The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-12-21
" RIZPAH ON THE R0Ck !"
The Subject of an Eloquent Sermon
by Rev. It. Dewitt Talnaage, DID
Practical Lessons Drawn From an Ancient
Tragedy-The Courage of Women
Amid Great Emergencies-Wo
men of Ancient and Modern
Times Who Have Made
Great Sacrifices.

The subject of Rev. DR.. Talmage's re-
Rock" the text selected being IL
Samuel, xxi 10: "And 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" Following is the
sermon:
Tragedy that beats anything Shakes
pearean, or Victor Hugoian. After re-
turning from the Holy Land / briefly
touched upon it, but | must have a
whole sermon for that scene. The ex-
plosion 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 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
crucified? Nothing except to have a
bad father. and grandfather. But now
that the boys were dead why not take
them down from the gibbet.. No.
IN tananl 10 ha, thara Go
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 re-
lieved, 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 year. One hun
dred and eighty days and nights of OBJ
| seguics. What nerves she must have
had to stand that. All! do you not
know that a mother can stand any
thing?
o, if she might be allowed to hollow
place in the side of the hill and lay
the bodies of her children to quiet rest!
If in some cavern of the mountains she
might find for them Christian sepulture.
| O, if she might take them from the
gibbet of disgrace and carry them still
further away from the haunts of men
| and then lie beside them in the last
| lone CT Al n a
anon falls into slumber, but in mo-
ment she breaks the snare, and chides
herself as though she had been cruel
and leaps upon the rock shouting al
wild beast glaring from the thicllet
and vulturous brood wheeling in the
sky. The thrilling story of Rizpat
reaches David, and he comes forth tc
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 sever
are buried. And the story ends.
But it hardly ends before you cry out
What q hard thing that those sever
boys should suffer for the crimes of s
father and grandfather! Yes. But i
is always so. Let everyone who doe!
wrong know that he wars not only, a,
in this case, against two generations
children and grandchildren, but agains
all the generations of coming time
That is what makes dissipation and un
cleanliness so awful 1t reverberate'
in other times. 1t may skip one gener
l ~ 1n,,t &c n,lt 70 ,,.t !,
tkAd generation, as is suggested in tn,
Ten Commandments, which say: wis
iting the iniquities Of the fathers upoI
the children unto the third and fourtl
generation" Mind you, it says moth
ing about the second generation, bu
mentions the third and the fourth
That accounts for what you sometime
see, very good parents with very baC
children. Go far enough back in tn
ancestral line and you will find tn,
source of all the turpitude. "Visitin!
the iniquities of the fathers upon tn
children unto the third and fourth gen
Grafton" If, when Saul died, the con
sequences of his iniquity could hav
died with him. it would not have beef
so sad. Alas, no! Look on that hill
few miles out from Jerusalem and Sc
the CHASTITY burdens of those seven glib
bets and the wan and wasted Rizpa1
watching them. Go to-day through tn
wards and almshouses and the reforms
tory institutions, where unfortunat
/. children are kept, and you will fin
| kat - - af ta,, ho1 -
vicious parents. Yea, day by day o.
the streets of our cities you find me
and women wrecked of evil parentage
They are moral corpses. Like the seve
sons of Saul, though dead, unburied
Alas for Rizpah, who, not for 81
months, but for years and years, ha
watched them. She cannot keep tn
vultures and the jackals of.
Furthermore, this strange incident i
Bible story, shows that attractivenes
of person and elevation of position ar
no security against trouble.
, Who is this Rizpah sitting in desol;
ton? One of Sauls favorites He
, personal attractions had won his hear
{ She had been caressed of fortune Wit
, mothers pride she looked on he
princely children. But the seen
changes. Behold her in banishmen
Rizpah on the rock.
: Some of the worst distresses hay
r come to scenes of royalty and wealth
. What porter at the mansions gate h9
not let in champing and lathered stee
bringing evil dispatch? On what tie
2 | selated hall mas there not stood the so