The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1896-12-18
A QUEEN In DISGUISE.
REV. Or. TALMAGE TEARS OFF TIE
MASK OF DECEIT.


tian service-The Unerring Care of God.
Warmed by the Fire of a Consuming
World.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 49, In this SER
mon from "a Bible scene never used in
sermonic discourse Dr. Talmage draws
some startling lessons and tears off the
mask of deceit. The text is Kings xiv,
9. "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 A bijah, 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 palacefand
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-
lob. Putting aside her royal attire, she
puts on the garb of a 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
a 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 Peter the Great work
ing in the drydocks of Saardam, the sail
or's hat and the shipwright's AK 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
zeal eyesight had failed, he was divine
~ illumined, and at one glance looked
through the imposition and he cried out:
"Come in, thou wife Of Jeroboaml Why
feignest 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 more 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
.SAsasss,h aud as they carry good Abijah
no his grave the air is filled with the
voice Of eulogy for the departed youth
and the groan of an afflicted kingdom.
Deceit and Duplicity.
, 1t is for no insignificant purpose that
/ present you the thrilling story OF the
text. In the first place learn that wick
edness involves others, trying to make
them its dupes, it's allies and its scape-
goats. Jeroboam proposed to hoodwlnk
the Lords prophet How did he do it?
Did he 90 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 brag, but it is
great coward. 1t lays the plan and gets
al RI q If. nntC down
the gunpowder train and gets some one
else to touch it 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 the
world it is. found out that those who
planned the arson, the murder, the
theft, the fraud 60 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 off with few threats
and a little censure, while Blennerhas-
sett, the learned BlenDerhassett, the
eWt6b ltlnpCICI uehonNNt, 10 w
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. Accountable 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
dictionary army and TO destroy the
United States government He gets off
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 COM
memorated that event has been blasted
by midnight desperadoes. Benedict Ar
mold has 1t 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 a iuggler which, by
sleight of hand and legerdemain, makes
the gold that it stole appear in some
he