The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-12-18

T.DEwITT TALMAeE. at the dying prince
with the dart uplifted. Wicked Jero-
boaIn knows that he has no right TO
ask anything of the Lord in the way
of kindness. He knows that his pray
ers would not be answered, and so he
sends his wife on the delicate and
tender mission to the prophet of the
Lord in Shiloh. Putting aside her
royal attire, she puts on the garb oil
peasant woman, and started on the
road. Instead of carrying gold and
gems, as she might have carried from
the palace. she carried only those gifts
which seem to indicate that she be-
longs TO the peasantry-a 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 queen in
disguise. The fact is that when Peter
the Great was working in the dry
docks of Saardam the sailors hat and
the shipwrights AK gave him no more
thorough disguise than the garb of the
peasant woman gave to the queen of
Tirzan. But the prophet of the Lord
saw the deceit Although his physical
eyesight had failed, he was divinely
illuminated, and at one glance looked
through the imposition, and he cried
out: "Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam.
Why feignest thou myself to be an
other? I have evil tidings for thee.
Get thee ack 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
had 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 to the
prophecy, the moment her feet touch
the gate of the city the child dies. AS
she goes in, the soul of the child goes
out. The cry in the palace is Joined
by the lamentation of a nation. and as
they carry good Abijah to his grave
the air is filled with the voice of eulogy
for the departed youth, and the groan
of an afflicted kingdom.
1t is for no insignificant purpose that
l present you the thrilling story of the
text. In the first place, | learn that
wickedness involves others, trying to
make them it's dupes, its allies. and its
scapegoats. Jeroboam proposed to
hoodwink the Lords prophet. How
did he do it? Did he go and do the
work himself. No. He sent his wife
to do it. Hers the peril of exposure,
hers the fatigue of the way, hers the
execution of the plot. His, nothing.
Iniquity is a brag. but it is a great
coward. 1t lays the plan, gets some
one else to execute it-puts down the
gunpowder train, gets some one else to
touch it off-contrives mischief, gets
some one else to work it-starts lie,
gets some one else to circulate it In
nearly all the great crimes of the world
it is found out that those who planned
the arson, the murder, the theft, the
fraud. go free, while those who were
decoyed and cheated and hoodwinked
into the conspiracy clank the chain
and mount the gallows. Aaron Burr,
with heart filed with impurity and am
bition, plots for the overthrow of the
United States government and gets
off with few threats and little GEN.
sure, while Blennerhassett, the learn
ed Blennerhasset, the sweet-tempered
Blennerhassett, is decoyed by him from
the orchards, and the laboratories. and
the gardens, and the home on the
bank of the Ohio river, and his fort
unes are scattered, and he is thrown
into prison, and his family. brought up
in luxury. is turned out to die. Abom
Unable Aaron Burr has it comparative
ly easy; sweet-tempered Blennerhas-
sett has it hard. Benedict Arnold pro-
posed to sell out the forts of the United
States, to surrender the Revolutionary
army and to destroy the United States
government. He gets off with his
pockets full of pounds sterling, while
Maj Andre, the brave and the brill
liant, is decoyed into the conspiracy,
and suffers on the gibbet on the banks
of the Hudson; so that even the liter
marble tablature that COM
that event has been blasted
by midnight desperadOes. Benedict
Arnold has it easy; Maj Andre has it
hard. / have noticed that nine-tenths
of those who suffered for crimes are
merely the satellites of some great viii
lains- Ignominious fraud is a juggler
which by sleight-of-hand and leger-
demain makes the gold that it stole
appear in somebody else's pocket.
Jeroboam plots the lie, contrives the
and gets his wife to ex-
ecute it. Stand off from all imposition
and chicanery. De not consent to be
dupe. anybody's ally in
anybody's scapegoat
The story of the text also impresses
me with the fact that royalty some
times passes in disguise. The frock,
the veil, the hood of the peasant wom-