Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1896-07-22
REV. Or. TaLuaGE.
he Eminent Divine's Sunday
SermOa. -
Subject: t'llindness for Auother's
Suke.o

TEXT: SIS thele yet anv that il left o: tn,
house OF Sau'. that n:v show him kind
ness for Jonathan's sakel So Mep
hib' 'sheth dwelt In Jerusalem, for he did EN-
continually at the kings table and was lam,
CT both his feet III Samuel tx. d; I aud IS.
Was there ever ANYTHING more romanti,
AMI chtvairous than the love Of David an,
Jonathan? At one time Jonathan was u,
and David was down. Now David is lip aut
Jonathan's family is down As you tav,
often heard OF two soldiers before going into
battie making a covenant that IL one is shot
the survivor will take charge of the body
the watch, the momentos and perhaps of the
bereft family OF the one that dies, so David
and Jonathan had made covenant, and
now that Jonathan is dead David is inquirinc
about his family that he may show kinH-
ness unto them for their father Jonathan's
sake.
Careful search is made, and a son of iona.
than by the exceedingly homey name o.
Mepht6Osheth Is found. His nurse, In his in
fancy, had lot him fall. and the fall had put
both his ankles out of place, and they had
never been set. This decrepit. moor man is
brought into the palace OF K,ng David.
David gazes upon him with melting tender
Dess, no doubt seeing in his face resem-
6iance to his old friend, the deceased Jona-
than. The whole bearing of King David
toward him seems to say: SLOW glad I am
to see you, Mephibosheth How you remind
me OF your father. my old friend and bene-
fac;or! made bargain with your father "a
good many years ago, AMI I am going to
keep It with you. What can 1 do for you,
Mephibosheth2 lam resolved what to do
l will make you q rich man. I will restore to
yon the conilscated property of your grand
father Saul, and you shall be a guest of mine
rs long rs you live and you shall be seated
at my table among the primers" 1t was too
much for Mephibosheth, and he cried out
against 1t, calling himself dead dog 'Ba
still, says David; ~ don't 10 this on your
account; I do this for your father Jonatian's
sake. l can never forget his kindness
remember when | was bounded from place
to place how he befriended me. Can l ever
forget how he stripped himself of his
c0ursier apparel and gave it TO me instead
OF my shepherds coat, and how he took off
his own sword and belt and gave tIem to
me instead OF my sling2 Oh, can never
forget him! feel as if couldn't do enough
for you, his son. don't do it for your
sake; l do it for your father Jonafhan's
sake" So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusu-
lem, for he did eat continually ut the kings
table and was lame on both his feet.''
| There is so much gospel in this quaint in.
eident that am embarrassed to know where
to begin; Whom do Mephibosheth and
David aud Jonathan make you think OF?
Mephibosheth, in the first place, stands for
The disabled human soul. Lord Byron de-
scribes sin as a charming recklessnrss, us a
galan;ry, as Don Juan; George Sand de-
scribes sin as triumphant In many intricate
plots; Gavarni, with his engraver's knife,
always shows sin as a great jocularity; but
the Bible presents it as a Mephibosheth, lame
on both feet Sin, like the nurse in the con-
text, attempted to carry Us and let us fall,
and we have been disabled, and in our whole
| moral nature we n dccrepit. Sometimes
theoiog'ans haggle about a technicality.
They Use the wo-.is ''totaI deprayity" and
| some DeOplp hplit.yp in fhp Hnpt I
| some reject it. What do YOU mean by
total depravity? Do you mean that every
man is us low he can be-? Then, 1 do
not believe it either. Int do you meau
that sin has let us fall; tiat it has scar
fei ami wounded AMI crippled our en-
tire moral nature until We cannot walk
straight and are lame in. both feet?
