Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1889 — HOMEWARD BOUND. [ARTICLE]

HOMEWARD BOUND.

FOLLOW THE TRACK YOUR LOVED ONES WENT If Ton Would Join Them in the Eternal Rest—The Way la By the ■ Path ot Faith and Tribulation. { —. . ' ii Last Sunday's subject of Dr. Talmage’s sermon was “The March Homeward.” i and the text, I. Samuel, cLap. xxx.,v. $: “Piireue, tor thou shaft surety overtake them, and without -fail recover ail,” Dr. Talmage said: There is intense excitetaent in the village of Z klag. David and his men are bidding good-bye to their families, and are of) for she wars. In that little village of Zihlag the .defenseless ones will be safe übtil the warriors, flushed with victory, come home. But will the defenseless ones be safe? The soft arms lof children are around the necks of the bronzed warriors until they shake themselves free and start, and handkerchiefs and flags are waved, and kisses thrown, until the armed men vanish behind the bills. David and his men soon get through with their campaign, and start homeward. Every night on their .way home no sooner does the soldiei put his head on j 1 the knapsack than in his dream he hears the welcome of the wife and the Bhout of the child. With glad, quick step they march on,,for they are marching home. Now they come up to tho last hill which overlooks £iklag, and they, expect in a moment to see the dwelling places of their loved ones. They look - , and as they look their cheeks turn pale, aDd their lip quivers, aud their hand involuntaraily comes down on the hilt of thesword. “Where is Ziklag? Where j are our homes?'’ they cry. Alas! the ; curling smoke above the ruin tells the tragedy. The Amalekites have come down and consumed the village, and carried the mothers and the wi»es and the children of David and his men into captivity. The swarthy warriors stand for a moment transfixed with horror. Then their eyes glauce to each other, 1 and they burst into uncontrollable weeping; for when a strong man weeps the grief is appalling. It seems as if the emotion might tear him to pieces. They “wept until they had no more power to weep;” But soon their sorrow turns into rage, and David, swinging his sword high in air, cries: “Pursue! for thou shall overtake them and without fail recover all.” Now the march becomes a “double-quick.” Two hundred of David’s men stop by the Brook Besor, faint with fatigue and grief. They-can not go a step farther. They are left there. But the other four hundred men upffjer David, with a sort of panther step, march on in sorrow and in rage. find by the Bide of the road a ha!i-dead Egyptian, and they resuscitate him and compel him to tell the whole story.

He savs: “Yonder they went, the captore and the captives,” poi t ting in the direction. Very soon David and his enraged company, come upon the Amalekitish host Yonder they see their own wives and children and mothers, and under Amalekitish guard. Here are the officers of the Amalekitish army bolding a banquet. But, without note oi bugle or warning of trumpet, Dtvid and his four hundred men buret upon the scene suddenly as Robert Bruce hurled his Scotchmen upon tbe revelers at Bannockburn. David and his men look Hp, and one glance at their loved ones in captivity and under Amalekitish guard throws them into a very fury of determination; for you know how men will tight when they fight for their wives and children. Amid the upset tankards and the costly viands crushed underfoot, the wounded Amalekites lie (their blood mingling with their wine), shrieking for mercy. No sooner do David and his men win the victory than they throw their swords down in the dust—what do they want with swords now?—and the broken families come together amid a great shout of joy that makes the parting scene in Zialagseem very insipid in the, comparison. And then the empty tankards are Bet up, and they are filled' with the best wine from the hills, and David and his men, the husbands, the wives, the brothers, the sisters, drink to the overthrow of the Amalekites and to the rebuilding of Ziklag. So, 0 Lord, let thine enemies perish! Now they are coming home—David and his men and their families—a long procession. Men, women and children, loaded with jewels and robes, and with all kinds of trophies that the Amalekites had gathered up in years of conquest—everything now in the hands of David and his men, When they come the brook Besor, the place where staid the men sick and incompetent to travel, the jewels and the robes and all kinds of treasures are there divided among the sick as well as among the well. Surely, the lame and exhausted ought to have some of the treasures. Some mean fellows objected to the sick ones having any of the spoils. The objectors said: “These men did,not fight.” David, with a magnanimous heart, replied: “As his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the Btuff.” This subject is practically suggestive to me. Thank God, in these times a man can go off on a journey, and be gone weeks and months, and come back and Bee his house untouched of incendiary, and have his family on the step to greet him, if by telegram he has foretold the moment,rifvhis coming. But there are Amalekitish disasters arid there are Amalekitish diseases, that sometimes coihe down upon one’s home, making as devastating work as the' day when Ziklag took fire. There are families in my congregation w hose homes have been broken up. No batteringram smote in the door, no iconoclast crumbled the statues, no fiatfie leaped amidst the curtains; but so far as all the joy and merriment that once belonged to that house are concerned, the home has deputed. Armed diseases came down upon the quietness of the scene —scarlet fevers, or pleurisies, Or consumptions, or undefined disorders came and seised upon some members of that family, and carried them away. Ziklag .in ashes! And yon go about, sometimes weeping and sometimes enraged, wanting to get back your loved ones as much as David and his men wanted to reconstruct their despoiled households. I preach this sermon to-day because I want to rally you. as David rallied his men, for the recovery of the loved and the lost. I want not only to win heaven, but I want all this congregation to go along with me. I feel that somehow I have a responsibility in your arriving at that great city. I nave on other Sab-

