Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-12-15
RIZPAH ON THE ROCK
Or. TALMAeE ON THE DEEP TRAGEDY
or THE SONS OF SAUL.

The Crime OF saul Destroyed His Pos
terity as Wen as Himself-The AgonIes
of Bereaved Mothers-The Herolnes of
History.
BROOKLYN, Dec. 4.-This is one of those
discourses of DIR. Talmage delivered from
texts which no one seems to have used be-
fore. Important and practical lessons were
drawn. The opening hymn, in which many
thousands joined, was:
Come, ye disconsolate, where'er ye languish.
The subject of the sermon was "Rizpah
on the Rock" the text selected being II
Samuel xxi, 10, "And Rizpah, the daugh-
ter Of Allah, took sackcloth and spread it
for her upon the rock, from the beginning
of harvest until water dropped upon them
out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds
of the air to rest on them by day nor the
beasts of the field by night"
Tragedy that beats anything Shake
spearean or Victor Hugoian. After return
ing from the Holy Land briefly touched
upon it, but must have a whole sermon
for that scene. The explosion and fash of
gunpowder have driven nearly all the
beasts and birds ofprey from those regions,
and now the shrek of the locomotive whis-
tie 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
multitudes of jackals and lions. Seven
sons Of Saul had been crucified on hill.
Rizpah was mother to two and relative to
five of the boys. What had these boys done
that they should be crucified2 Nothing
except to have bad father and grand
father. But now that the boys were dead
why not take them down from the glib
bets? No. They are sentenced to hang
there.
So Rizpah takes the sackcloth, rough
shawl with which in mourning for her
dead she had wrapped herself, and spreads
that sackcloth upon the rocks near the
gibbets, and acts the part of a sentinel,
watching and defending the dead. Yet
every other sentinel is relieved, and after
being on guard for a few hours some one
else takes his place. But Rizpah is on
guard both day and night for half year.
One hundred and eighty days and nights
of obsequies. What nerves she must have
had to stand that! All, do you not know
that mother can stand anythings
IdE MOIdEhS NlGlLS.
Oh, If she might be allowed to hollow a
place in the side of the hill and lay the
bodies of her children to quiet restl If in
some cavern of the mountains she might
find for them Christian sepulturel Oh, if
she might take them from the gibbet of
disgrace and carry them still farther away
from this haunts of men, and then lie be-
side them in the last long sleepl Exhaust
ed nature ever and anon falls into slumber,
but in 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 and
at vulturous brood wheeling in the sky.
The thrilling story of Rizpah reaches
David, and he comes forth to hide the in
decency. 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 a father
and grandfather! Yes. But it is always
so. Let every one who does wrong know
that he wars not only, as in this case,
against two generations, children and
grandchildren, but against all the genera
tions Of coming time. That is what makes
dissipation and uncleanness 80 awful. It
| reyerberates in other times. 1t may skip
one generation, but it is apt to come up in
| the third generation, as is suggested in the
Ten Commandments, which say, Visiting
| the iniquities of the fathers upon the chill
| dren unto the third and fourth generation" "
Mind you, it says nothing about the sec
| ond generation, but mentions the third and
| the fourth. That accounts for what you
sometimes see-very good parents with very
bad children. Go far enough back in the
| ancestral line and you find the source OF
all the turpitude. Visiting the iniquities
of the fathers upon the children unto the
| third and fourth generation" If when
Saul died the consequences Of his iniquity
could have died with him it would not
have been so bad. Alas, mol Look on that
hill few miles out from Jerusalem and
see the CHASTITY burdens of those seven glib.
| bets and the wan and wasted Rizpah watch
| ing them.
| Go today through the wards and aims.
| houses and the reformaCory institutions
| where unfortunate children are kept and
you will find that nine out of ten had
| drunken or vicious parents. Yea, day by
| day on the streets of our cities you find
men and women wrecked of evil parentage.
They are moral corpses. Like the sew
sons of Saul, though dead, unburied. Alas
| for RiZpah, who not for six months, but
| for years and years, has watched theml She
cannot keep the vultures and the jack
| ais off.
Furthermore, this strange incident in
| Bible story shows that attractiveness OF
person and elevation of position are nc
security against trouble.
THE DISCOVERED FAvoRITE.
| Who is this Rizpah sitting in desolationi
One of Saul's favorites. Her personal at
fractions had won his heart. She had been
caressed of fortune. With a mothers
pride she looked on her princely children.
But the scene changes. Behold her in
banishment and bereavement-Rizpah on
the rock!
Some of the worst distresses have come
to scenes of royalty and wealth. What
porter at the mansions gate has not let
! in champing and lathered steed bringing
evil dispatch? On what tessellated hall
has there not stood the solemn bierP I'm
der what exquisite fresco has there not
been enacted a tragedy of disaster? What
cartained couch hath heard no cry Of pain'
What harp hath never trilled with sorrow
What lordly nature hath never leaned
against carved pillar and made utterance
Of woe2 Gall is not less bitter when
Guaffed from golden chalice than when
taken from 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.
Adolphus wept in German castles over
the hypocrisy of friends. Pedro I among
Brazilian diamonds shivered with fear OF
massacre. Stephen of England sat on a
rocking throne. And every mast of pride