Connecticut western news., 1896-12-17
A QUEEN IN DISGUISE.
REV. DR. TALMAGE TEARS OFF THE
 MASK OF DECEIT.

REV. DR. TALMAGE TEARS OFF THE
 MASK OF DECEIT.
 Dangers of Imposition-Queens of Chris-
 tian servioo-The Unerring Care of God.
 Warmed by the Fire of Consuming
 World.
 WASHINGTON, Dec. 1S.-In this ser mon from Bible scene never used in sermonio discourse Dr. Talmage draws some staptling lessons and tears off the mask of deceit The text is Kings xiv, 6, "Why feignest thou tbyself to be an other?'
 In the palace of wicked Jeroboam there is sick child, very sick child. Medicines have failed; skill is exhaust ed. Young Abijah, the prince, has lived long enough to become very popular, and yet he must die unless some super natural aid be afforded. Death comes up the broad stairs of the palace and swings back the door of the sickroom of royalty and stands looking 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 that his prayers would not be answered, and so he sends his wife on the delicate and tender mis- sion to the prophet of the Lord in Shi- loh. Putting aside her royal attire, she puts on the garb of 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 peasantry-a few loaves of bread and few cracknels and cruse of honey. Wonder 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 Peter the Great work ing in the drydocks of Saardam, the sail- or's hat and the shipwright's ax 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 phys ical eyesight had failed, he was divine ly illumined, and at one glance looked through the imposition and he cried out: "Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam! Why feiRnest thou myself 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 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 moro to hide her queenly gait and manner True to the prophecy, the mo- ment 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.
 Deceit and DupIicity.
 It is for no insignificant purpose that I present you the thrilling story of the text In the first place learn that wick
 
 them its dupes, it's allies and it's scape- goats. 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 1t is great coward. It lays the plan and gets some one else to execute it; puts down the gunpowder train and gets some one else to touch it off; contrives mischief and gets some one else to work 1t; starts lie and gets some one else to circulate it. In nearly all the great crimes of the world it is found out that those who theft, the fraud go free, while those who were decoyed and cheated and hood winked into the conspiracy clank the chain and mount the gallows.
 Aaron Burr, with heart filled with impurity and ambition, plots for the overthrow of the United States govern ment and gets of with few threats and little censure, while Blennerhas- sett, the learned Blennerhassett, the sweet tempered Blennerhassett, is de- coyed by him from the orchards, and the laboratories, and the gardens, and the home on the bank of the Ohio river, and his fortunes are scattered, and he is thrown into prison, and his family, brought up in luxury, is turned out to die. Abominable Aaron Burr has it comparatively easy. Sweet tempered Blennerhassett has it hard. Benedict Arnold proposed to sell out the forts of the United States, to surrender the Rev Olutionary army and to destroy the United States government. He gets of with his pockets full of pounds sterling, while Major Andre, the brave and the brilliant, is decoyed into the conspiracy and suffers on the gibbet on the banks of the Hudson, so that even the litera- ture, the marble tablature, that con- memorated that event has been blasted by midnight desperadoes. Benedict Ar mold has it easy. Major Andre has it hard. have noticed that nine-tenths of those who suffer for crimes are merely the satellites of some great villains Ig- nominious fraud is juggler which, by sleight of hand and legerdemain, makes the gold that it stole appear in some- body else's pocket. Jeroboam plots the lie, contrives the imposition and gets his wife to execute it. Stand off from all imposition and chicanery. Do not consent to be anybody s dupe, anybody's ally in wickedness, anybody's scape- goat.
 Behind . Mask.
 The story of the text also impresses me with the fact that royalty sometimes passes in disguise. The frook, the veil, the hood of the peasant woman hid the queenly character of this woman of Tir- zah. 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 princesses