The Penn's Grove record., 1893-08-04
XIV. DR.. TALMAGR.
The Brooklyn Divine's
Sunday Sermon.
Su' ject-"Children's Rights"

Su' ject-"Children's Rights"
TExT: my father. il hou last opened u,
mouth unko he Tort. do 10 me ACCORDING 4
hdt 'ohich hath proceeded out Of Thy n.outl.'
Judges XII, SO.
2 Jephthah was n freebooter. Early turne6
out from a home where he ought to hav,
been cared for. he consorted with rough mer
and went forth to earn his living as best h,
could. In those times 1t was considere
right for a man to go out on independent
military expeditions. Jephthah was a gooG
man according to the light OF his dark age.
hut through u wandering and predatory life
he became reckless and p~recipitate. The
grace of Col changes q mans heart, but
never reverses his natural temperament.
The lsraelites wanted the A%mmonitef
driven out of their country, so thew sent a
delegation 10 Jephthah. asking him to be-
come commander-in-chief OF all the forces.
He might have said, 'You drove me out
when you had no use for me. and now you
ara In trouble you van me back" but he did
not say that. He takes command Of the
army, sends messengers to the Ammonites to
tell them to vacate the country. and getting
no favorable response marshals his troops
for battle.
Before going out TO the war Jephthah
makes a very solemn vow hat II the Lord
wan CAV NM lhe NiCtDEy tltl vi u retuTD
home whatsoever first comes out of his door
way he will offer In sacrifice as a burnt Of
fering. The battle opens. It WAS no skir-
mishing on the edges Of danger, no unltna-
boring OF batteries two miles away. but tie
hurting of men on the points of swords and
spears until the ground could no more drink
the blood n the horses reared to leap over
the piles of bodies OF the slain. In those
old times opposing forces would fight until
their swords were broken, and then each one
would throttle his man until they both fell,
teeth to teeth, grip to grip, death stare to
death stare, until the plain was one tumbled
mass OF corpses from which the last trace OF
manhood had been dashed out.
Jephthah wins the day. Twelve cities lay
captured at his feet. Sound the victory ali
through the mountains of Gilead. Let the
trumpeters call up the survivors. Home
ward to your wives and children. Home
ward with u glittering treasures. Home
ward to have the applause of an admiring
Nation. Build trlumphal arches. Swing out
flags all over Mizpeh. Open all your doors
to receive the captured treasures. Through
every hall spread the banquet. Pile up the
vlands. Fill high the tankards. The Nation
Is redeemed. the invaders are routed, and the
National honor Is vindicated.
Huzza for Jephthah, the %conqueror Jeph-
thah, seated on a prancing steed, advances
amid acclaiming multitudes, but his eye Is
not on the excited populace. Remembering
that he had made a solemn vow that, return
ing from victorious battle, whatsoever first
came out OF the doorway Of his home, that
should he sacrifice as a burnt offering, he
has his anxious look upon the door. 1 won
der what spotless lamb, what brace ofdoves,
will be thrown upon the fires of the burnt
Offering. Oh, horrors! Paleness of death
blanches his cheek. Despair seizes his
heart. His daughter, his only child, rushes
--A H. a. 1919 = -
fathers arms and shower upon him more
tisses than there were wounds on his breast
or dents on his shield. All the triumphal
splendor vanishes. Holding back his child
from his heaving breast and pushing the
locks back from the fair brow and looking
into the eyes OF inextinguishable affection,
with choked utterance he says "Would
God I lay stark on the bloody plain. My
daughter, my only child, joy of my home,
life OF my life. thou art the sacrlacer'
The whole matter was explained to her.
This was no whining, hollow hearted girl
into whose eyes the father looked. All the
glory OF sword and shield vanished in the
presence of the valor of that gin. There
may have been a tremor of the lip as a rose
leaftrembles in the souSh OF the south wind,
there may have been the starting of a tear
like a ~raindrop shook from the anther Of a
water lily, but with a self sacrifice that man
may not reach and only woman's heart can
compass she surrenders herself to fire and to
death. She cries out In the words of my
text, 'My father, If thou hast opened thy
mouth unto the Lord, do unto me whatso-
ever hath proceeded from thy mouth"
She BOWS to the knife, andt the blood which
so often ut the fathers voice mad rushed to
the crimson cheek smokes in the fires of the
burnt offering. No one can tell us her name.
There Is no need that we know her name.
The garlands that Mizpeh twisted for
Jephthah, the warrior, had gone into the
dust, but all ages are twisting the girls
chaplet. 1t Is we'll that her name came not
to us. for no one can wear 1t. They may
take the name OF Deborah or Abigail or
Miriam, hut no che in all the ages can have
the title OF this daughter of sacrifice.
OF course this offering was not pleasing to
the Lord but beforeyou hurl your denuncia-
lions at J~ephthah's cruelty, remember that
in olden times, when VOWS were made, men
thought they must execute them, perform
them, whether they were wicked or good.
There were two wrong things about Jeph-
thah's vow. First, he ought never to have
made II. Next, having made II, 1t were better
broken han kept. But do not take on pre-
~tentious airs and say, ~ could not nave lone
as Jephthah did" Ifto-day you were stand
ing on the banks OF the Ganges and you had
been born in India, you might have been
throwing your children to the crocodiles. 1t
Is uOI Dtcdu5t we dTo uhlufttiy any DcttClt
but because we have more gospel light.
Now, I make very practical use of this
question when l tell you that the sacrifice of
Jephthah's daughter was a type of the physi-
cal, mental and spiritual sacrifice of 10, 900
children In this day. There are parents all
unwittingly bringing to bear upon their chill
dren a class OF influences which will as GER
tainly ruin them as knife and torch destroyed
Jsphthah's daughter. While i speak, the
whole Nation without emotion and without
shame looks upon the s~tupendous sacrifice.
In the first place, / remark that much OF
the system Of education In our day Is q sys-
TEN Of sacrifice. When children spend six
or seven hours a day In school, aud then
must spend two or three hours in prepara-
tion for school the next day, will you tell me
how much time they will have for sunshine
and fresh air n the obtaining OF tha exu-
berance which is necessary for the duties of
coming life?
No one can feel more thankful than I do
for the advancement of common school edu-
cation. The printing OF books appropriate
for schools, the multiplication OF phflosoph-
zeal apparatus, the establishment OF normal
schools, which provide for our children teach
ers OF largest ealiber, are themes on which
every philanthropist ought to be congratulate
ed. But this herding OF great multitudes of
children In Ill ventilated school-rooms n
poorly equipped halls OF instruction Is max
Ing many OF the places oil knowledge In this
country huge holocausts.
Politics in many of the cities gets into cd
vocational affairs, and while the two political
gparties are scrabbling for the honors Jeph-
thah's daughter perishes. 1t is so much so
hat there are many schools inthe country to-
day which are preparing tens OF thousands
of Invalid men and women for the future, so
that in many places by the the time the
child's education is finished h child Is I'm
ished! In many places, in many cities ot'he
country, there are large appropriations ;or
everything else and cheerful appropriations,
but as soon as the appropriation is to be
made for the educational or moral interest of
the city we are struck through with an ec,n-
omy that Is well nigh the death OF us.
In connection with this l mention Whit /
might call the examining system OF the erm-
mon schools and many OF the academies
children OF delicate brain compelled to tasks
that might appall q mature intellect. chill
dren going down to school with a strap OF
books half as high as themselves. The fact