hatha used other inducements. I mean to-day for the sake of variety, hoping to reach your heart, to try another kind of inducement. Do yon really want to join the companionship of your loved ones who have gone? Are you as anxious to join them at. David and his, men were to join their families? Then I am liere, in the name of God,- to say that yon may, ami to tell you how. I remark, in the first place, if you want to join your loved ones in glory you must travel the same wav they went No sooner had the half dead Egyptian been resuk-itated than he pointed the way that the/ captors and captives had gone, and David and his men followed aifter. So our Christian friends have gone into another country, and if we want to reach tneir companionship we must take the aarne road. ‘ They repented; we must repent. They prayed; we mußt pray. They trusted in Christ; we must trust in Christ. They lived a religious life; we m st live a religious life. They were in some things iilte ourselves. 1 know, now that they ate gone there is a halo around their names; but they had their faults. They said and did thiDgsthey ought never to have been said and done. They were sometimes rebellious, sometipjes cast down. They were tar from being perfect. Bo I suppose that when we -have gone some things in us that are now only tolerable may be almost resplendent. But as they were like us in deficiencies, we ought to be like them in taking a supernal Christ to make up for the deficits. Had it not been for Jesuß they would have all perished,but Christ confronted them, ana said: “I am the way,” and they took it. Our friends have done into glory, and it is through much tribulation that we are to enter into the Kingdom. How our loved ones used to have to struggle! How their old hearts ached! How sometimes they had a tussle for bread! In our childhood we wondered why there were so many wrinkles on their faces. We did not know that what, were called “crow’s feet” on their faces were the marks of the black raven of trouble. Did you never hear the old people, seated by the evening stand, talk over their early tiials, their hardships, the burials, the disappointments, the empty flour barrels, when there were so many hungry ones to feed, the sickness almost unto death, where the next dose of morphine decided between ghastly bereavement and unbroken home circle? Oh, yes! it was trouble that whitened their hair. It was trouble that shook the cup in their hands. It was trouble that washed the luster from their eyes with the rain of tears until they needed spectacles. It w-as trouble that made the cane a necessity for their journey. _

