REV. DR. TALMAGR
The Eminent New York Divines Sun
day Sermon.
Subject "After the Battle."
Text "And it came to pass on the mor
row, when the Philistines came to strip the
slain, that they found Saul and his three sons
fallen to Mount Gilboa." I Samuel xxxL. 8.
Some of you were at South Mountain or
Bhiloh or Ball's Bluff or Gettysburg on
Northern or Southern side, and t a3k you if
there is any gadder sight than a battlefield
after the gun3 have stopped firing? I walked
across the . field of Antietam just after the
conflict. The scene was so sickening I shall
not describe It. Every valuable - thinsr had
been taken from the bodies of the dead, for
there are always vultures hovering over and
around about as irmy, and they pick up
the watches, and the memorandum books,
and the letters and the daguerreotypes, and
the hats, and the coats, applying them to
their own uses. The dead make no resis
tance. So there are always camp followers
going on and after an army, as when Scott
went down into Mexico, as when Napoleon
marched up toward Moscow, as when Von
Moltke went to Sedan. There is a I simi
lar scene in my text. I
Saul and his army had been horribly1 cut to
Sieces. Mount Gilboa was. ghastly with the
ead. On the morrow the s trailers came
on to the field, and they lifted the latchet of
the helmet from under the chin of the dead,
they picked up the swords and bent them on
their knee to te3t the temper of the metal
and they opened the wallets and counted the
coin. Saul lay deal along the grouud, eight
or nine feet in length, and I suppose the
cowardly Philistines, to show their bravery
leaped upon the trunk of his carcass and
jeered at the fallen slain and whistled through
the mouth of his helmet. Before night those
cormorants had taken everything valuable
from the .fields "And it came to pass on the
morrow, when the Philistines came to strip
the slain, that they found Saul and his three
. sons fallen in Mount Gilboa."
Before I get through to-day I will show
you that the same process is going on all th
world oyer, and every day, and that when
men have fallen satan and the world, so far
. from pitying them or helping them, go to
work remorselessly to take what little there
is left, thus stripping the slain.
There are tens of thousands of young men
every year coming from the country to our
great cities. They come with brave hearts
and grand expectations. The country lads
sit down in the village grocery, with their
feet on the iron rod around the redhot
stove, in the evening, talking over the
prospects of the young man who has frone
off to the city. Two or three of them think
that perhaps he may get along very well and
succeed, but the most of them prophesy
failure, for it is very hard to think that
those whom we knew in boyhood will ever
make any great success in the world.
But our young man has a fine position in a
dry goods store. The month is over. Ha
gets his wages. He is not accustomed to
have so much money belonging to himself.
He is a little excited and does not know
exactly what to do with it, and he spends it
in some places where he ought not. Soon
there come up new companions and acquaint
ances from the barrooms'and the saloons of
the city. Soon that young man begins to
waver in the battle of temptation, and soon
Jus soul goes down. In a few months or few
years he has fallen. He is morally dead. He
is a mere corpse of what ha once wa3. The
harpies of sm snuff up the taint and come
on the field.- His garments gradually give
out. He has pawned his watch. His health
is failing him. His credit perishes. " Be is
too poor to stay in the city, ani he is too
poor to pay his way home to the country
Down. down! Why do the low fellows of
the city now stick to him so closely? Is it to
help him back to a moral and spiritual life?
On, no. I will tell you why they stay. They
are Philistines stripping the slain.
JDo not look where I point, but Yonder
stands a man who once had a beautiful home
In this city. His house had elegant furni
ture, his children were beautifully clad, his
name was synonymous with honor and use
fulness, but evil habit knocked at his front
door, knocked at his back door , knocked at -his
, parlor door, knocked at bis bedroom
door. Where in the piano? Sold to pav the
rent Where is the hatrack? Sold to meet
the butcher s bill. Where are the carpets?
So dto get bread. Where is the wardrobe?
Sold to get rum. Where are the daughters?
Working their fingers off in trving to keep
the family together. Worse and worse until
everything i3 gone. Who is that going ud the
front steps of that house? That is a creditor
hoping to find some chair or bed that has not
been levied upon. Who are those two gen
tlemen now going up the front step' The
one is a constable; the other is the sheriff.
