The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1893-01-28
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Feminine Patience and Courage and
the Strength of Maternal Love.
Tho Story OF Rixpah and Her Long and
Terrible Watch-SoYrow In High
Places Happiness In Disas-
ter-Mother's Love.

Il fl3cee- n0p plucso an DAbus
ter-Mother's Love.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered
the following sermon in the Brooklyn
tabernacle, taking for his text:
And Rizpab, the daughter OF A,ah, took sack
| cloth and spread 1t for her upon the rock. from
| the beginning of harvest until wator dropped
| upon them out OF Heaven, and suffered neither
tho birds Of the air to rest on them By day, nor
| the beasts Of the field at night.-u Samuel
xxi, 10.
Tragedy that beats anything Shalss-
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 fash 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 a hill. Rizpah was mother
to two. and relative to Eve of the boys
| What had these boys done that they
should be crucifed? Nothing except
to have 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 sacl1cloth. a rough
shawl with which in mourning for her
dead she had wrapped herself, and
| spreads the sackcloth upon the rocks
| near the gibbets, and acts the part OF q
sentinel watching and defending the
dead. Yet every other seminal is re-
ieved, and after being on guard for q
few hours someone else takes his
place. But Rizpah is on guard both
day and night and for half 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 a mother can stand any
thing,
Oh! if she might be allowed to hol-
low place in the side of the hill and
lay the bodies of her children to quiet
rest! If in some cavern of the noun
tains she might find for them Christian
sculpture. Oh! If she might take them
from the gibbet of disgrace and carry
them still further away from the
hnunts of men and then lie beside
them in the last long sleep! Exhausted
nature ever and anon falls into slum-
Der, 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 thiclxet 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:
Whats hard thing that those seven boys
should suffer for the crimes of father
and grandfather! Yes. But it is al
ways So Let everyone 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 unclean-
ness so awful 1t reverberates in other
times. 1t may skip one geenration, but
it is apt to come up in the third gener-
alton. as is suggested in the ten COM
mandments, which say: Visiting the
iniquities OF the fathers upon
the children unto tho third
and fourth generation" Mind you,
it says nothing about the second
general ton 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.
Twisting 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 hill a few miles ont
from Jerusalem and see the CHASTITY
burdens of those seven gibbets, and
the wan and wasted Rizpah watching
them. Go to-day through the wards
/ anu diiuS-lOuocS, duu tiiC ICIoHludoOEy
institutions where unfortunate chill
dren are kept, and You will find that
nine out of ten had drunken or vicious
lparents. Yea, day by day on the streets
of our cities you find men and women
wrecked of evil parcntage. 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 can not keep the vultures and the
jackals off.
Furthermore, this strange incident in
Bible story shows that attractiveness
of person and elevation OF position are
no security against trouble.
Who is this Rizpah sitting in desola.
ton? One of Saurs favorites- Her
personal attractions 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 Punishment
and bereavement Rizpah on the rock
Some of the worst distresses have
come to scenes of royalty and wealth
What porter at tho mansion gate has
not let in champing and lathered steed
bringing evil dispatch? On what ties
selated hall has there not stood ths