The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1892-12-09
AT THE TABERNACLE.
DR.. TALMAeE FINDS MANY LESSONS
IN THE TRAGEDY OF RlZPAH


Dead Is but the Type of Millions of suf-
fering and sorrowing women-The Sons
Suffering for Their Fathers Crime.
BROOKLYN, Dec. 4.-This is one of
those discourses Of DIR. Talmage deliv-
cred from texts which no one seems to
have used before. Important and prac-
teal lessons were drawn. The opening
hymn, in which many thousands Joined,
was:
Come We disconsolate where'er We languish.
The subject of the sermon was "Riz-
pah on the Rock" the text selected be-
ing II Samuel xxi, 10, Sand Rizpah,
the daughter 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 re-
turning from the Holy Land l briefly
touched upon it, but l must have whole
sermon for that scene. The explosion
and flash of gunpowder have driven
nearly all the beasts and birds of prey
from those regions, and now the shrek
of the locomotive whistle which is daily
heard at Jerusalem will for many miles
aDund 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 crucifed on a hill. Rizpah
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 But now that the boys were
dead, why not take them down from the
gibbets? 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 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 and for half a 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 anything?
DENIED EVEN BURIAL PLACE.
Oh, if she might be allowed to hollow
,,1o ~, tba ci1n Of fba hill o,,l Low,
the bodies of her children to quiet rest!
If in some cavern of the mountains she
might find for them Christian sepulture!
| Oh, if she might take them from the
gibbet of disgrace and carry them still
farther away from the haunts of men,
and then lie beside them in the last long
sleep Exhausted 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 glar
ing from the thicket and at vulturous
brood wheeling in the sky. The thrill
ing story Of Rizpah reaches David, and
he comes forth to hide the indecency.
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 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
second 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 sad. Alas, no! Look on that
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 ter
had drunken or vicious parents. Yea
day by day on the streets of our cite.
you find men and women wrecked Of
evil parentage. They are moral corpses
Like the seven sons of Saul, though
dead, unburied! Alas for Rizpah, who
not for six months, but for years ant
years, has watched them! She canno
keep the vultures and the jackals off.
Furthermore, this strange incident il
the Bible story shows that attractivenes
Df person and elevation of position ar,
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 Sh,
had been caressed of fortune. With /;
mothers pride she looked on her prince
~ children. But the scene changes
Behold her in Punishment and bereave
ment-Rizpah on the rock!
Some of the worst distresses hav
come to scenes of royalty and wealth
What porter at the mansions gate ha
not let in champing and lathered steet
bringing evil dispatch? On what ties
sellated hall has there not stood the sol
emn bier? Under what exquisite fresc
has there not been enacted a tragedy o
disaster? What curtained couch hat
heard no cry Of pain? What harp hat
never triled with sorrow? What lordl
nature hath never leaned against carve
pillar and made utterance of woe? Ga
is not less better when quaffed from
golden chalice than when taken from
pewter mug. Sorrow is often attende