The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-02-14
TALMAGE AT HOME.
Again He breaches to His
People in Brook
Ign.
"A Great Audience Welcomes
Him at the Accad-
envy of Music.

envy of Music.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, Special-The Rev. I.
De Witt Talmage, D. D.. resumed preaching
in Brooklyn this n,saning, after bis visit to
the Holy Land, and the Academy Of Music
was crowded. Thousands of people were not
able to get into the hlilding The subject OF
his discourse was 1.-THE House on the Wall"
DIR. TaImags took for his text Joshua w., %:
1'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" He said:
When, only few weeks ago Twisted Jeri-
cho. said, can it be possible that this dilap-
idated place is the 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 limb of which Zaccheus sat when
Jesus passed this place? Where 10 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 q very sick and sad house in the
city of Jericho. What il the matter? Ia it
poverty? No. Worse than that. Is it lep-
rosy? No. Worse than that. Is it death?
No. Worse than that A daughter has for
saken her no me- By what in:erna! plot she
was induced to leave I 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 hair is becoming gray too fast.
and she begins to stoop 80 that those who
saw her only 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 back? There
is a long, deep shadow over all the house
hold. Added to this there is an invading
army six miles away, just over the river.
coming to destroy the city; and what with
the loss of their child and the coming on of
that destructive army think the old people
wished that they could die That is the first
scene in this drama Of the Bible. In q house
on the wall o: the city is that daughter. That
ia her homenow. TwOspies have come from the
invading army to look around through Jeri-
cho and bee how hest it may be taken. Yon-
der is the lost child. in that dwelling on the
wall of the city. The police hear oft, and
soon there is the shutting of feet oil around
about the door, and the city, government de-
mands the surrender OF those two spies.
First, Rahab-for that was the name of the
lost child-first, Rahab secretes tho two spies
and gets their pursuers off the track; but at
or a while she says to them 81 will make q
bargain with you. Il will save your life II
you will save my life, and the lie 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 home yet, you See The wanderer never
forgets home. Her heart breaks now as she
thinks of how she has maltreated her pa
rents, and che wishes she were back with
them again, and she wishes she could get
away from her sinful en- hrallment; and so me-
times she looks up in the face fthe midnight.
bursting into agOnizing tears. No sooner
have these two spies promised to save her
life, and the life o. 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 chambers out-nervous lest she
should not have strength enough to hold
him-with muscular arms 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 uly let's him downto the ground. No
sooner have these men united the scarlet
cord from their bodies than they look up.
and they say: you had better get all your
friends in this house-your father, your
mother, your brothers and your sisters: YOU
md hott uot in ic Nd
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
torious army comes up, and sees that scar
let thread i'll the window, they will spare this
house, and all who are in it, Shall it he SOL"
cried the spies. "Aye, aye" said Rahab, from
the window, lit shall he so.' ThaN 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 lo there IS
Rahab, the lost child; but she has no time to
talk. They gather in excitement around her,
and she says to them: "Get ready quickly
and go with me to my house. The army is
coming! The trumpet! Make haste! Fly! 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 saffocating with dust, and
horrible with the screams of a dying city.
All the houses fiat down. All the peope
dead. All, no, no. On a crag of the wall
the only piece Of the wall left standing-there
is IL house which we must enter There IL a
family there that have been spared. Who
are they? Let us go and see. Rahab. her
father, her mother, her brothers. her sisters,
all safe, and the only house lett standing in
oil the city. What saved them? Was the
house more firmly built? Oh. no; it was
built in the most pcr,lous place-on the wall;
and the wall was the first thing that fell
~11n n,+o hok%
than any of the other population of the city?
0, no. Why. then. was she spared and all
her household? Can you tell me why? o, it
was the scarlet line in the window. That is
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; and now that
vengeance has come upon Jericho
it ia the same color that assures the so ETY. of
Rohab and all her household. My friends
IL