Why do they go there? The unfortunate is
morally dead, socially dead, financially dead.
Why. do they go there? I will tell you why
the creditors and the constables and the
sheriffs go there. They are, some on their
own account and some on account of the law.
stripping the slain. '
An ex-member of Congress, one of the
most eloquent men that ever stood in the
House of Representatives, said in his last
moments: 'This is the end. I am , dying
dying on a borrowed bed, covered bv a bor
rowed sheet, in a house built by public
$7- Bf7, me bertha tree in the1 mid
dle of the field, where I shall not be crowded,
lor I have been crowded all my life." Where
, were the jolly politicians and the dissipatinir
comrades who had been with him, laughina
at hiS 10k Drmlllln Kl 1 '
plunging him into sin? They haveleft. Why?
His .money is gone,.his reputation is gone,
his wit is gone, his clothes are gone every
thing is gone. Why should they stay any
longer? . They have completed their work.
They have stripped the slain.
There is another way, however, Qf doing
the same work. Here is a man who, through
his sin, is prostrate. He acknowledges that
he has done wrong. Now i3 the time for you
to go to that man and say, "Thousands of
people have been as far astray as you are
and got back." Now is the time for you to
go to that man and tell him of the omnipo
tent grace of God, that 13 sufficient for any
poor soul. Now is the time to go and tell
how swearing John j Bunyan, through the
grace of God,afterward came to the Celestial
City. Now is the time to go to that man and
tell him how profligate Newton came,
through conversion, to be a world renowned
preacher of righteousness. Now i3 the time
to tell that man that multitudes who have been
pounded with all the flails of sin and dragged
through all the sewe,rs of pollution at last
have risen to positive dominion of moral
powers.
You do not tell him that, do you? No.
Ton say to him, "Loan you money? No.
Too are down. You will have to go to the
dogs. Lend you a dollar? I would not lend
you five cents to keep you from the gallows.
Yod are debauched J Get out of my sight,
now! Down! You will have to stay down!"
And thus those bruised and battered men' are
sometimes accosted by those who ought to
lift them up. Thus the last vestige of hope
is taken from them. Thus those who ought
to go and lift and save them are guilty of
stripping the slain. ; :
The point I want to make is this: Sin is
hard, cruel and merciless. Instead of help
ing a man up it help him down, and when,
like Saul and his comrades,' you lie on the
field, it will come and steal your sword and
helmet and shield, leaving you to the jackal
and the crow. j
But the world and satan do not do their
work with the outcast and abondoned. A
respectable impenitent man comes to die.
He is flat on his backj. He could not get up
if the house was on fire. Adroitest medical
skill and gentle nursing have been a failure.
He has come to his last hour. What does
satan do for such a man? Why. he fetches
up all the inapt, disagreeable and harrowing
things in his life. He!says: "Do you remem
ber those chances you had for heaven and
missed? Do you remember all those lapses
in conduct? Do you remember all those op
probrious words and: thoughts and actions?
Don't remember them, eh? I'll make you re
member them." And then he takes all the
past and empties it on that deathbed, as the
mailbags are emptied on the postoffice floor.
The man is sick. He cannot get away from
them.
Then the man says to satan: "You have
deceived me. You told me that all would be
well. You said there would be no trouble at
the last. You told me if I did so and so you
would do so and so. Now you comer me
and hedge me up and submerge me in every
thing evil." "Ha, ha!" says satan. "Iwasonly
fooling you. It is mirth for me to see you suf
fer. I have been for thirty years plotting to
.get" you just where vou "are; - iffk naTdTdr
you now; it will be worse for you after
awhile. It pleases me. Lie still, sir. Don't
flinch or shudder. Come, now, I will tear
off from you the last rag of expectation. I
will rend away from your soul the l3t ho pe.
I will leave you bare for the beating of the
itorm, It is my business to strip the slain."
A man whp had rejected Christianity and
thought it all trash came to die. He was in
the sweat of a great aaronv. and his wife said.
