Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1896-12-25
TALMAGE'S SERMON
INTERESTING THEME RY THE
WASHINGTON PREACHER.
Subject: 'sThe Mask OF Deceit

TIKI: ''why feignest thou thyselfto be an
oiherr'-I Kings Wv, G.
In the palace Of wicked Jeroboam tbere e
I a sick child-a very sick child. Medicines
have failed; skill is exhausted. Young Ali
| Jan, the prince, has lived long enough 10 bs-
I come very popular. and vet he must die nm
I less some supernatural aid be afforded
I Death comes up the broad stairs Of tho palace
and swings back the door Of the siclroom of
royalty and stands looking at the diving
/ prince with the dau upliftcd. Wicked jero-
boam Knows that he has no right to ask any,
/ thing OF the Lord in the way OF kindness.
lie knows thai his prayers would not be an-
| swered, and 50 he sends his wife on the deli
cate and tender mission TO tire prophet Of
| the Lord in Shiloh. Putting aside her royal
| attire, she puts on the garb Of peasant wo-
man and starts on the road. Instead OF car
| rylng gold and gems rs she might have car
/ ned from the palace she carries only those
/ gifts which seem 20 indicate that she belongs
/ to the peasantry--a few loayes Of bread and
l lew cracknels and a cruise OF honey. YOn-
/ der she goes, hooded and yelled. the greatest
lady in all the kingdom. vet passing unob-
served. No one that meets her on the high
/ way 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 Saariam, the sailors hat
and the shipwrights AK gave him no more
| thorough disguise than the garb OF the peas
ant woman gave to the queen Of TirZah. But
the prophet of the Lord saw the deceit Al
though his physical eyesight had failed, he
was divinely illumined. and at one glance
looked through the imposition, and he cried
! out: Come in, thou wife OF JerObOam! Why
feignest thou thyself to be another? / 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 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 ont. The cry in
the city palace is joined by the lamentation
/ OF u nation, and as they carry good Abijah
TO his grave the air is filed with the voice Of
/ eulOgy for the departed youth and tho grOan
OF an afflicted kingdom.
1t is for no insignificant purpose that pre-
sent you the thrilling story OF the text. In
the first place | learn that wCkedness in
/ wolves others, trying to make them its dupes,
, its allies and its ScapegOats. JerJboam pro-
posed to hoOdwink the Lords prophet. How
I ulu ne 10 III bll ne 70 ana 10 the WORK
/ himself? No. Ho 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 braC, but il is great
coward. II lays the plan and gets some one
else to execute il; puts down the gunpowder
train and gets some one else to touch il Off;
contrives mischief and gets some one else TO
work it; starts lie and gets some one else to
circulate it, In nearly all the great crimes
of tbA World II IL fnt1p hot b.,
planned the arson the murder, the theft the
fraud 60 free, while those who were decOyed
and cheated and hoodwinked into the con-
spiracy clank the chain and mount the gal
lows
Aaron Burr. with heart filled with impur-
| ity and ambition, plots for the overthrow OF
the United States Government and gets off
with few threats and little censure, while
B!ennerhassett. the learned Blennerhassett,
the sweet tempered Blennerhassctt. is de-
! cOyed by him from the orchards and the
laboratories and the gardens and the home
on the banks of the Ohio River, and his for
tunes are scattered, and he is thrown into
prison, and his family, brought up in lux
ury is turned out to die. AbOmnable Aaron
Burr has it comparatively easy. Sweet tenn
pered Blennerhassett has it hard. Benedict
Arnold proposed to sell out the forts Of the
| United States; to surrender the Revolutionary
army andrto destroy the United States Gov
eminent. He gets off with his pockets full
OF pounds sterling, while Major Andre, the
brave and the brilliant, is deceived into the
conspiracy and suffers on the gibbet on the
banks of the Hudson; so that even the
literature-the marble tablature that COM
memOrated that evcnt-has been blasted by
midnight desperadOes. Benedict Arnold has
it easy. Major Andre has it hard. have
noticed that nine-tenths Of those VINO suffer
for crimes are merely the satellites of some
great villains. IgnOminiOus fraud Is O
juggler which by sleight of hand and leger.
domain makes the gold that it stole appea,
in somebody else's pocket. Jeroboam plots
the lie, contrives the imposition, and gets
his wife to execute it. Stand off from al
, imposition and chicanery. Do not consent
TO be anybOdys dupe. anybody's ally il
wickedness, anybody's scapegoat.
The story of the text also impresses me
with the fact that ROYALTY sometimes passes
In disguise. The frock, the veil, the hood Of
the peasant woman hid the queenly char
acter of this woman of Tirzah. Nobody sus-
pected that she was queen or a princess as
she passed by, but she was Just as much q
queen as though she stood in the palace, her
3 robes incrusted with diamonds And so all
, around about us there are princesses and
queens whom the world does not recognize
They sit on no throne of royalty, they ride
in no chariot, they elicit no huzza, they
make no pretense, but by the grace of Goo
they are princesses and they are queens
6 | sometimes in their poverty, sometimes II
l their self-denial, sometimes in their hare
: struggles of Christian service-God knows
l they are queens. The world does not recog
, nize them.
Royalty passing in disguise, kings without
l the crown, conquerors without the palm
' expresses without the jewel. You saw he
q yesterday on the street. You saw nothing
important in her appearance, but she il
regnant over n vast realm OF virture anC
8 goodness-a realm vaster than Jeroboan
ever looked at. You went down into the
house of restitution and want and suffering
You saw the story of trial written on the
wasted hand of the mother, on the pal,
cheeks Of the children. on the empty breaC
tray on the freless hearth, on the broker
chair. You would not have given a dola
for all the furniture in the house But b,
t the grace of God she is a princess. Tit
, overseers of the poor come there and discus
the cause and say cts pauper." The,
do not realize that God has FURNISHED TO
her crown, and that after she has go
: through the fatiguing journey from Tirzal
0 to Shiloh and from Shiloh back to TRIAL
there will be throne of royalty on which
= she shall rest forever, Glory yelled. AT
Y fluence hidden. Eternal raptures hushed up
queen in mask. A princess in disguise.
When you think of a queen you do no
= think of Catherine of Russia, or Marii
Theresa of Germany, or Mary, queen o
Scots. When you think of q queen, you
think Of a plain woman who sat opposite
your father at the table or walked with hin
down the path of life arm in arm, sometime
to the Thanksgiving banquet, sometimes t.
The grave, but always side by side, soothing
your little sorrows and adjusting your little
luarrels, listening to your evening prayer,
;oiling with the needle or at the spinning
wheel, and on cold nights tucking you up
snug and warm. And then on that dark day
when she lay a-dylng, putting those thin
hands that had toiled for you so long, put