Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/204

 198 Southern Historical Society Papers.

a project of surpassing bravery. He has determined to scale that cliff with his drawn sword in his hand, and attack that mighty host single-handed. What utter madness ! A single sword against an armed multitude ! No matter. The Lord God of Israel will nerve his arm ; and if it be madness, it is just such madness as a religious faith is capable of inspiring. To morrow, at the dawn of day, we see the valiant young prince scaling that craggy steep, and behind him steals his courageous armour-bearer. Now he draws himself up on the summit of the rock, and in an instant his terrible sword strikes the sentinel posted there to the earth. On he goes toward the camp of his enemies, like a young god infuriate ; and as he goes he slays. Twenty Philistine warriors fall before him, and his armour-bearer slays after him. He reaches the camp, and the sleeping enemy start up from slumber and come forth from their tents in dazed and stupid amazement, while the sword of Jonathan deals wide havoc. Confusion seizes the Philistine host. In the uncertain light of the dawn each man takes the other for an enemy, and treacherous allies embrace the opportunity to break a hated allegiance and turn their swords against their late comrades.

The confusion grows wider, and grows wilder. Utter panic and rout ensue. A great army, lately flushed with victory, is in full flight, and on its rear, reaping a harvest of death, flashes and gleams in the morning light the single sword of Jonathan.

I search in vain the annals of war for an action parallel with that in the superb audacity of its conception and in the splendid valor with which it was executed. And yet, not one in ten of you all ever heard of it before. There it is, recorded on the page of Holy Writ, but it never arrested your most casual attention. If Herodotus had told the story, or Plutarch, or Walter Scott, you would have heard it a thousand times in your childhood, and you would have told it again and again to your children after you.

A distinguished divine, recently speaking in this place, said of a certain Psalm upon which he was commenting: "This is the soldier's Psalm." He might with equal propriety have said of the whole book of Psalms: "This is the soldier's book." How full it is, from begin- ning to end, of allusion to the camp, the battle and the weapons of a warrior. We read these glorious old hymns of antiquity, and we need no man to tell us that they are the devotional expressions of the mighty heart of a soldier. The Lord God, to him, is one who teacheth his hands to war and his fingers to fight.

His prayer is the prayer of a soldier : " Fight against them that