"We had better have some prayer." "Mary,
not a breath of that," he said. "The lightest
word of prayer would roll back on m like
tociis on a drowning man. I have come to
the hour of test. I had a chance, but I for
feited it. I believed in a liar, and he ha3 left
me in. the lurch. Mary, bring me Tom Paine
that book that I swore by and lived by
and pitch it into the fire, and let it burn and
burn as I myself shall soon burn." And then,
with the foam on his lip and his hands toss
ing wildly in the air, he cried out: i 'Black
ness or darkness! Ob, my God. too late!"
And the spirits of darkness whistled up from
the depth and wheeled around and around
him, stripping the slain.
Sin is a luxury now, it is exhilaration now;
it is victory now. But after awhile it is col
lision; it is defeat; it is extermination; it is
jackatem; it is robbing the dead; it is strip
ping tne siain. Give it up to-day give it
ap! Oh, how you have been cheated on, mv
brother, from one thing to another! All
these years you have been under an evil
mastery that you understood not. What
have your companions done for vou? What
have they, done for your health? Nearly
ruined it by carousal. What have they done
for your fortune? Almost scattered it bv
spendthrift behavior. What have thev done
for your reputation? Almost ruined it with
good men. What have they done for vour
immortal soul? Almost insured its over
throw. ;
You are hastening on to ward, the consum
mation of all that is sai. To-day ycu stop and
think, but it is only for a moment, and then
you will tramp on. and at the close .of this
service you will tro out. and the question
will be, "How did you like the sermon?"
And one man will say, "I liked it verv well "
and another man wiU sav, "I didn't" like it
at all," but neither of the answers will touch
the tremendous fact that if impenitent vou!
are going at thirty knots an hour" toward
shipwreck. Yea, you are in a battle where
you will fall,-and while your surviving rel
atives will take -your remaining estate and
the cemetery will take your body the messen
gers of darkness will take your soul and
come and go about you, stripping the slain.
Many are crying out, "I admit I am slain;
I admit it." On -what battlefield, my broth
ers? By what weapon? "Poluted imagina
tion," say3 one man; "Intoxicating liquor,''
says another man; "My own hard heart J
says another man. Do you realize this
Then I come to toil you that the omnioo
tent Christ is ready to walk across this bat
tlefield and revive and resuscitate and resur
rect vour dead soul. Let Him take your"
nana and rub away the numbness, your head
and bathe off the aching, your heart and
stop its wild throb. He brought Lazarus to
life, He brought Jairus's daughter to life, He
brought the young man of Nain to life, and
these are three proof3 anyhow that He can
bring you to , life.
When the Philistines came down on the
field, they stepped between the corpses, and
they rolled over the dead, and they took
away everything that was valuable. And so
it was with the people that followed after the
armies at Chancellorsville and at Pittsburg
Landing and at Stone Biver and at Atlanta,
stripping the slain, but the Northern and
Southern women God bless them! came on
the field with basins and pads and towels
and lint and cordials and Christian en
couragement, and the poor fe!low3 that lay
there lifted up their arms and said, "Oh,
how good that does feel since you dressed
It!" And others looked up and said, "Oh,
how you make me think of my mother!
And others said, "Tell the folks at home I
died thinking about them." And another
looked up and said, "Miss, won't you sing
me a verse of - 'Home, Sweet. Home,' before I
die?" And then the tattoo was sounded, and
the hats were off, and the service was read,
"I am the resurrection and the life." And
In honor of the departed the muskets were
loaded and the command given, "Present
fire!" And there was a shingle set up at the
head of the grave, with the epitaph of
"Lieutenant in the Fourteenth Massa
chusetts regulars," or "Captain in the
Fifteenth regiment of South Carolina volun
teers." And so now, across this great field
of moral and spiritual battle, the angels of
God come walking among the slain, and
there was voices of comfort and voices of
hope and voices of resurrection and voices o
heaven.
One night I saw a tragedy on the corner
of Broadway and Houston'street. A young
man, evidently doubting as to which direc
tion he had better take, his hat lifted high
enough so that you could see he had an in
telligent forehead, stout chest; he had a
robust development. Splendid young man.
Cultured young man. Honored young man.
