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No. 10.
Tide of Battlk.
340
r.A X. ui
startled at the roar of battle, and beaten
down by the hand of tyranny. But the
tide of battle ever changes. Alexander
turned back only when his men refused to
follow him farther. Charles XII met
with a severe repulse at the battle of Pul
towa, and Napoleon on his retui n from
Russia was the herald of his own defeat
Then while the people may have at one
time indulged in the brilliant hope of vic
tory, yet at another they have been com
pelled to grope in the unwarrantable
depths of despondency. Hence the necess
ity of straining every nerve and bringing
every muscle into active play upon the
side of right. The loyal army battling for
the right will come oil triumphant, for in
right there is might, which is invincible.
Seeming defeats may for the time being
blast our hopes, yet victory will be the
glorious consumation of a well spent life.
While nations tremble at the approach
of exasperated foes, yet this is a less cause
of fear and trembling than the individu
al encounters when the enemy of his soul
approaches the inner battle ground.
Within the heart there is an unseen battle
field where the impulse of right and
wrong are struggling for the mastery. As
the battle Held of human carnage enlists
the sympathies of the nation, so the but
tle field of the inner man ought to enlist
all the powers of the human soul to pros
trate and eliminate the impulse of wrong,
and gain the victory for the impulse of
right. But how are we to do this. Bring
into resignation that will which a faisce
ing Creator has given us as a necessary
provision for battling against the evil im
pulses of our nature. Man has been pro
vided with tho necessary requisite for de
ciding between right and wrong, and then,
nothing lacking, the will, for executing
what he knows to be right, has been be
stowed. As the destiny of nations, kingdoms
and empires depends upon the tide of
battle where thousands of individuals are
concerned, so the destiny of a human soul
depends upon the tide of battle where the
impulses of a single heart arc concerned.
In the absence of a due exercise of will
power the impulse of wrong is (according
to the tendency of man's nature) apt to
gain the ascendency over the impulse of
right. Then as one victory opens the way
for another, the impulse of wrong gains
a second battle more e'isily than the first.
So gaining little by little the evil impulse
soon gains undisputed possession of the
human heart for the workings of nature's
basest metal.
The world contains as many of these
battle-fields as it does representatives of
the human voice. How few consider
these scenes of silent strife as important
as those which in comparison, although
of great magnitude and show to the natu
ral eye, yet in the results are of utter in
significance. In one case the destiny of
mortality hangs on the result; in the oth
er, immortality. Nations and men have
fought nobly for an existance, yctofttimes
have fallen on the very threshold of victo
ry. As Richard Montgomery, (raising his
strong right arm against the tyranny and
oppression of the parent stale, struggling
in the defense of freedom,) and the battle
was lost, so often does the individual,
weak and v.vary, give way to the evil im
pulses of his nature, when one more ef
fort would insure victor'. In revolution
ary times; when our country was brought
to the very verge of ruin ; when from a
succession of defeats the last faint glim
mering of hope of success had almost faded
in the distance, then it was that men be
gan to doubt the expediency of longer rej
sistaucc. The army became despondent,
and the 'identity of the American nation
bade fair to be obliterated forever. But
while in this emergency, driven almost to
desperation, Washington with his baud of
valiant soldiers reversed the tide of battle
by the wonderful and brilliant attack up
on the foe at the battle of Trenton.
Greatly astonished were the loyal troops
when they awoke to find themselves utter,
ly routed by a mere handful of the prov
incials. They had been taken unawares.
