Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1896-12-18
A QUEEN In DISGUISE.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE TEARS OFF TIE
MASK OF DECEIT.

I Warmed BY the Firo Of a CONSUMING
World.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 13.-In this SCI
mon from a Biblo scene never used i
sermonio discourse Dr. Talmage draw
some startling lessons and tears off til
mask Of deceit The text is 1 Kings xiv
9, why feignest thou myself to be an
other?'
In the palace of wicked Jeroboan
there is a sick child, very sick child
Medicines have failed; skill is exhaust
cd. Young Abijah, the prince, has live,
long enough to become very popular
and yet he must die unless some super
natural aid be afforded. Death Gomez
up the broad stairs of the palace anC
swings back the door of the sickroom O
royalty and stands locking at the dying
prince with the dart uplifted. Wicked
Jeroboam knows that he has no right t
ask anything of the Lord in the way Of
kindness. He knows that his prayer:
would not be answered, and so he sends
his wife on the delicate and tender mis-
4
lob. Putting aside her royal attire, she
puts on the garb of a peasant woman
and starts on the road. Instead of car.
rying gold and gems, as she might have
carried from the palace, she carries only
those gifts which seem to indicate that
she belongs to the peasantFy--sa few
loaves OF bread and few cracknels and
cruise Of honey. Yonder she goes, hood
ed and yelled, the greatest lady in all
the kingdom, yet passing unobserved.
No one that meets her on the highway
has any idea that she is the first lady in
all the land. She is a queen in disguise
The fact is that Peter the Great work
ing in the drydoeks of Saardam, the sail
or's hat and the shipwright's AK gave
him no more thorough disguise than the
garh of the peasant woman gave to the
queen Of Pirzah. But the prophet of the
Lord saw the deceit Although his phys
ical eyesight had failed, he was divine
" illumined, and at one glance looked
through the imposition and he cried out:
Come in, thou wife CT Jeroboaml Why
feignest thou tfysef to be another? I
have evil tidings for thee. Get thee
back to thy house, and when thy feet
touch the gate of the city the child
shall die" She had a right to ask for
the recovery Of her SON She haa NO
right TO practice an imposition Broken
hearted now, she started on the way
the tears falling on the dust Of the road
all the way from Shiloh to Tirzah.
Broken hearted now, she is not careful
any more to hide her queenly gait and
manner. True 10 the prophecy, the mo. /
mept her feet touch the gate of the city
the child dies. As she goes in the soul
Of tho child goes out. The cry in the /
palace is joined by the lamentation Of
o nation, and as they carry good Abijah
to his grave tho air Is filled with the
voice of oulogy for the departed youth
and the groan Of an afflicted kingdom.
Deceit and DupIicity.
1t is for no insignificant purpose that
present you the thrilling story Of the
text. In the first place learn that wick
edness involves others, trying to make
them its dupes, its allies and its scape-
goats Jeroboam proposed to hoodwink
the Lords prophet How did he do it?
Did he 60 and do the work himself? No.
He sent his wife to do it. Hers the peril
Of exposure, hers the fatigue Of the way,
lers the execution of the plot; his,
lething, Iniquity is brag, but it is a
great coward. 1t lays the plan and gets
iqme one else to execute it; puts down
he guupowder train and gets some one
Use to touch it off; contrives mischief
md gets some one else to work 1t; starts
lie and gets some one else to circulate it,
n nearly all the great crimes of the
world it is found out that those who
damned the arson, the murder, tho ,,
heft, the fraud 60 free, whilo those who
we're decoyed and cheated and hood
Vinked into tho conspiracy clank the !
haia and mount the galIoYs,
Aaron Burr, with heart filled with /,
mpurity and ambition, plots for tho
Verthrow Of tho United States govern
lent~and gets of with q few threats :
nd little consure, while Blennerhas-
EFT, tho learned Blennerhassett, the
weet tempered Blennerhassett, is de- =
Dyed by him from the orchards, and
be laboratories, and the gardens, and
he home on the bank Of the Ohio river, :
nd his fortunes are scattered, and he is
brown into prison, and his family, =
rought up in luxury, is turned out to 4
ie. Abominablo Aaron Burr has it
easy. Sweet tempered .
las it hard Benedict q
rnOld proposed to sell out tho forts Of v
le United States, to surrender the Rev I
lutionary army ind to destroy the :,
Inited States government. He gets off u
18th his pockets fall Ct pounds sterling, u
'hilo Major Andre, the brave and the .
rilliant, is decoyed into the conspiracy q
nd suffers ca the gibbet on the banks :. !.
the Hudson, SO that even the litera- -
re, the marble tablature, that com y
emorated that event has been blasted =
7 midnight desperadoes. Benedict Ar ~
I'D hGI 1t easy. Major Andre has il
lrd. have noticed that ninc.tenths Of
oso who suffer for crimes are merely ~
@ satellites OF some great villains. Ig- II
f ar is juggler which, by ~
eight of hand and legerdemgin, makes ol
G gold the5 it stole appear in some p
dy else's pocket Jeroboam plots the !: =,
}, contrives the imposition aud gets = =
5 wife to execute ii. Stand off from y y
imposition and chioanery. Do net - y
nsent to be anybody's dupe, anybody's r.
" in wickedness, anybody's scape- !;
at. ~ ~
Behind a Mask. 20 20
The story CT the text also impresses - -
: with the fact that royalty sometimes ~ -
sses in disguise The frock, the veil, ~
Q hood Of the peasant woman hid the -
eenly character Of this woman of Tir- ~ -,
b. Nobody suspected that she was a ~ ~
cen or q princess as she passed by, IT.
she was just as much queen as ~
ough she stood in the palace, her do
1es incrusted with diamonds. And so de
around about US there are prinoesses sa
d queens whom the world does not sol
.Opniza They sit IN no throne of row. ho