Why did he stop there while so many were
going up and down? The fact is that very
man has a good angel and a bad angel con
tending for the mastery of his spirit, and
there were a good angel and a bad angel
struggling with that young man's soul at
the corner of Broadway and Houston street,
"Come with me," said the good angel; "I
will take you home- I will spread my wings
over your pillow; I will lovingly escort you
all through life under surnatural protec
tion;! will bless every cup you drink out of,
every couch you rest on, every doorway you
enter j I will consecrate your tears when you
weep, your sweat when you toil, and at the
last t will hand over your grave into the
hand k)f the bright angel of a Christian re
surrection. In answer to your father's peti
tion and your mother's prayer I have been
sent of the Lord out of heaven to be your
guardian spirit. Come with me," said tha
good angel in a voice of unearthlv svmphonv.
Itwasmusic like that which drops from'a
lute oflTieaven when a seraph breathes on it.
young man! will th j good ansrel
y Christ or the bad anlel sent t h 0r
eet the rictorv ov Dy-i"t.
are interlocked this moment above vings
tending for your destiny, as 5&?tS Ju
nius eagle and condor fight midikv &
hour may decida your destiny. Alas
IEMPERANCE
"No, 40," said the bad angel; "come with
me; I have something better to offer. The
wines I pour are from chalices of bewitching
carousal; the dance I lead is over floor tes
sellated with unrestrained indulgence; there
is no God to frown on the temples of sin
where I worship. The skies areltalian The
paths I tread are through meadows, daisied
and primrosed. Come with me."
The young man hesitated at a time when
hesitation was ruin, and the bad angel
smote the good angel until it departed,
spreading wing3 through the starlight up
ward and away until a door flashed open in
the sky and forever the wings vanished.
That was the turning point in that young
man's history, for, the good angel flown, he
hesitated no longer, but started on a path
way which is beautiful at the opening, but
blasted at last The bad angel, leading the
way, opened gate after gate, and at each
gate the road became rougher and the sky
more lurid, and, what wa3 peculiar, as the
gate slammed shut it came to with a jar that
indicated that it would never open.
Passed each portal there was a grinding
of locks and a shoving of bolts, and the scen
ery on either side of the road changed from
gardens to deserts, and the June air became
a cutting December blast, and the brighf
wings 01 iae oaa angei turned to sackcloth,
and the eyes of light became hollow with
hopeless grief, and the fountains, that at the
start had tossed with wine, poured forth
bubbling tears and foaming blood, and
on the right side of the road there was
a serpent, ani the man said to the bad angel
"What is that serpent?" and the answer was!
"That is the serpent of stinging remorse. '
On the left side the road there avrs a lion,
and the man asked the bad angei. "What is
that lion?" and the answer was, "That is tho
lion of all devouring despair." A vulture
flew through the sky. and the man asfced the
bad angel, "What is that vulture?" and the
answer was, "That is the vulture waiting for
the carcasses of the slain."
And then the man began to try to pull off
him the folds of something that had wound
him round and round, and he said to the bad
angel, "What is it that twists me in this aw
ful convulsion?" and the answer was. "That
Is the worm that never dies." And then the
man said to the bad angel: "What does all
this mean? I trusted in what you saia at the
corner of Broadway an 1 Houston street; I
trusted it all, and why have you thus de
ceived me?" Then the last deception fell off
the charmer, and it said: '-I was sent forth
from the pit to destroy yoursouL I watched
my chance for many a long year. When you
hesitated that nitrht on Broadwav, I rained
my triumph. Now you are here. Ha, Vi!
You are here. Come, let 11s fill these two
chalices o! fir tni drink together to dark
nesd&nd woa ai death. Hail, hail!" Oh
'' K0THIX3 BEMAHKABLE.
An item is going tne.rounis of the cress r
the effect that, whisky fis now rcanufaci
out of old rags. We see nothing rema-ka.
ble about this. Every one knows that nea.
all the old rags now in-this country a"e mat
ufactured out of whisky, and tbre iTna
apparent reason why the process of coava--sionmaynot
work aslweil oneway as ani
other;, from whisky to' rags, and from ras
to whisky. What a beautiful business it
4 WIFE'S SAD MI8TAKH.
Mrs. Chapin, one of the W. C. T. U. wor1
ers, was once entertained in Mississippi at
the home of a young ' married couple an
the wife said to her: ("Now. Mrs. ChaS?
