Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-12-22
Dr.. Talmage's 4.
Sermons !
ROYALTY IN
DISGUISE. /
DISGUISE..,

off the masque of deceit. The text is
l. Kings IA 6: why feignest thou
myself to be another?"
In the palace of wicked Zero
boam there is a sick child, a very sick
child. Medicines have failed; skill is
exhausted. Young Abijah, the prince,
has lived long enough to become very
popular, and yet he must die unless
some supernatural aid be afforded.
Death comes UP the broad stairs of the
palace and swings back the door of the
sick room of royalty, and stands look
ing at the dying prince with the dart
uplifted. Wicked Jeroboam knows that
he has no right to ask anything OF the
Lord in the way of kindness. He knows
swered, and so he sends his wife on the
delicate and tender mission TO the
prophet of the Lord in Shiloh. Put
ting aside her royal attire, she puts on
the garb of peasant woman, and
starts on the road. Instead OF carry
ing 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 peasantry--a
few loaves of bread and few cracknels
and cruise Of honey. Yonder she goes,
hooded and veiled the greatest lady in
all the kingdom. yet passing unob-
served. 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, working in the dry
docks of Saardam, the sailors hat and
the shipwright's axe gave him no more
thorough disguise than the garb of the
peasant woman gave to the queen of
Tirzah. But the prophet of the Lord
saw the deceit. Although his physical
eyesight had failed, he was divinely IL
iumined, and at one glance looked
through the imposition, and he cried
out: Come in, thou wife of Jero-
boam. Why feignest thou myself to
be another? l 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 had no right to practice an impo-
sition. Broken-hearted now, she start
ed 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 nation, and as they
carry good Abiiah to his grave, the air
is filled with the voice of eulogy for the
departed youth, and the groan of an
afflicted kingdom.
The story of the text impresses me
with the fact that royalty sometimes
passes in disguise. The frock the veil,
the hood of the peasant woman hid
the queenly character of this woman
of Tirzah. Nobody suspected that she
was queen or a princess as she passed
by, but she was just as much a queen
as though she stood in the palace, her
robes incrusted with diamonds. And
so all around about us there are prin-
cesses and queens whom the world
does not recognize. They sit on no
throne of royalty, they ride in no char
lot, they elicit no huzza, they make no
pretense, but by the grace of God they
are princesses and they are queens.
Sometimes in their poverty, sometimes
in their self-denial, sometimes in their
hard struggles Of Christian service
God knows they are queens; the world
does not recognize them. Royalty
passing in disguise. Kings without
the crown, conquerors without the
palm, expresses without the jewel.
You saw her yesterday on the
street. You saw nothing important in
her appearance, but she is regnant over
vast realm of virtue and goodness
realm vaster than Jeroboam ever
looked at. You went down into the
house OF restitution and want and suf-
fering. You saw the story of trial
written on the wasted hand of the
mother. on the pale cheeks of the chill
dren, on the empty bread-tray, on the
fireless hearth, on the broken chair.
You would not have given a dollar for
all the furniture in the house. But by
the grace OF God she is princess. The
Overseers of the poor come there and
discuss the case and say, Its a pau
per-" They do not realize that God has
FURNISHED for her a crown, and that
after she has got through the fatiguing
journey from Tirzah to Shiloh and
from Shiloh back to Tirzah, there will
be throne of royalty on Which she
shall rest forever. Glory yelled. AZ
fluence hidden. Eternal raptures hushed
up. A queen in mask. A princess in
disguise.
But there was a grander disguIsjnp
The favorite of great house looked
out of the window of his palace and he
saw that the people were CARRYING
heavy burdens, and that some of them
were hobbling on crutches, and he saw
some of them lying at the gate exhibit
ing their sores, and then he heard their
lamentation, and he said: 81 will lust
put on the clothes of those poor people
and l will go down and see what their
sorrows are. and will sympathize with
them, and will be one OF them, and
will help them" Well, the day came
for him to start. The lords of the land