The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1890-02-15
TALMAGE AT HOME.
Again He breaches to His
People in Brook
Ign.
A Great Audience Welcomes
Him at the Accad-
envy of Music.

Him at The ACCdu-
envy of Music.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, Special.-The Rev. T.
De Witt Talmage, D.sD., resumed preaching
in Brooklyn this morning, after his visit to
the Holy Land, and the Academy OF Music
was crowded. Thousands of people were not
able to get into the building. The subject OF
his discourse was "The House on the Wall"
DR.. Talmage took for his text Joshua vi, 20:
And the young men that were spies went in,
and brought out Rahab, and her father, and
her mother, and her brethren, and al that
she had" Hcsaid:
When, only a few weeks ago I visited Jeri-
cho. ! said, can it be possible that this dilap-
idated place is the J Jericho that Mark Antony
gave as q wedding present to Cleopatra:
Where are the groves of palm trees?
Where are Herod's palaces that once stood
here? Where is the great theater from the
stage of which Salo me told the people that
Herod was dead? Where is the sycamore
tree on the int of which Zaccheus sat when
Jesus passed this place? Where is the wreck
of the walls that fell at the blowing of the
rams horns? But the fact that all these
have disappeared did not hinder me from
seeing in Imagination the smash of every
thing on the fated day, save one house on
the wall. That scene centuries ago comes
back to me as though it were yesterday.
There is a very sick and sad house in the
city of Jericho. What is the matter? Is it
poverty? No. Worse than that. Is it lep-
rosy? No. Worse than that. Is it death?
No. Worse than hat. A daughter has for
saken her home. By what in'erna! plot she
was induced to leave l know not; but they
look in vain for her return. Sometimes they
hear a footstep very much like hers, and
they start up and say, "She comes!" but only
to sink back again into %disappoin tment.
Alas! Alas! The father sits by the hour, with
his face in his hands, saying not one word.
The mothers harris becoming gray too fast.
and she begins to stoop so that those who
saw her only a little while ago in the street
know her not now as she passes. The broth
ers clinch their fists, a swearing vengeance
against the despoiler of their home. Alas!
will the poor soul never come backP There
j. long, deep shadow over all the house.
hold. Added to this there is On invading
army six miles way, just over the river,
coming to destroy the city; and what with
the loss of their child and the coming on of
tudt OeStFucClf0 army i tnluk the OtO people
wished that they could die. That in the first
scene in this drama of the Bible. In q house
on the wall ofthe city is that daughter. That
is her home now. Two spies have come from the
invading army to look around through Jeri-
cho and see how hest it may be taken. Yon.
der is the lost child, in that dwelling on the
wall of the city. The police hear of it, and
soon there is the shutting of feet all around
about the door, and the city government DE-
mands the surrender of those two spies.
First, R~ahab-for that was the name of the
lost ~child-frst, Rahab ~secretes tho two spies
and gets their p%ursuers off the track; but aft
or a while she says to them: 81 will make a
you will save M life, and the Ii of my
father and my mother, and my brothers, and
my sisters when the victorious army comes
upon the city" o, she had not forgotten
her nome yet, you see. The wanderer never
forgcts home. Her heart breaks now as she
thinks of how she has maltreated her pa
rents, and she wishes she were back with
them again, and she wishes. she could get
away from her sinful enthrallment; and some
times she looks up in thefaceo fthe midnight.
bursting into agonizing tears. No sooner
have these two spies promised to save her
lie, and the life Of her father, and mother,
and brothers, and sisters, than Rahab takes
a scarlet cord n ties it arouhd the body of
one Of the spies, brings him to the window,
and as he chambers out-nervous lest she
should not have strength enough to hold
him-with muscular rms such as woman
seldom has. she let's him down, hand over
hand, in safety to the ground. Not being
exhausted, she ties the cord around the other
spy, brings him TO the window, and Just as
success ully let's him downto the ground. No
sooner have these men united the scarlet
cord from their bodies than they look up,
friends in this house-your father, your
mother, your brothers and your sisters: you
had better get them In this house. And then,
after you have them here, take this red cord
which you have put around our bodies and
tie it across the window; and when our vic
let thread in the window, they will spare this
house, and all who are in it. Shall it be
cried the spies. "Aye, ave." said Rahab, from
the window. 1T shall be So" That is the
second scene in this Bible drama. There is a
knock at the loo Of the old man. He looks
up and says, Come in" and 10! there Is
Rahab, the lost child; but she has 40 time to
talk. They gather in excitement around her.
and she says to them: Get ready quickly
and go with me to nv house. The army is
coming! The trumpet Make haste! Flyl The
enemy!' That is the third scene in this Bible
drama. The hosts of Israel are around about
the doomed city Of Jericho.
Crash! goes the great metropolis, heaps on
heaps. The air suffocating with dust, and
horrible with the screams of @ dying city.
All the houses fat down. All the people
dead. All, no, no. On q crag of the wall
the only piece of the wall left stauding-there
is u house which We must enter. There is q
family there that have, been spared. Who
are they? Let us &C and see. Rahab, her
father, her mother, her brothers, her sisters,
oil safe, and the only house LEFT standing In
all the city. What saved them? Was the
house more firmly built? Oh, no; it was
built in the most perilous place-on the wall;
and the wall was the first thing that fell.
Was it because her character was any better
than any of the other population of the city?
o, no. Why. then, was she spared and all
her household? Can you toll me why? O., it
was the scarlet line in the window That ID
the fourth scene in. this Bible drama. When
the destroying angel went through Egypt, it
was the blood of the lamb on the door posts
that saved the Israelites; md now that
vengeance has come upon Jericho
It is the same color that assures the safety Of
Rohab and all her household. Ny friends
there are foes coming upon, US, more deadly |
and more tremendous. to overthrow our inn. |
mortal interests. They will trample us
down and crush us out forever, unless there
be some skillhLl mode OF rescue open. The |
police of death already begin to clamor for
our surrender; but, blessed bs God, there is !
o way out. 1t il. through the window, and
by q rope SO saturated with the blood of the
cross, that it is as red ms that with which the |
spies were lowered; Int at once our souls
shall be delivered. then with the scarlet
cord stretched across the window OF our es-
cape, we may defy all bombardment, earthly
and Satanic.
In the first place, carving out the idea Of
my text, we must stretch this scarlet cord