Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-10
Dr., Talmage Back in BROOKLYN,
Where He breaches of Rahab.
A LESSON TAUGHT By THE SPIES
Who Saved the Only House that Survived
the Fall Of Jericho.
WHAT SCARLET MEANS TO A CHRISTIAN
RPECIAL. 10 TIE pIsrLrcHI


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, %: "And the young men that
were spies went in, and brought out Rahab,
and her father, and her mother, and her
brethren, and all that she had" He said:
When, only a few weeks ago, visited
Jericho, L said, can it be possible that this
dilapidated place is the Jericho that Mark
Antony gave as a wedding present to Cleo
patra? 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 Salome told the people that
Herod was dead? Where is the sycamore
tree on the limb 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
everything on the fated day, save one house
on the wall. That scene centuries ago
comes back to me as though it were vester-
day.
There is very sick and sad house in the
poverty? No. Worse than that Is it lep-
rosy? No. Worse than that. Is 1t death?
No. Worse than that. A daughter has
forsaken her home. By what internal plot
she was induced to leave 1 know not; but
they look in vain for her return.
HOPE CRUSHED TO EARTH.
Sometimes they hear a footstep very much
like hers, and they start up and say: 'She
hrTfo lr- N uipk hoo
disappointment. Alasl Alas! The father
sits by the hour, with his face in his hands.
saying not one word. The mothers hair is
becoming gray too fast, and she begins to
stoop so that those who saw her only little
while ago in the street know her not now as
she passes. The brothers clench their fists,
swearing vengeance against the despoiler of
their home. Alasi will the poor soul never
come back? There is q long, deep shadow
over all the household. Added to this
there is an invading army six miles away,
just over the river, coming on to destroy the
city; and what with the loss of their child
and the coming on of that destructive army,
I think the old people wished that they
could die
That is the first scene in this drama of
the Bible. In a house on the wall of the
city is that daughter. That is her home
now. Two spies have come from the invad-
ing army to look around through Jericho
and see how best it may be taken. Yonder
is the lost child, in that dwelling on the
wall of the city. The police hear Of it and
soon there is a shutting Of feet all around
about the door, and the city government de-
mands the surrender of those two spies,
First, Rshab-for that was the name of the
lost child-frst, Rahab secretes the two
spies and gets their pursuers off the track;
but after awhile she says to them: "I will
make bargain with you. l will save your
life if you will save my life, and the life of
my father and my mother, and my brothers,
and my sisters, when the victorious army
comes upon the city,"
HOME NEVER FORGOTTEN.
o, she had not forgotten her home vet,
you see. The wanderer never forgets home.
Her heart breaks now as she thinks of how
she has maltreated her parents, and she
wishes she were back with them again, and
she wishes she could get away from her sin
full enthrSllment; and sometimes she looks
up in the face of the midnight, bursting into
agonizing tears. No sooner have these two
spies promised to save her life, and the life
of her father, and mother, and brothers, and
sisters, than Rahab takes a scarlet cord and
ties it around the body of one of the spies,
brings him to the window, and, as he clam
bers out-nervous lest she have not strength
to hold him-with muscular arms such as a
woman seldom has, she lets 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 successfully lets him
down to the ground. No sooner have these
men united the scarlet cord from their
bodies than they look up, and they saw:
''You had better get all your 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 victorious
army comes up, and sees thst scarlet thread
in the window, they will spare this house
and all who are in it. Shall it be SOP" cried
the spies. aye, ave." said Rahab, from
the window, sit shall be SC"
SECOND AND THIRD SCENES,
That is the second scene in this Bible
drama. There is knock at the door of the
old man. He looks up, and says: "Come
in, and lol there is Rahab, the lost child;
but she has no time to talk. They gather
in excitement around her, and she saws to
them: Get ready quickly, and go with
me to my house. The army is coming! The
trumpet! Mske haste! Flyl The enemy"
That is the third scene in this Bible
drama. The hosts of Israel are all around |
about the doomed city OF Jericho. Crash |
goes the great metropolis, heaps on heaps. |
The air sutfocating with the dust, and hor- |
rlble with the screams of a dying city. All |
the houses nat down. all the people dead. |
An no, no. On a crag of the wall-the |
only piece of the wall left standing there 1
is house which we must enter There is a
family there that have been spared. Who
are they? Let us 20 and see. Rahab. her
father, her mother, her brothers, her sisters,
all safe, and the only house left standing in
all thescity. What saved them? Was the
house more firmly built? o, no; it was
built in the most perilous place-on the
wall; and the wall was the first thing that
FELL Was 1t 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 tell me
why? o, it vas the scarlet line in the
window. That is the fourth scene in this
Bible drama. When the DESTROYING angel !
vent through Egypt, it was the blood of the !
amb on the door-posts that saved the Is
'aelites; and now that vengeance has come
ipon Jericho it is the same color that as
lures the safety of Rahab and all her house
lold.
MUST BE MEANS OF RESCUE.
NY friends, there are foes coming upon
is, more deadly and more tremendous, to
,Verthrow our immortal interests. They
will trample us down and crush us out for
,ver, unless there be some skillful mode of
rescue open. The police of death already
begin to claInor for our surrender; but,
blessed be God, there is a way out It is
through the window, and by a rope so satu-