The Opelousas courier., 1891-01-17
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
mn BROOKLYN DIvINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.

Al one o'clock on a December afternoon
sArough Damascus gate, we are passinr o,I1
sIJerusaIem for a journey northward. HoI
I'M Bethel, with its stairs, the bottom stem ~
mhfch was a stone pillow: and Jacoh,s val
xith It's immortal colloquy; and Nazsratb
with it's divine boy in His fathers CARPENTER
stop, and the most glorious lake that ever
fippled or flashed
Blue Gaiilee, sweet GaIiiae.
The lake where Jesus loved to be;
sud Damascus, with its crooked street "a llea
Straight, and u hundred places charged and
unchanged with apostolic, evangeIsfic nro-
Shetio patriarchal, kingly and Christly rem
s~sisseAces.
ga travelling along the roads of Palestine 7
sn Impressed, as ] could not otherwise have
Been, with the fact that Christ for the most
snsrt went afoot. We find Him occasionaIlv
ID boat, and once riding in a triumphaI
5nFocession, as it is sometimes called, althauph
tseeIns to me that the hosannas OF the crowd
eOnld not have made a ride on a stubborn
minpTessdve and funny creature lie that
ahich battered with Him into Jerusalem
sery much of a triumph. But we ara made
ID undertand that generally He walked How
much that means only those know who have
zone over the distance trayersed by
Christ.
We are accustomed to read that Bethanv
b tHo miles from Jerusalem. Well. any man
b ordinary health can walk two miles with
out fatigue. But not more than one man
out Of q thousand can walk from Bethany to
Jerusalem without exhaustion. Ii is over,
Ehe Mount Of Olives, and you must climb up
among the rolling stones and descend where
exertion is necessary to keep you from fall
tag PROSTATE. |, who am accustomed to
walk fifteen or twenty miles without iaesi-
suda, tried part of this road over the Mount
uf Olives, ami confess that / would not want
torYit often, such demand does it make
ppsn ones physical energies. Yet Christ
walked it twice a day-in the morning from
Bethany to Jerusalem, and in the evening
ron Jerusalem to Bethany.
Likewise it seemed a small thing that
Christ walked from Jerusalem to Nazareth
But it will take us -four days of hard horse
back riding, sometimes on a trot and some
times on a gallop, to do it this week. The
way is mountainous in the extreme, To
shose who went up to the Tip Top house on
Mount Washington before the railroad was
hid will say that this journey from Jeru-
salem to Nazareth is like seven such Ameri-
ean journeys. So, all up and down and
across and recrossing Palestine, Jesus walked.
Ahab rode. David rode. Solomon rode.
Herod rode, Antony rode. But Jesus
walked. With swollen ankles and sore
muscles OF the legs and bruised heel and stiff
10iats and painting lungs and faint head,
&NA4tl5 ~ a la dAkAA UAC40 3BFGA0 uO
roads at all Jesus walked.
We tried to get q new horse other
than that on which we had ridden on the
Journey to the Dead Sea, for he had faults
which cur close ac-quaintanceship had devel
opea. But after some experimenting with
ether quadrupeds of that species, and finding
&satal horses, like their riders, have faults,
2ecnciudea to choose a saddle on that
beast whose faults we were most prepared
Vi pity or resist. We rode down through the
valley and then up on Mount Scopus and,
as our dFagoman tells us that this is the last
oppSrtunity we shall have of looking at Je-
gIsalem, we turn our horses head toward
the city and take q long. sad and thrilling
look at the religious capital of our planet.
This Is the most impressive view of the most
tremendous city of all time.
On and around this hill the armies of tho
crusaders at the first sight &C the city
threw themselves on their faces in worship
Here most of the besieging armies en-
ramped the night before opening their vol
lers DC death against Jerusalem. Our last
ln0kl Farewell, Mount Zion, Mount
Merjah, Mount of Olives, Mount Calvary
VIII we never see them again? Never.
TIE world is so large end time is so short.
bud there are SO many things we have never
seen ab raj, that we cannot afford to duplicate
visits or see anything more than once. Fare
well, yonder thrones OF gray rock, and the
thhrse thousand years Of architecture and
battle6elds. Farewell, sacred, sanguinary,
triumphant, Inundated Jerusaleml Across
this valley Of the KedTon with my right
hai1d / throw thee d kiss of valedictoFy. OuT
LIST book, like our first look, an agitation OF
body. mind and soul in~describable.
And now, like Ezekiel in my tent, I lift
mp mine eyes the way toward the north.
Near here was one of the worst tragedies o,
tbs ages mentioned in the Bible. a hospitable
old man coming home ut eveatidc from his
RGrk IN the fields finds two strangers, a hsIs.
band and wife, proposing to lodge In the
street because no shelter iscfTerad them, and
Invites them to come and spend the night IN
biz home. During the night the Tuffiails OF
Tho neighborhood conspired foeetasF, and
surrounded the house, and left the woman
dead on the doorstep, and the husband, fc
sally in revenge the twelve tribes,
aut tile corpse Of the Wona lnn
Twelve parts and sent a twelfth OF 10 20 aach
tiba, aud the fury Of the nation was rouse J,
Md q 53eremptory demand was made for tht
surrender of the aesassins, and, the demand
refused. in one day twenty tlp;;satit people
weYe left dead on the field end tba next oaJ
Ninhteeu thousand. Wherever our horse GO
DAY plants his foot in those ancient times q
corpse lay, and the roads were crossed by red
FaTlaaets oil carnage,
Au2 we pass on to where seven youths
were pa6 to death and their bodies glib
hRtea or hing in chains, not for anything
taey had themselves done, but as d repair
atlna fer what their father and grand
S 1sther, Saul, had done. Burial was denied
these youths from May until November.
Rlzpah, the mother of two of these dead
hGys, appoints herself as sentinel to guard
fass seven corpses from bsaz OF raven and
1egthof wolf and paw Of lion. She pitches
. black tent on the rock close BY the
Eihbets. Rizpah by day sits on the ground
MIront of her tent, and when yultfre pc
GINS to lower out of the monday sky seeking
81 prey among the gibbets Rizpah rises, her
long hair flying In the wind, and swinging
laer arms wildly about Shoes away the
bird Of prey until it retreats to its eyre. Al
fightEhe rests under the shadow OF her tent,
Ana sometimes falls into q drowshless OF naat
Eaeep. But the step of a Jackal among Gne
my hayes or the painting OF d hyena arouses
Aers and with the fury Of o maniac she rllsiles
PVT tlpon the rock crying. away AWAY
and then, examining the gibbetS to see that
xleF still keep their burden, returns again g
fler tent till some swooping wing from tne
midnight sky or some growing monster On
tite rock again wakes her.
mother WEIGHING her dead children
xshkpugh May, June, July, August Septenl-
narand Octoberl What a vigil Painters
nave tried to put upon canvas the scene. and
fbey succeeded in sketching the hawks IN the
skK and the panthers crawling out from tie
Jungle but they fail to give the wanness'
earnestness, the supernatural courage
sAe infinite self sacrifice Of Ri2pah, tas
mother. Another in the quiet home watch
INC by the caskeb OF d dead child Tor on
NAsllt exerts the artist to his utmost but Wns
y sufficient to put upon canvas q mother 70
faontlas of midnights guarding her whole
zasnaly. dead and gibbeted upon the mount
EFs
6o home Rizpahs You 1nzat p aWfulls
tired. You are sacrificing your reason ant