I'm willing to entertain you, but I don't want
you to talk temperance, for if you should
convert my husband then I'd have to banish
wine from our tF.ble. and all my friends would
call me a crank." " Mrs. Chapin spoke at the
public meeting and then made her wav
through the audience trying to get signers to
the pledge. She begged the young husband
to sign, andshe was reaching for the pencil
to do so when hi3 wife objected, and with a
smile he shook his head and said, "No."
Six years afterward (Mrs. Chapin passed
through the same place." - She was the" guest
this time of another family, but after her ad.
dress wa3 over a weeping woman and a gibl
bering drunken - man came up to greet her
It was the same couple who had entertaini
her six years before. i"Oh,'.' said the wife
"try to get my husband to sign the pledge '
"No," he cried, "I wanted to be saved once
but you wouldn't let me. Now no one caa
save me, not even God in heavenr' St.
Louis Globe-Democrat, j
WOMEN ARE MOBB IXTEMPERATE.
Intemperance among! women is increasing.
The metropolitan police . returns show that
there has been, a decided advance during th
last two year3 in the number of women ap
prehended for drunkenness. .In 133D the to-.
mi .!,: irro iuau or:.rj. jxii iovi ib was nearly
3500? - There was a corresponding growth ia
the number of "drunk and disorderly" cases
during the same period. Last year 8373
women were taken into custody on thi
eharge in London alone.
Inquiry of magistrates, clerks jailers, nn
sionaries and others whose dally duty obliges
them to Irequent. the metropolitan police
CcvLrts and petty sessions has resulted in the
accumulation of information which unfor
tunately leaves no room for doubt that the
recent magisterial -comments upon the fre
quency of feminine intoxication are more
than justified by the facts. The statements
from the bench are corroborated, too, in other
charters. London Telegraph.
TEMPERANCE. SEWS AXD NOTES.
Five distinguished physiologists of Ge
many. Drs. Bunge, Gaale, Hoffman, Forel,
auu j: ick, are total anstHiners.
Omaha. Neb., is jbeing supplied by
. the W. C. T. U. with fifteen automatic foun
tains for penny temperance drinks.
The majority of the societies in tha Mon
. treal Christian Endeavor Union, forty-six ia
number, have active temperance societies.
Mrs. Henerietta Skeleton has organized
eight new W. C. T. Unions in Ohio, where
she has been for several weoks engaged in
I worlr ' I
The "home salon" started by Bishop Fal
lows, in Chicago, is succeeding so well that
it is the intention to open three others on the
same plan. . j
Dr. Ballinger, who examined two thousand
persons in the hospital iat Munich, says he
ivjuuu mat eigui per cent, aiea oi ex-essne
oeer drinking. , j' "'
The Catholic Total Abstinence Union sent
out during the Lenten season nearly 500,000
Sacred Thirst cards, to encourage the prac
tice of total abstinence during Lent.
Saloons are the deviis toboggan slides.
They start on earth and land in hell; and all
the way down their speed increases, and the
longer the slide the less the possibility of
stopping. Christian Nation.
A peculiarity of all good machines is that
they can not be managed by drunken men.
By a process of artificial selection, all the
good places, in the world are naturally pass
ing into the hands of the' sober men.
The sale of drink is the! sale of disease; the
sale of drink is the sale of poverty; the sale
of drink is the sale of insanity; the sale of
drink is the sale of crime: the sale of drink is
the sale of death. Sir B. W. Richardson,
M.D.
TheNewYork Sun sav3 that 6000 of the
7000 saloons in New York5 are controlled di
rectly or indirectly by one of the great liquor
monopolies, and the saloonkeeper is prac
tically subject to the demands of these mo
nopolists. I
Mr. T. V. Powderly, Grand Master" Work
man, when asked his opinion as to how far
the nearest saloon should be from the school
house, replied: "About I five hundred miles
would be a ' reasonable distance, according
to my way of thinking." j
The Western Christian Advocate says:
"The Hawaiian race - is dying out rapidl?
The missionaries have- done much to elevate
the natives; but intoxicating drinks and the
accompanying vices bid fair to exterminate
the race. The saloons have more power to
destroy than the churches have to save.