Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-05
His Biography Is a Blank, but Some
thing Is Known About Him.
HE WAS A FEARLESS PREACHER.
1t Was Sinful Time, in Which He Spoke
His Burning Words.
HIS SERMONS APPLICABLE TO-DAY
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH.

4
about 800 years. There were two campaign
in this war, in one of which the chief en-
emy was Assyria, in the other Chaldea. The
main event of the first campaign was the
destruction of the city of Samaria by the
Assyrians, and the carrying away of great
numbers of the population of the northern
kingdom into captivity. The main event Of
the second campaign was the destruction OF
the city of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and
| the carrying away of great numbers of the
population of the southern kingdom into
captivity. Then came up another mighty
nation, or combination of nations, and laid
hold upon this Assyrio- -Chaldean power and
put it down-the Medes and Persians. And
this new power permitted the exiled He
brews to go home again; and SO the long war
was over.
Four Natural Divisions.
1t might be better, perhaps, to say that
the last twelve books of the Old Testament
fall into four divisions, rather than three.
Some were written before the war, some
during the AssyrIan campaign, some during
the Chaldean campaign, and some after
the war was ended. This is the order of
the books, according to this division: Q0
before the war, Amos and Hosea; (2) dur
ing the Assyrian campaign, Micah, Nahum
and Zephaniah; (3) during the Chaldean
campaign, Habakkuk, part of Zachariah,
and Obadiah; az after the war, Joel, part
of Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi and Jonah.
The prophet whose life and writings We
are to study to-day lived just as the war
changed from one campaign to the other. In
his day Nineveh was destroyed, the power
of Assyria was destroyed with it, and the
Chaldeans of Babylon were just beginning
to be the rulers of the East. The prophets
name was Zephaniah. Who knows any
thing about the prophet Zephaniah? No
body knows very much about him. We GO
to the commentaries hoping to learn some
thing, and we read in the very first SEN
tence this: "The biography of Zephaniah is
absolutely blank"
What Zephaniah Tells of Himself.
And yet we do know something about
Zephaniah, after all. He tells us two
things about himself, plainly. He tells us
the names of three or four generations of
his ancestors, and he tells us the name of
the King in whose reign he lived. Now we
will have to take these two facts, and use
them, if we can, as the naturalists do, who
find two bones and studying them diligently
animal. Out of these two facts we are to
construct biography of Zephaniah.
Zephaniah tells us that his fathers name
was Cushi, and his grandfather's name was
Gedaliah, and his reat-grandfather' name
was Amariah, and his great-great-grand-
fathers name was Hizkiah Queer sounding
names, they seem to us. And as we don't
know anything about the people to whom
these names belonged, they don't give us
very much information. But Zephaniah
was evidently proud of them. A man does
I not SET GOWN the Ialnes Oh ms ancestors TO
Ile iouiln senefallon 9hIesS he !nlnks tnem
PelsoIdses ~ GohSI9eraple importance.
9one tnihh ~ tn1t tne hlzhian OF TINS list was
had rnnaI hIeod s ip ii. .n sHas case MePnanian
case II is Main that he vas mon of ,ooJ ~
family. possibly man of wealth. certainIv
No, of pos;.,.,
All +lo n,ora banor IT, 49,
fo. thasa ria;,, s,,niea, , LII, W HIphanian an
tba more bnnor fo bin, nuns tnr soal VI hls. All
aao;nst tbe nr;noos ond ih 4ho iGr Speahing out
nI;asts . and tho rnu tne JauSs, anu tne
ffat;nn tha ,aorlo,s w II, y, nis uay, anu
More commo1Iv fbe nloin rrasahns aatns' 'neM i
comes from, tbe feida ILL., " .iu - peoPie' ne
the VILLAGES Ike Micob Ha o' IL ~ vi @ nion
The rich are natnraII~ conserro.; 20 q poof .nan
heen said that no nan iS sn +in,id 49,, of t nas
as tbe man wbo two pn;II;nrs ou - I,an pn
in higb nns;t;on 49, orn natrraii,, etU n IecPie
Notnro1fv COW for o,,ar14h; oonsea s,, tatite.
eyoeeJ;ngi waii u;tb 49,, iEhs soinS vi
hetter;nS Tbav orc not darr;rnS' af HetL .L ~
rigbts nor oro,,nS Sonr,, ~ a. IL; y. tIen ut
ars no, storS;Ur =; tono. U"m my tme ulr'' they
WelI Jona zanhaninh ~ nouses
with tho Sorrows of ndhars s W fs!hnpa.nlze hl&
vomr own onJ ~ proon1, tha ny Mele
Cod aoa;1st the eH;ls of vnur t;msi 'f1Un oUn ot
the hest things abort tbe dars in Irhioh Ghe y.
live is that men of wea1tb and - ros;ti Gnivn we
awake to the wrongs which ps,Wi Pe1 socie4r %,e
and are oiv;ng tbeir hes+ tbnnahts eA aS s9Cf, Icy,
,nu hoS. a. uneu oes. 1nougnIs anu thelr
WV
Darkes. Lnsianc ana the way Out.
ZephanIan Is giving 51,o0o,ooo over IN |
hnglanu W heiP tne man VINO purposes to I
'earch Lohuoh WIN candles, as the |
proPnet says ana TO orlnS Ilght into Its |
black corners; Inc pest irlend OF the people |
'o-day Is Zephanian. III he only knew the |
zeal way TO rlgnt the peoples wrongs, |
'ney Wouio get rlSnted fast enough. Our
nineteenth century Aephanlah recognizes
NAT tne people nave wrongs, ana that Is
tseli great step IN adSance.
Aephanidn goes on ron telnng us the
names Oh ms great-grandIathers to tell us
'notner ana more important name, the
. IL L. &c &C Io,;,L -. &C ~ y >, |
q 1ne Gays Oh ooslan, son OF Anon, Alng
u = uuan. Ian NS~' tnlnA a Oh Alng OF judah
,eing the son Oh man named anon! For
1inon "as 1he nane Q! one ci tne great
,eltles OF EgyPt. 1oslans grandfather,
men, named ms son a1ter one OF the
ssgyPtlan gods: dhat was almost as bad as
a man In TINS Ghrlstlan country were to
lame "a ms son Judas. 1t was defiance of
III rlght rehglous sentiment Take that
mort name ana hoid 1t up, and you can
oo5 through IL, Ike a telescope, into the |
and and the age In which Zephaniah
lVed.