I remark again, if we want to win the society of our friends in heaven, we will not only have to travel a path of laith and a path of tribulation, but we wiil also have to positively battle for their companionship. David and his men never wanted sharp swords and invulnerable shields and thick breastplates so much as they wanted them on the day when they came down upon the Amalekites. If they had lost that battle they , never would have got their families back. I suppose that one glance at their beloved ones in .captivity hurled them into the battle with ten-fold courage and energy. They said, “we must win it. Everything depends upon it. Let each one take a man on the point of spear or sword. We m st win it.” And I have to tell ybu that between us and coming into companionship of our loved ones who are departed there is an Austerlitz. there is a Gettysburg, there is a Waterloo. Wp with the world, war with the flesh, wag with the devil. We have either to conquer our troubles or our troubles will conquer us. You say thatall this implies that our departed Christian friends are alive. Why had you any idea they were dean? They have only moved, If you should go on tbe 2d of May to a house where one of your friends lived and found him gone, you would not thing that he was dead. You would enquire next door where he had moved to. Our departed Christian friends have only taken another house. The secret is that they are richer now than they once were, ana can afford a, better residen e. Y 1 hey once drauk out of earthenware; they now drink from the King’s chalice. “Joseph is yet aliive,” and Jacob will go up and see him. Living are they? Why, if a man can live in this damp dark dungeon of earthly captivitv, can he not live where he breathes the bracing atmosphere of the mountains of heaven? Oh, yes they are living! Do you think that Paul is so near dead now as he was when he was living in the Roman dungeon? Do you think that Fredric.i Robertson, of Brighton, is as hp was when year after year, he slept seated on the floor, his head on the bottom of a chair, because he could find ease in no other position? Do you think that Robert Hall is as near dead now as wh -non his couch, he tossed in physical torture*? No. Death gave them the few black drops that cured them. That is all death does to a Christian. It cures him. I know that what I have said implies that they are living. There is no question about that. The only question this morning is whether you a ill ever join them. But I must not forget those two hundred men who fainted by the tjirook Besor. And yet David, when he comes up to them, divides the Bpoile among them.. He say- they shall have some of the jewels, some of the robes, some of the treasures. I look over this audience this morning and I find at least two hun- { dred who have fainted by the brook 1 Besor—the brook of tears. * You feel as if you could not take another step further, as though you could never look up 1 again. But lam going to imitate David and divide among you some glorious 1 trophies. Here is a robe: “All things work together for good to those who I love God.” Wrap yourself in that #ori- ■ OUB promise. Here is for your neck a string of pearls, made out of crystallized tears: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy,cometli in the morning.” Here is a coronet: “Be thou faithful Onto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” Oh! ye fainting ones by the brook Besor, dip your bin-bred feet in tbe running stream of God’s mercy. Bathe your brow at the wells of salvation. Soothe your wounds with the balsam that exudes from the tree of life. God will not utterly cast yon off, oh, broken-hearted mao, oh, broken-heat ted woman, fainting by the brook Besor. May God Almighty, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, bring ns into tbe companionship of our loved ones who have already entered the heavenly land, and entered tbe presence of Christ, whom, not having seen, we

