Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-12-09
REV. DIR. TALMAGH.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun.
day Sermon.
Subject. "Riupah on the Rock.o

hedcen. and suffered neither the birds 9th
air to rest on them by ddy nor the beasts OF
the fed 5g aiGht."-Il Samuel xxi, 10.
Tragedy that beats anything Shake
speareau or Victor Huyoian. After return
ing from the Holy Land / briefly touched
upon It, Tut must have a whole sermon for
that scene. The explosion and fash Of gun
powder have driven nearly all the beasts
and birds Of prey from these regions and
now the shrek of the locomotive whistle
which is daily heard at Jerusalem will for
many miles around clear Palestine of cruel
claw and beak But in the time of the text
those regions were populous with multituies
Of jackals and lions Seven sons Of Saul
had been crucihed on a hill. Rizoah was
mother to two and relative 10 five OF the
boys. What had these boys done that they
should be crucified? Nothing except to have
had father and grandfather. But now
that the boys were dead, why not take than
down from the gibbets? No. They are
sentenced to hang there.
SO Rizpah taxes the sackcloth-a rough
shawl with which in mourning for her dead
she had wrapped herself-and spreads that
sackcloth upon the rocks ne the gibbete,
and acts the part OF a sentinel, Watching
and defending the dead. Yet every other
sentinel is relieved, AMI after being on
guard for few hours soma one elsa takes
his place. But Rzpah is on guard both
cay and night and for half year. One
hundred and eighty days and nights OF
obsequies What nerves she must have had
to stand that! Alb. do you not know that
mother can stand anything?
Oh, if she might be allowed to hollow a
place in the side of tie hill and lay the
bodies of her children to quiet rest II in
some cavern of the mountains she might
find for them Christian sspulture! On. ii
she might take them from TIE gibbst OF ais
grace and carry them still farther away
from the haunts OF men. aud then lie beside
them in the last long sleep Exhausted ma
ture ever and anon falls into slumber, but IN
a moment she breaks the snare and chides
herself as though she had been cruel, and
leaps up on the rock shouting at wild beast
glaring from the thicket aud at vuturous
brood wheeling in the sky. The thrilling
story of Rizpah reaches David andhs comes
forth to hide the in1ecsncy. The corpses
had been chained to the trees. The chains
are unlocked with horrid clank, and the
skeletons are let down. All the seven are
buried, and the story ends.
But it hardly ends before you cry out.
'What hard thing that those seven boys
should suffer for the crimes of father and
Let every one who does wrong know that h
wars not only. as in this case. against two
generations, children and grandchildren, hut
against all the generations OF coming time.
That is what makes dissipation and unclean-
ness so awful. IL reverberates in other
times. Ii may skip one generation, but 1t Is
apt to come up in the third generation, as is
suggested in the Ten Commitments
which say. Visiting the iniquties OF the
father upon the children unto the third aud
fourth generation
Mind you, il SAYS nothing about the sec
oud generation but mentions the third AMI
the fourth. That accounts for what you
sometimes see-very cool parents with very
bad children. Go far enough baca in the
ancestral line aud YOU find the source of all
the turpilude. Visiting the iuiquities of
the fathers upon the children unto the third
aud fourth generation" II when Saul died
the consequsn ces OF his iniquity could have
lied with him it would not have been 30
sad. Alas no Look on that hill a few
miles out from Jerusalem and see the
chastity burdens of thoss seven glbbets and
TIE wan and wasted Riz9ah watching them.
60 to-day through the wards ami aims
houses ana the refOrmatOry institutions
where unfortunate children are kept and you
will find that ne out OF ten had drunken or
vicious parents. Yes, day by day on toe
streets OF our cities you find men and women
wrecked OF evil parentage They are moral
corpses. Like the seven sons OF Saul though
deal. uuburied Alas for Rzpah, who, no,
for six months, but for years and years, has
watched them, She cannot keep the vul'
lures and the jackals of.
Furthermore, this strange incident in the
Bible story shows that attrdctiveness OF
person and elevation OF position are no Sc
curity againt trouble.
Who is this Rizpah sitting in desolat. on?
One OF Sau's faVorites. Her personal at
fractions had won his hearT. She hal been
caressed OF fortune With a mothers pride
she looked on her princely children. But
the scene changes. Behold her in Danish
ment and hereayement-Rzpah on the rock
Some of the worst dstresses nave come 70
scenes o; royalty and wealth. What por-
ter at the mansions gate has not let in
champing ana latlere1 stee1 bringing evil
dispatch. On what tesscilated hall has
there not stood the solemn bier! IN
der what exqu site fresco has there
not been enacted "A tragedy oil dis
astel. What curtains1 couch hath heard
nocry of pains " hat harp hath never thrilled
with sorrow: What lortly nature hath
never leaned against carved pillar and made
utterance OF woe: Call is not lass bitter
when auaffed from a golden chalice than
when taken from n pewter mug. Sorrow Is
often ATTENDED by running footmen and
laced lackeys mounted behind Queen Anne
Boleyn is desolate in the palace Of Henry
VIII.
Adolpbus wept in German castles Over
the hypocrisy OF friends. Pedro |. among
Brazilian diamonds shiyered with fear or
massacre. Stephen Of England sat on a
rocAing throne. And every mast OF pride has
been bent in the storm, and the highest
mountains Of honor and fame are covered
with perpetual snow. Sickness will frost the
rosiest cheek. wrinkle the smoOthest brow
and stifen tue sprightlest step. Rizpah
quits the courtly circle and sits on the rock.
Perhaps YOU look back upon scenes differ
ent from those IN which now from day to
day you mingle You have exchanged the
plenty and luxuriance OF your fathers house
Tor privation and trial known toGod and your
own heart. The morning OF life was hushe
with promise Troops Of calamit.eS since
then have made desperate charge upon you:
Darkness has come. Sorrows have swoopec
like carrier birds from the sky aud barSed
like jackals from the thcket. You stan
amid your slain anguishe1 and woe strucx.
Rizoah on the roci.
So IL has been in al ages. ashtl must
doff the spaugled robes OF tue Persian court
and 90 forth blasted fro the palace gate.
Hagar exchanges oriental comfort for the
wilderness OF Beersheba. Mary, queen OF
Scots, must pass out from fattery and
pomp to suffer ignominious death In the
castle OF Fotheringay. The wheel OF fortune
keeps turning, ami man dOns aud huts ex-
change. and he who rode the chariot pushes
the barrow, and instead OF the glare oil
festal lights is the simmering OF the peat
nr,. and in place OF Saujs palace is ths
rock-ihe cold rock. thu dcsolate rOcs.
But that is the place to which God Gomez
JACOB. with his head on a stone, saw the
shining ladder. Israel in the desert bsheld
the marshaiing OF the fiery baton. John on
barren Patmos heard trumpeling, and the
clapping of wings, and the stroke Of sera-
phic fingers on golden harps, and nothing
tut heavenly strength nerved Rizoah for her
appalling mission amid the scream Of wild
birds aud the stealthy tread of hungry mon
sters. The grandest visions o, glory, the
most rapturous experiences o. Christian
love, the greatest tYiumphs of grace have
come TO the tried, aud tle harl pressed, and
the betrayed, and the crushed. God stoop-
ing down from heaven TO CO mort Rizpah on
the rock,
again, the tragedy OF the text DISPLAYS
the courage Of woman amid great emergen-
cies What mother or sister or daughter
would dare 10 90 out to fight the cormorant
and iapfal9 Ri1nob dfI al - ..-1.,sl