The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-14
MASK OF DECEIT TORN OFF.
ROYALTY IN DISGUISE THE SUBJECT
OF TALMAGE'S SERMON.

BrOnhef OF the IA AtAN-
uuise of IA Peasant Woman Failed
to save the Life of Her Son Abijah'
Christ's Coming in Disguise to save
the WOrId-SiIence sometimes
Right But Deceit Always Wrong.
Washington. Dec. 1S.-In this sermon
from a Bible scene never used IN ser
monte discourse, DR.. Talmage draws some
startling lessons and tears off the mask
of deceit. The text is I Kings, 14:6: why
feignest thou myself to be another?'
In the palace of wicked Jeroboam there
is a sick child, very sick child. Medi-
cines 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 looking at the dying prince with
the dart uplifted Wicked Jeroboam
knows that he has no right to ask any
thing 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 mission to the
prophet of the Lord in Shiloh Putting
aside her royal attire, she puts on the garb
of a peasant women and starts on the
road. Instead of carrying gold and gems,
as she might have carried from the pal
ace, she carries only those gifts which
seem to indicate that she belongs to the
peasantry--a few loaves of bread and
few cracknels and a cruise of honey. Yon-
der she goes, hooded and yelled, the
greatest lady in all the king
dom. 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, working in the dry
docks of Saardam, the sailors hat and the
shipwrights ak gave him no more thor
ough disguise than the garb of the peas
ant 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 illumined and
at one glance looked through the IMPOSE
ton. and he cried out: Come in, thou
wife of Jeroboam Why feignest thou thy
self to be another? / have evil tidlngs
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 fnnrh the TO n tho qttV 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 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 significant purpose that 1
present you the thrilling story of the text.
In the first place l learn that wickedness
involves Others. trying TO make them its
dupes, its allies, and it's scapegoats. Jero-
beam proposed TO hoodwink the Lords
prophet. How did he do il? 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 tbs a great coward. 1t lays the plan,
gets someone else to execute it-puts down
the gunpowder train, gets someone else to
touch it off-consrives 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 filled with impurity and ambi-
ton, plots for the overthrow of the United
States government and gets off with few
threats and ,iff1n uhilp Rlpn-
nerhassett, the learned Blennerhassett, the
sweet-tempered Blennerhassett, is decoyed
by him from the orchards, and the labora-
tories and the gardens, and the home on
the bank of the Ohio river, and his for
tunes are scattered, and he is thrown
into prison, and his family, brought up
in luxury, is turned out to die. Abomina-
BILE Aaron Burr has it comparatively easy;
sweet-tempered Blennerhasset has 1t hard.
Benedict Arnold proposed 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 fun of pounds sterling,
while Maj. Andre the brave and the bril-
liant, is decoyed into the conspiracy, and
suffers on the gibbet on the banks OF the
Hudson; so that even the literature--the
marble tablature that commemorated that
event has been blasted by midnight des-
peradoes. Benedict Arnold has it easy;
4haJ' AiuTe mas II nara. nave noticed
that nine-tenths of those who suffer for
crimes are merely the satellites Of some
great villains. Ignominious fraud is a
Juggler which by straightforward and le-
gerdemain makes the gold that II stole
appear in somebody else's pocket. Jero-
boam 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. any
body's ally in wickedness, anybody 8
scapegoat.
The story of the text also inpresses me
with the fact that royalty sometimes pass
es in disguise. The frock, the vail. the hood
OF the peasast woman hid the queenly
character of this woman of Tirzah No
body suspected that she was "A queen or a
princess as she passed by. but she was lust
as much queen as though she stood in
The palace, her robes incrusted with dia-
monds. 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 God they are princesses
and they are queens. Sometimes in their
poverty, sometimes in their self-denial
sometimes in their hard struggles Of Chris
tan service-God knows they are queens;
nl FaHN. IL