The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1902-01-03
THE BATTLE OF LIFE
How the End of the Struggle May
Be Frightened.
Lesson Which May Be Learned from
Boosting of Bcnhadad, the King
of Syria-Humanity En-
cOuraged.
n irer

copyright. 1901, by Louis Klopsch. N. "
Washington.
While this discourse of DR.. Talmage
rebukes arrogance, it encourages hui
mainly ana shows how the evening of
| life may be frightened. The text is
| Kings, 2O:11: Let not him that girdeth
on his harness boast himself as he
| that putteth it off,.
Harness is the obsolete word for ar
NOR. 1t means harness for the man,
| not harness for the beast; harness for
battle, not harness for the plow. The
ancient armor consisted of helmet for
the head, breastplate and shield for the
heart, greaves for the feet. The text
makes a comparison between a man
enlisting for some war and a veteran
returning, the one putting on the ar
NOR and the other putting it off.
Benhadad, the king of Syria, thought
he could easily overcome the king OF
Israel. Indeed, the Syrian was so sure
of the victory that he spread an ante
bellum banquet. With 80 kings he was
celebrating what they were going to do.
There were in all SO kings at the ca
rousal, and their condition is describe d
in the Bible not as convivial or slim
u.ated eXaltation, but drunk. Their
gilded and hammered pavilions were sur
rounded by high-mettled horses, neigh
ing and champing, and hitched to char
lots such as kings rode in. Berhadad
sends officers to the king of Israel de-
manding the surrender of the city, say
ing: Thou shalt deliver me thy silver
and thy gold and thy wives and thy
children" and afterward sends other
officers, saying that the palace of the
king will be searched and everything
Benhadad wants he will take without
asking. Then the king of Israel called
a council of war and word is sent back
to Benhadad that his unreasonable de-
mand will be resisted. Then Benhadad
sends another message to the king of
Israel, message full of arrogance and
bravado, practically saying: 1--WE will
destroy you utterly. L will grind Sa-
maria into the dust, but there will not
be dust enough to make handful for
each one of my troops" Then the king
of Israel replied to Benhadad, prac-
tically saying: Let me see you do
what you say. You royal braggart, you
might better have postponed your ban
quet until after the battle instead of
spreading it before the battle. You
huzza too soon. Let not him that grid
eth on his harness boast himself as he
that putteth it Off "
An avalanche of courage and right
eousness, the Israelitish army came
down on Benhadad and his host. 1t
was a hand TO hand fight, each Israelite
hewing down a Syrian. Benhadad, on
horseback, gets away with some of the
cavalry, but is only saved for a worse
defeat, in which 100000 Syrian infan-
try were slaughtered in one day. Now
we see the sarcasm and the epigram-
matte power of the message of my text
sent by the king of Israel to Benhadad:
LET not him that girdeth on his har-
ness boast himself as he that putteth
it off,
All up and down history we see such
too early Boosting. Soult, the marshal
of France, was so certain that he
would conquer that he had procla-
nation printed announcing himself
king of Portugal and had grand feast
prepared for four o'clock that after
noon, but before that hour he fed in
ignominious defeat, and Wellington of
Tic 1OSb Sdb OON II at 4ONl
o'clock at the very banquet the mar
shall of France had ordered for himself.
Charles V. invaded France and was so
sure of conquest that he requested
Paul Jovius, the historian, to gather
together a large amount of paper on
which to write the story of his many
victories, but disease and famine seized
upon his troopers and he retreated in
dismay. So Benhadad's behavior has
been copied in all ages of the world.
1t will be my object, among other les
sons, to show that he who puts off
the armor, having finished the battle,
is more to be congratulated than he
who begins.
First, 1 find encouragement in this
subject for the aged who have got
through the work and struggle of
earthly life. My venerable friends,3if
you had at 25 years of age full appre
citation of what you would have to go
through in the thirties and the forties
and the fifties of your lifetime you
would have been appalled,. Fortunate
~ the bereavements, the temptations,
the prosecutions, the hardships, were
curtained from your sight. With more
or less fortitude you passed through
the crisis of pain and sadness and dis
appointment and fatigue and still live
to recount the Divine help that sus-
tanned you. At 20 or 80 years of your
age at the tap of the drum you put on
the harness. Now, at 60 or 20 or so.
you are peacefully putting it off. You
would not want to try the battle of
life over again. So many of just your
temperament and with as good start
ing and as fine a parentage and seem
ingly with as much equipoise of charac-
ter as you had have made complete
shipwreck that you would not want
again to run the risks. Thoungh you
can look back and see many mistakes,
the next time you might make worse
mistakes. Instead of being depressed
over the fact that you are being count
ed out or omitted in the great under
takings of the church and the world,
rejoice that you have right to hang
up your helmet and sheathe your
sword and free your hands from the
gantlets and your feet from the boots
of mail.
At the soldiers home in the suburbs
of this city often admire the peace
ful and coptented looks OF the veper-
shle heroes as they sit vJsRey the trees