Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-12-16
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVlNPS SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Rizpah on the Rock

CeSC uTCtL mater dropped upon them out of
hedren, and suffered neither the birds Of the
air to rest on them By day nor the beasts of
the field by ntght."-II Samuel XXI, 10.
Tragedy that beats anything Shake
spearean or Victor Hugoian After return
ing from the Holy Land / briefly touched
upon il, but must have a whole sermon for
that scene. The explosion and fash of gum
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 multitudes
Of jackals and lions Seven sons OF Saul
had been crucifed on hill. Rizpah was
mother to two and relative 20 five of the
boys. What had these boys done that they
should be crucifed? Nothing except to have
a bad father and grandfather. 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 sackciotn-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 few hours soma 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! Alb, do you not know that a
mother can stand anything?
Oh, 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! Oh. if
she might take them from the gibbet of dis
grace and carry them still farther away
from the haunts of men, ard then lie beside
them n EyhSnS$xsH
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 ana at vulturous
brood wheeling in the sky. The thrilling
story o; Rizpah reaches David and he comes
forth t. hide the indecency. The co-pses
had been chained TO the trees. The chains
are unlocked with horrid cIank, 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 ha
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 unclean-
ness SO awful. 1t reverberates in other
times. 1t may skip one generation, butt is
suggested in the Ten Commandments,
which say, Visiting the iniquities of the
father upon the children 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
4.
and fourth generation" II 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 hill few
miles out from Jerusalem and see the
CHASTITY burdens of those seven glbbetS and
the wan and wasted RizDah Watching them.
Go to-day 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 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 and years, has
watched them! She cannot keep the vuI-
lures and the jackals off.
Furthermore, this strange incident in the
Bible story shows that attractiveness of
person and elevation of position are no
curity againt trouble.
Who is this Rizpah sitting in desolation?
One of Sauls favorites. Her personal at
fractions had won his heart. She had been
caressed of fortune. With mothers pride
she looked on her princelv children. But
the scene changes. Behold her in Danish
ment and Observation-Disclosures on the rock!
Some of the worst distresSes have come to
scenes of royalty and wealth. What por-
ter at the mansions gate has not let in
champing and Iathered steed bringing evil
dispatch? On what tessellated hall has
there not stood the solemn bier? I'm
der what exquisite fresco has there
not been enacted a tragedy OF dis
aster? What curtained couch hath heard
nocry of pain? W hat harp hath never thrilled
with sorrow? What lordly nature hath
never leaned against carved pillar and made
utterance of woe? Gall is not less bitter
when quaffed from a 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 l. among
Brazilian diamonds shlvered with fear Of
massacre. Stephen Of England sat on a
rocking throne. And every mast OF pride has
been bent in the storn. and the highest
mountains of honor and fame are covered
with perpetual snow. Sickness will frost the
rosiest cheek, wrinkle the smoothest brow
and stitfen the sprightliest sep. 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 luxCriance of Your fathers house
forprivation and trial known toGod and your
own heart. The morning Of life vas flushed
with promise. Troops OF calamities since
then have made desperate charge upon you.
Darkness has come. Sorrows have swoopeG
like carrier birds from the sky and barred
like iackais trom the thickct You stand