Then L admit your proposition. There is
not 50 much difference in an African Jungle
| with barking. howing, Kissing, fighin.
lnadruped and r''ptile. .unl paradise with
IT'S animals coming before Adam, when he
Patted them and strosei them ami gave
them names, So that the panther was az
tame As the COW and the condor as tame as
the dove-as there is between the humarssou
disabled and that soul as God originally con-
structed 1t. l do not care what the senti-
mentalis's or the pos;s say in regard to sin
In the name OF Goi declare to you tO-tiay
that SIN 1s disorganizitiOn, disinteyratiun
ghastiy disfigurttion. hohbiing deformity.
Your modern theologiHn tells you that
man Is little out OF sorts; he sometimes
thinks wrong; he sometimes acts wrong; in
deed, his nature needs little moral surgery
an outside splint. light CONF ress II little
rectification. Religion is a good thing to
have; II might some day come into use. Man
Is partially wrong, not all wrong. He Is
lame in one foot. Bring the salve of divine
grace and the ointment and the pain extrac-
tor, aud We will have his one foot cured
Man Is only half wrong, not altogether
wrong. In what IL mans nature right! In
his will, bis affections, his judgment. No.
There Is an old book that says: ''The whole
head Is sick and the whole heart faint"
Mephibosheth lame In both feet Our belief
OF the fact that sin has scar'fiei and deformei
our souls increases We 20 on in years
When you started life you thought that man
was little marred by sin AMI he was about
one tenth wrong. By the time you had gone
through the early experience OF your
trade or occupation or profession you be-
,teve that man was about half wrong. By
the time you came to midlife you believed
that man was three-fourths wrong. Put
within these past few years, since you have
been so lied about and swindled and che .ted,
you have come to the conclusion that man
Is altogether wrong, and now you can say
with the prayer book and the Bible, ''There
Is no health In US" Now you believe with
the prophet, "The heart Is deceitful, abova
al things, and desperately wicked What
over you may have believed before, now you
believe that Msphibosheth is lame on both
iest.
Again. Mephiboshe.h in the text stands for
the disabled human sou. humbled and re-
stored. When this invalid OF my text got a
command to come to King David's palace he
:rembied. The fact was that the grandfa her
Of Mephibosheth had treated David most
,hockingly. and now Mephibosheth says to
himself: "What does the king want of me?
isn't it enough that am lame2 Is he going
to destroy my life2 Is he going to wreak on
me the vengeance which he holds toward my
grandfather, Sauf It's too bad" But go
to the palace Mephtbosheth must, since the
king has commanded it. With staff and
,rutches and helped by his friends.
see MephibOsheth going up the stairs of
he palace. I hear his staff and crutches
rattling on the tessellated floor of the
:hroneroom. No sooner have these two
persons confronted each Other-Mephib-
Osheth and David, the king-than Mep-
hibosheth throws himself fiat On his face be-
fore the king and styles himself a dead dog.
In the east when man styles himself a dog
he utters the utmost term OF fself-abnegatiOn.
1t Is not a term 50 strong in this country.
where. II a dog has fair chance, he some-
times shows more nobility Of character than
some human specimens that we wot Of. but
the NANCY ours OF the oriental cities, as
know by my own observation, are utterly
detestable. Mephibosheth gives the utmost
term OF SelI-loatnlhX Wnen ne compares hlm-
self to a dog. and dead at that.
Consider the analogy. When the COM
mand is given from the palace Of heaven to
the human soul to come, the soul begins to
tremble. Ii says; ''What is God going to
30 with me now2 Is He going TO destroy me?
IL He going to wreck His vengeance upon
m+?' There is more than one Mephibosheth
trembling now because God has summoned
him to tn , p, lace Of divine grace. What are
you trembling about? God has no pleasure
In the death of a sinner. He does not send
for you to hurt you. He sends for you to dc
you good. A Scotch preacher had the fol
lowing circumstances brought under his oh
servation: There was poor woman In the
parish who was about to be turned out be-
cause she could not pay her rent. Ono night
she heard loud knocking at the door, and
she made no answer and hid herself. The
rapping continued louder, louder, louder,
but she made no answer and continued to
hide herar's o." e'"s e'"""sf frightened un,