so
Il, f,;t IN ha
says he can read anything. What are you
reading? Bolingbroke? Andrew Jackson
Davls's tracts? TyndalPs Glasgow Uni
versity address? Drop them and run. You
will be an infdel before you die unless you
quilt that; These men Of al will be too
much for you Turn your back on the rank
and file OF unbelief. Fly before they cut
YOU with their swords and transdx you
with their javelins.
So, also, there Is victorious retreat in the
religious world. Thousands of times the
kingdom of Christ has seemed to fall back.
When the blood OF the Scotch Covenanters
gave deeper dye to the heather OF the
highlands, when the Yaudois OF France
chose determination rather than make an
unchristian surrender, when on st. Bartho-
lomew's day mounted assassins rode
through the streets OF Paris, crying "Killl
Bloodletting is good In August! XIII
Death to tho HugneDots! XIII" when
Lady Jane Grey's head rolled from the
executioners block, when Calvin was I'm
prisoned In the castle, when John Knox
liod for tho truth, when John Bunyan lay
rotting In Bedford jail, saying. 'If God
will help me and my physical life con-
tlnucs, I will stay here until the moss
grows on my eyebrows rather than giveup
my faith," the days OF retreat for the
chnrnh vero tlays of victory
Tho pilgrim fathers fell back from tho
other side OF the sea to Plymouth Rock,
Lat now are marshaing n continent for
the Christianzation OF the world. The
Church OF Christ falling back from Pied.