Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-12-10
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Di2ine's Sun.
day Sermon.
Subject. "nispah on the Rock"

hedren, ana suffered neither the birds of tn
l DIR to rest on them By day nor the beasts OF
the fed By night."-II Samuel xxi, 10.
Tragedy that beats anything Shake
spearean or Victor Rugoian. After return
ing from the Holy Land briefly touched
I uponif, but must have whole sermon for
that scene. The explosion and fash OF gun
powder have driven nearly NIL the beasts
and birds OF prey from these regions. AMI
: 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 cruciied on a hill R,zoah 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
bad father and grandfather. But now
thet she boys were dead, why not take them
=. down from the gihbets? No. They are
sentenced to hang there.
So Riz9ah taxes the sackcoth-a rou III
shawl with which in mourning for her dead
she had wrapped herself-aad spreads that
sackcioth upon the rocks ne the gib5ets,
and acts the part OF a seminal watching
and defending the dead Yet every other
sentinel is relieved, AMI after being on
guard for few hours soma one else takes
his place. But. Rizpah is on guarl both
u1 anu ulguG anu lot UaiI d year. Ole
/ hundred an 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 q
place in the side of hill and lay the
bodies OF her children to quiet restl If in
some cavern Of the mountains she might
find for them Christian sepuiture! Oh. it
she might take them fro n the gibbet of dis
. prapa and carry than still farther
from the haunts of men. ard then lie beside
them in the last long sleepl Exhausted ma
ture ever and anon falls into slumber, but in
a moment she breaks the snare and chides
herself as though she had been cruel, an1
leaps up on the rock shouting at wild beast
giaring from the thicket ana at vulturous
brood wheeling in the sky. The thrilling
story of Riz2ah reaches David AMI he comes
forth to hide the intecsncy. The corpses
had been chained to the trees The chains
are unlocked with horrid ciank, and the
skeletons are let down Ali the seven are
buried, and the story ends:
But it hardly ends before you cry out
"What hard thing that those seven bays
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, caildren and grandchildren, ut
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
apt to come up ia the third generation, as is
suggested in the Ten Commandments,
which say, Visiting the iniquities of the
father upon the children unto the third ami
fourth generation.
Mind you, it says nothing about the Sec
oud generation, but mentions the third ami
the fourth. That accounts for what you
sometimes see-very gooi parents with very
bad children. Go far enough bacA 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 iniquty could have
lied 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 gibbets aui
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 ne 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, nos
for six months, but for years and years, has
watched theml She cannot keep the vul-
lures and the jackals off.
Furthermore this strange incident in the
Bible story shows that attrdctiveness of
person and elevation of position are no Sc
eurity againt trouble.
Who is this Rizpah sitting in desolat on?
One of Sau's fayorites. 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 bauish-
ment and Recommendations on the rock
Some Of the worst distressas have come to
scenes o. royalty ami wealth. What por-
ter at the mansions gate has not let in
champing and latlereI steed bringing evil
dispatch? On what tassellated hall has
there not stood the solemn bier? I'm
der what exquisite fresco has there
not been enacted a tragedy of dis
astel? What curteinei couch hath heard
no cry of PAM " hat harp hath never Thrill. e1
with sorrow? What lordly nature hath
never ieaned against carved pillar and maie
utterance OF Voc; Gall is not less bitter
when qualfed from a golden chalice than
when taken from pewter mug. Sorrow is
often ATTENDED by running footmen and
laced acseys mounted behind. Queen Anne
Boleyn is desolate in the palace of Benry
/ VIII.
AGolphus wept in German castles over
the hypocrisy Of friends PeIro l. among
! Brazilian diamonds shivered with fear Of
massacre. Stephen of England sat on a
gOc6iIls throne. And every mast Of pride has
been bent in the storm, and the highest
/ mountains of honor and fame are covered
with perpetual snow. Sickness will frost the
rosiest cheek, wrinkle the smoothest brow
and stlif4n the sprightliest step. Ri2pah
quits the courtly circle and sits on the rock.
Perhaps YOU look back upon scenes differ.
eut from those in which now from day to
day you mingle. You have exchanged the
plenty and luxuriance of your fathers house
for privation and trial known toGod and your
own heart. The morning of life was dushe
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 barked
like jackais from the thicIet. You stand
amid your slain anguishei and woe struck.
Rizpah on the roc.
So it has been in all ages Fashti must
dOff the spangled robes Of the Persian court
and go forth blasted fro II the palace gate.
Hagar exchanges oriental comfort for the
wilderness OF Beershebs. Mary, queen of
Scots, must pass out from f1attery and
pomp to suffer ignominiouS death in the
castle OF Fotheringay. The wheel of fortune
keeps turning, ami mansions and huts ex-
change, and be who rode the chariot pushes
the barrow, and instead OF the glare of
festal lights is the simmaring of the peat
tire and in place of Saups palace is the
roGk-the cold rock. the desoiate rocS
But that is the place 30 which God comes.
Jacob, with his head on stone saw the
shining ladder. Israel in the desert bebeld
the marshaiing OF the fiery baton John on
barren Patmos heard trumpetiug, ani the
ciepping of wings, and the stroke of sera-
phic fingers on golden harps, and nothing
tut heavenly strength nerved Rizpah for her
appalling mission amid the scream of wild
birds and the stealthy tread of hungry mon
sterS. The grandest visions OF glory, the
most rapturous experiences o. Christian
love, the greatest trium2hs of grace have
come to the tried and the hard pressed, and
the betrayed, and the crushed. God stoop =
rug down from heaven to CO Mort Ri2pah on
the rock.
., Again, the tragedy OF the text DISPLAY.
the courage Of woman amid great emerye
eies. What mother or sister or daugh aar
would dare to go out to fight the corrnora nj
and jackal? Rizpah did it. And so wou'd
you If an emergency demanded. Woman Is
naturally tlmid and shrinks from exposura
aud depends on stronger arms for the achieve.
Ihent OF great enterprises. And she is often
troubled lest there might be occasions do.
manding fortitu lie when she would fail Not
SO. Some OF those who are afraid to loo;
out oil the door after night-fall. and who
quake in the darkness at the least uncertain
sound, and who start at the slam of the door
and turn pale in thunderstorm, if the day
OF trial came, would be heroic and invulner-
able.
God has arranged it so that that woman
needs the trumpet of some great contest OF
principle or affection to rouse up her SUM
berlUg courage. Then she Will stand under
the crossfre of opposing hosts at Chalons TO
OF IN Aa1 e1,N