Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1892-12-10

BE ia. BERNACLE.
! RssTA LMAGE5 FINDS MANY LESSONS
THE TRAGEDY or RIzPAll

SDRsTA l.MAGE FINDS MANY LESSONS
TH He TRAGEDY or RlzPAll
IND sEereayed Mother Watching by Ecr
lead Is but the Tyre of Millions OF suf-
1eangs and sorrowing wo,nen-Tho Sons
sanerlng for Their Fathers Crime.
iBRooKIYN, Dec. 4.-This is one of
t tssl daconrses Of DR.. Talnage deliv
cred texts which no one seems to
5hissSeusedsbefore. Important and prac-
lessons were drawn. Tie opening
iii Whic hsmany thousands joined,
diseousolat whcre'cr yelanguish.
3. AS s Sub iiect sc the sermon was "Riz-
|. pa 9o5aThe Rock,. the: text selected be-
it, E 81 4 Samuel xxi. 10 ,s,ssAnd n5zpaha
the Til shters ofs:aiah, took ssacncloth
and spread itSfor her upon the rock.
| from the beginning of harvest until
;Water dropped upon them ont of heaven.
and suffered neither the birds of the air
| &c rest on them by day nor the beasts of
the fieldsby night"
tragedy that beats anything Shake
spcarean OF Victor Hugoian. After re-
turning from tho Holy Lana briefly
touched upon ii, hut L must have whole
sermon fol. that scene. The explosion
aud fash of gunpowder have driven
nearly all the beasts and birds of prey
ffom those regions, and now the Shrek
OF. the locomotive whistle which is daily
heard ut Jerusalem will for many miles
around clear Palestine of cruel claw and
Hcak. But in the time of the text those
regions were populous with multitudes
az jackals and lions. Seven sons of Saul
Il Had been crucifed on hill. Rizpal
was mother to two and relative to five
Of the boys. What had these boys done
that they should be crucifed? Nothing
except to have bad father and grand
father. Gut now that the boys were
dead. why not take them down from the
gibhets? No. They are sentenced to
hang there.
so Rizpah takes the sackcloth-a
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 aud for half year. One hundred
and eighty days and nights of obseqtlies.
What nerves she must have had to stand
that All, 10, You not know that
mother can stand anything?
DENIED EVEN A BURIAL PLACE.
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 rest!
,tE in some cavern of the mountains she
Knight find for them Christian sepulture!
:IDh. if she might take them from the
iEgibbet of disgrace and carry them still
11EHfsrther away from the haunts of men,
aid then lie beside them in the last long
5sseep! Exhausted nature ever and anon
stfalls into slumber, but ina moment she
Ib1 eaks the snare. and chides herself as
.:lAlugh she had been cruel, and leaps up
on tho rock shouting at wild beast glar-
ing from the thicket and at vultnrous
brood wheeling in the sky. The thrill
ing story of Rizpah reaches David, and
he comes forth to hide the indecency.
The cornses 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 a hard thing that those seven boys
should suffer for the crimes Of father
and grandfather" Yes. But it is al
ways 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
generations of coming time. That is
what makes dissipation and uncleanness
so awful. 1T reverberates 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 children unto the
third and fourth generation"
Mind you, it says nothing about the
fsecond 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 Spul died
the consequences of his iniquity could
! haye died with him it would not have
been SO sad. Alas, mol Look on that
hill few miles out from Jerusalem and
see the CHASTITY burdens of those seven
gibbets and the wan and wasted Rizpah
watching them.
Go today through the wards and aims
houses and the reformatory 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
i -ou find men and women wrecked of
evil parentage. They are moral corpses.
Like the seven sons of SAUL though
dead, unburiedli Alas for Rizpah, who,
not for six months, but for years and
years, has watched the1nl She cannot
keep the vultures and the jackals of.
Furthermore, this strange incident N
the Bible story shows that attractiveness
of person and elevation of position are
no security against trouble.
SORROWS OF THE GREAT.
Who is this Rizpah sitting in desola-
ton? One of Saul's favorites. Her per
sonal attractions had won his heart. She
had been caressed of fortune. With a
mothers pride she looked Oh her prince
BY children. But the scene changes.
Behold her in Punishment and bereave-