Connecticut western news., 1902-01-02
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WAsHINaroN, Dec. Awhile this discourse of Dr. Talmage rebukes ar rogance it encourages humanity and shows how the evening of life may be frightened. The text Is Kings K, II, Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that put. teth it on"
 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 blow. 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 vet. eran returning, the one putting on the armor and the other putting 1t of.
 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 thirty-two kings he was celebrating what they were go- ing to do. There were in all thirty three kings at the carousal, and their condition is described in the Bible, not as convivial or stimulated exaltation, but drunk Their gilded and bannered pavilions were surrounded by high mettled horses. neighing and champing and hitched to chariots such as kings rode in Benhadad sends officers over to the king of Israel demanding the surrender of the city, saying, Thou shAlt deliver me thy silver and thy gold ANA kh- AL afterward sends other ofhcers, saying that the palace of the king win 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 Ben hadad that his unreasonable demand will be resisted. Then Benhadad sends another message to the king of Israel, . message full of arrogance and brava- do, practically saying: we will de stroy you utterly. will grind Samaria into the dust, but there will not be dust enough to make . handful for each one of my roops." Then the king of Israel replied to Benhadad, practically say ing: "Let me see you do what you say. You royal braSgart, you might better have postponed your banquet un- ttl after the battle instead of spreading it before the battle. You hukza too soon. Let not him that gtrdeth on his harness boast himself as he that put teth it on'"
 Tee Much Boastinx.
 An avalanche of courage and right eousness, the Israelitish army came down on Benhadad and his host 1t was . hand to hand fight, each Israel ite hewing down Syrian. Benhadad. on horseback, gets away with some of the cavalry, but is only saved for a worse defeat, in which 100, ,0o0 Syrian infantry were slaughtered in one day. Now we see the sarcasm and the epi- grammatic power of the message of my text sent by the king of Israel to Benhadad, Let not him that Eirdeth on his harness boast himself as he that Rutteth it on"
 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 a proclama- ton printed announcing himself king of Portugal and had a grand feast pre- pared for 4 o'clock that afternoon, but before that hour he fled in ignominious defeat, and Wellington of the conquer ing host sat down at o'clock at the very banquet the marshal of France had ordered for himself Charles V. invaded France and was SO sure of conquest that he requested Paul Jo- vius, 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 dis may. So B1nhadad's behavior has : been copied in all ages of the world. It will be my object, among other les sons, to show that he who puts of the armor, having finished the battle, is more to be congratulated than he who begins.
 First, find encouragement in this subject for the aged who have got through the work and struggle of earthly life. My venerable friends. if you had at twenty-five years of age full appreciation of what you would have to go through in the thirt1es and the forties and the flfties of your life time you would have been appalled,. Fortunately the bereavementa, the temptations, the prosecutions, the hardships. were curtained from your uight. With more or less fortttude you passed through the crises of pain and Badness and disappointment and fla dgue and gt1l live to recount the di- vine help that sustained you At twen- ty or thirty years of your age at the tap of the drum you put on the har- ness. Now, at sixty or seventy or eighty. you are peacefully putting it oil. You would not want to try the battle of life over again. So many of just your temperament and with as good a stArting and as fine percentage and seemingly with as much equipoise of character as you had have made complete shipwreck that you would not want again to run the risks Though you can look back and rec many mistakes, the next time you might make worse mistakes. Instead of being depressed over the fact that you are being counted out or omitted in the great undertakings of the church and the world, rejoice that you have q right to hang up your helmet and sheathe your sword and free your hands from the gauntlets and your Feet from the boots of mail.
 At the Soldiers home in the suburbs If this city often admire the peaceful and contented looks of the venerable heroes as they sit under the trees or 90 In and out the nne abode that our gov srnment has appropriately provided for them. They are not longing for other Chapultepecs. They do not want to undertake another South Mountain. Their foot does not ache to get into the stirrup of the cavafryman. They are not longing for the hardtack of the soldiers breakfast along the Chick ahominy. They have no desire for an- other ride in the ambulance to the field