The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-01-19
MOTHERS IN ISRAEL.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE'S ELOQUENT SER
MON AND UNIQUE TEXT.


BROOKLYN, Jan. 14.-This novel and
unique subject was presented by DR..
Talmage this forenoon to the usual
throngs crowding the largest Protestant
church in America. The congregation,
led by organ and cornet, sang gospel
hymn to the tune of Home, Sweet
Home" Text, Judges v, 2S, "The
mother of Sisera looked out at WIN
dow"
Spiked to the ground of Jael's tent
lay the dead commander in chief of the
Canaanitish host, General Sisera, not
far from the river Kishon, which was
only dry bed of pebbles when in 1889,
in Palestine, we crossed it, but the gul
lies and ravines which ran into it indi-
Gated the possibility of great freshets
General Sisera had gone out with 900
iron chariots, but he was defeated, and,
his chariot wheels interlocked with the
wheels of other chariots, he could not
retreat fast enough, and so he leaped to
the ground and ran till, exhausted, he
went into Jael's tent for safety. She
had just been churning, and when he
asked for water she gave him butter
milk, which in the east is considered
most refreshing drink. Very tired, and
supposing he was safe, he went to sleep
upon the floor but Jael, who had re-
solved upon his death, took tent pin,
long and round and sharp, in one hand
and a hammer in her other hand, and,
putting the sharp end of the tent pin to
the forehead of Sisera. with her other
hand she lifted the hammer and
brought it down on the head of the pin
with stout stroke, when Sisera strug-
gled to rise, and she struck him again,
and he struggled to rise, and the third
time she struck him, and the command
er in chief of the Canaanitish host lay
dead.
MEANING OF THE TEXT.
Meanwhile in the distance Sisera's
mother sits amid surroundings of wealth
and pomp and scenes palatial waiting
for his return. Every mother expects
her son to be victorious, and this moth
er looked out at the window expecting
to see him drive up in his chariot fol-
lowed by wagons loaded with embroid-
cries and also by regiments of men van
pushed and enslaved. | see her now
sitting at the window, in high expecta-
ton. She watches the farthest turn of
the road. She looks for the flying dust
of the swift hoofs The first flash of
the bit of the horses bride she will
catch.
The ladies of her court stand round
and she tells them of what they shall
have when her son comes up-chains of
gold and carcanets of beauty and dresses
of such wondrous fabric and splendor
as the Bible only hints at, but leaves us
to imagine. HE ought to be here by
this time, says his mother. THAT bat
tie is surely over. | hope that freshet
of the river Kishon has not impeded |
him. | hope those strange appearances |
we saw last night i'll the sky were not |
ominOus, when the stars seemed to fight |
in their courses. No! No! He is so brave
in battle | know he has won the day.
He will soon be here But alas for the |
disappointed mother! She will not see
the glittering headgear of the horses at
full gallop bringing her son home from
victorious battle. AS a solitary mes
senger arriving in hot haste rides up to
the window at which the mother of Sis
era sits, he cries, Your armies are de-
feated, and your son is dead " There is
scene of horror and anguish from which
we turn away.
Now you see the full meaning of my
short text, The mother of Sisera look.
ed out at window" Well, my friends,
we are all out in the battle of life; it
is raging now, and the most of us have
mother watching and waiting for news
of our victory or defeat If she be not
sitting at the window of earth, she is
sitting at window of heaven, and she
is going to hear all about it.
BY all the rules of war Sisera ought
to have been triumphant. He had 900
iron chariots and a host of many thou
sands vaster than the armies of Israel.
But God was on the other side, and the
angry freshets of Kishon, and the hail,
the lightning and the manageable
warehouses;, and the capsized chariots
and the stellar panic in the sky dlscom-
flied Sisera. Josephus in his history
describes the scene in the following
words: when they were come to
close fight, there came down from heav-
en- a great storm with vast quantity
of rain and hail, and the wind blew the
rain in the face of the Canaanites and
SO darkened their eyes their arrows and
sings were of no advantage to them,
nor would the GOODNESS of the air permit
the soldiers to make use of their swords,
while this storm did not so much in
commode the Israelites because it came
ON their backs. They also took such
courage upon the apprehension that God
was assisting them that they fell upon
the very midst of their enemies and
alew great number of them, so that
some of them fell by the Israelites, some
fell by their own horses which were put
into disorder, and not few were killed
by their own chariots"
Hence, my hearers, the bad news
brought to the mother of Sisera looking
out at the window. And our mother,
whether sitting at window of earth
ur a window of beavan will hear fba ]