love, and so David shall recover all, “and as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the staff.” THE TROiIBI.ES IN.SAMOA. Am ei leans Kti d»nt and thi- American Flag Suffer I dl(n t» i, i_ The latest froth Samoa is of the most serious character.- The Germans continue active championship of their choice of Kings. Recently they attacked Mataaja’s forces but were repulsed. Since then, they have committed many outrages and indignities, their ire being especially manifested toward Americans. The property of 1 many Americans was desiroyed and the American flag deliberately fired upon. In one or two instances Americans resident were arrested by the German officers, carried on board their vessels and subjected to indignities. American warships are on the scene, bu‘ have taken no active part, fbrther than to offer protests against German excesses. The Samoan Times, published at Apia, and which has been impartial in its accounts of the events on the isands, gave the following version of the fight on Dec. 18: At 2 o’clock on the morning of Tuesday eighty sailors from the Olga were landed, and forty more were sent in boats along the cosst, the eighty mea marching on land to meet Mataafa. At a German farmer’s plantation the shore party were reinforced by all the imported laborers, said to be New Britain men, so that Mataafa was between the 200 men who came down the day . before and the German sailors and foreign laborers. Mataafa, knowing the danger of interference with the German soldiers, retired inland a few hundred vards. The Germans followed and fired into Mataafa’s people, killing a young man, son of the chief. The chief, getting terribly excited, was only prevented by his own people irom firing into the Germans, but while struggling against the former’s efforts he himself was shot and fell dead beside his Bon. Mataaf i’s people could not stand this, and by common impulse, without orders, returned the fire. Their first volley killed six Germans and wounded others. Several of Tamasese’s men find and the laborers refused to fight it out. Knowing that this meant certain death against vast odds, the sailors beat a hasty retreat to their boats, Mataafa’B warriors following them some distance. Mataafa lost about ten killed and wounded, while the German loss is stated at twenty killed. Among thw dead is Lieutenant Siger. The United States steamer Nipsic steamed to Saluafata on Tuesday, on hearing that German war ships were gtfihg to shell Mataafa’s stronghold.; Captain Mullan had communications with the German commanders, and entered his protest against their reported project. His protest was not taken notice of. however, for the Olga threw shells into the spot where Mataafa was supposed to be, but which he had vacated. ' —*_ While the United States man-of-war Adams was at Apia, early in December, it appears that an American’s house was invaded and his country’s flag, found therein, cut to pieces by I amasese’s men from their stronghold at Mulinu point. Captain Leary, of the Adams, Bent a categorical question to the German consul as to w hether Tamasese’s headquarters were under German protection or not. Failing to get a reply within reasonable time the captain of the Adams began making arrangements for landing a battalion and throwing up fortifications facing Tamasese’s fort. He was determined, if no satisfaction were given for the outrage, to march his men upon Tamasese’s stronghold and take that chieftain prisoner. The intention of the captain becoming known, great commotion ensued in Tamasese’s camp, and at 10 o’clock on the same night the evacuation of Mulinu point was begun with vigor. Secretary Bayard stated on the 21st that the State Department had gone to the extreme limit of its discretion in itrving to arrange the trouble over the Samoan islands m a dignified and honorable manner. The Senate had been furnished with all the corn-spondence on the subject, and it now remained for that body to define the policy of the government in dealing with the subject lurther. Secretary Whitney was also interviewed. He said he thought the time had arrived for this government to establish and maintain a definite line of poljcy in regard to the islands of the Pacific ocean. He commended Captain Mullau’s conduct at Latonga, and said the United States steamer Nipsic has been instructed to remain at Samoa, where she will be shortly joined by th© Trenton and the vandaiia. Mr. Whitney says the three vessels ordered-jto Samoa will probably be sufficient to protect the American interests there in case of emergency. The impression prevails in Cabinet circles that. Germany b&s exceeded the hounds of propriety, and, as a member of the Cabinet remarked “an issue should be made with her at once.”

WASHINGTON NOTESAn event in the House Wednesday, was a speech by Charley Yoorhees in favorot territorial admission. He had prepared himself elaborately aad began speaking deliberately from manuscript, but as be wa-med up to the subject he discarded bis notes and spoke with much force and fervor. He displays more than ordinary eloquence of the character that has made the Tall Sycamore famous, and he not only commanded the attention of the House bul brought forth frequent applause. Under call of States for bills in the House, Monday, several long bills were introduced and their reading called for by Messrs. Gheadle and Pavson, Republicans. This resumes the filibustering ou the suspension of the rules on Monday, which the D inocrata agreed in caucus to omit. It is expected this will put Mr. Weaver on his mettle and he may make a long tight to keep np the legislative day till thg Oklahoma bill is considered. - ) The Benat(j, Friday, adooted an ameudmenl to the,tariff bill allowing a bounty of l centr'per pound on sugar made from beets, sorg urn or sugar can£ grown in the United States—the Democrats, except P tyne, votine against it, and the Reonblieens, except Quay, voting for the amendment. Mr. Boutelle. of Maine, says that Blaine will be Secretary of State. ,