The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1890-11-27
TALMAGES SERMON.
Eighth Discourse Of the Holy Land
Series.
among tho Bedonlns of Northern Paies-
tine Old Customs that DO Not
Change Jacobs Well
and Its Lessons.


taking for his text:
Forasmuch as thou knowest how we are
to encamp in the wilderness. Numbers, X,
3D.
Night after night we have slept in
tent in Palestine. There are large viii
iages of Bedouins without house, and
for three thousand years the people of
those places have lived in black tents,
made out OF dyed skins, and when the
winds and storms wore out and tore
loose these coverings, others of the
iame kind took their places. Noah
lived in tent; Abraham in a tent
Jacob pitched his tent on mountain.
Isaac pitched his tent in tho valley.
Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. In
tent the woman Jael nailed Sisera,
the General, to the ground, first
having given him sour milk called
'leben" as soporific to mako him
soundly sleep, that being the effect of
such nutrition, as modern travellers can
testify. The Syrian army in a tent.
The ancient battle-shout was: ITO
your tents, o Israeli Paul was tent
maker. Indeed, Isaiah, magnificently
poetic, indicates that all the human
race live under blue tent when he
says that God ''stretcheth out the
heavens as a curtain and spreadeth
them out as tent to dwell in" and
Hezekiah compares death to the strik-
ing of tent, saying: my age is re-
moved from nse as shepherds tent"
In our tent in Palestine tonight |
hear something / never heard before
and hope never to hear again. 1t is the
voice of a hyena amid the rocks near
by. When you may have seen this
monster putting his mouth between the
and he gives a humiliated and sup
pressed cry But yonder in the mid
night on throne of rocks he has moth
ing to fear and he utters himself in a
loud, resounding, terrific, almost super
natural sound. splitting up the dark
ness into deeper midnight 1t begins
with howl and ends with sound
something like horses whining. In
the hyena's voice are defiance and
strength and blood -thirstiness and
crunch Of broken bones and death.
am glad to say that for the most
part Palestine is clear of beasts of prey.
The leopards, which Jeremiah says can
not change their spots, have all disap-
peared, and the lions that once were
common all through this land and used
by all the prophets for illustrations of
cruelty and wrath, have retreated be-
fore the discharges Of gunpowder of
which they have an indescribable fear.
But for the most part Palestine is what
it originally was. With the one excep-
tion of wire thread reaching from
Joppa to Jerusalem and from Jerusalem
to Nazareth and from Nazareth to
Tiberias and from Tiberias to Damas-
Gus. that one nerve of civilization the
telegraphic wire (for we found ourselves
only few minutes off from Brooklyn
and New York while standing by Lake
Galilee), with that one exception, Pales-
tine is Just as it always was.
Nothing surprised me so much as the
horse falls dead and, though the sky
may one minute before be clear of all
wings. in five minutes after the skies
are black with eagles cawing, scream
ing, plunging, fighting for room, con-
tending for largest morsels of the ex-
tinct quadruped. Ah, now understand
the force of Christ's illustration when
He said: "Wheresoeyer the carcass is
there will the eagles be gathered to-
gether." The longevity of those eagles
is wonderful. They live fifty or sixty.
and sometimes hundred years.
All, that explains what David
meant when no says: "Thy youth is
renewed like the eagles" l saw a
shepherd with the folds of his coat far
bent outward and ! wondered what was
contained in that amplitude OF apparel,
and | said to the dragoman: What has
the shepherd got under his coat?" And
the dragoman said: "It is very young
lamb he is carrying; it is too young and
too weak and too cold to keep up with
the flock" At that moment ! saw the
lamb put its head out from the shep-
herds bosom, and / said: There ii is
now, Isaiahs description of the tender
ness of God-He shall gather the lambs
with His arm and carry them in His
BOSOM"
suppose when Jacob began to dig
this well on whose curb we are now
seated this December noon, it was dry
season then as now and some one comes
up and says: Now, Jacob, suppose you
get the well fifty feet deep or two hun
dred feet deep and there should be no
water to fill ii, would you not feel sill
ly?" People passing along the road and
looking down from Mount Gerizim or
Mount Ebal near by would laugh and
say: THAT is Jacobs we'll, great hole
in the rock, illustrating the mans
folly" Jocob replied: There never
has been a we'll in Palestine or any
other country, that once thoroughly
dug was not sooner or later filled from
the clouds, and this win be no excep-
ton" For months after Jacob had
the we'll people went by and
out of respec- for the deluded old man
put their hand over their mouth TO hide
a snicker. and the well remained as dry
as the bottom of kettle that has been
hanging over the fire for three hours.
But one day the sun was drawing water
and the wind got round To the east and 1t
began 10 drizzle and then great drops
splashed all over the well-cnrb and the
heavens opened their reservoir and the
rainy season poured its floods for Elk
weeks and there came maidens TO the
we'll with empty pals and carried them
away full and the camels thrust their
mouths into the troughs and we're satis-
fed, and the water in the we'll was
three feet deep, and fifty feet deep and
two hundred feet deep, and all the Be-
douins Of the neighborhood and all the
realized that Jacob was wise
in having his own we'll My hearer, it
Is your part TO dig your own we'll and il
Is Gods part to fill IL You do your
part and He Will do His part
But here we found ourselves at Ja-
cob's we'll. the most famous well in his
tory, most distinguished for two things,
because ii belonged 10 the old patri-
arch after whom it was named, and for
the wonderful things which Christ said,
seated on this we'll curb, to the Sama-
titan woman, We dismount from our
4 -. "a a., a "A Irfy1fsrxy ref,t no1 onr "A m era-