The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-02-09
THE STORY OF MIRIAM.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Draws Beauti.
tul Lesson From It.
Brothers and Sisters Especially Should be
AffectiOnate and Avoid Bickerings-
They Have Much to Do With
Each Others Success In Life.

"And his sister stood afar off, to wit
what would be done to him"
Princess Thermutis, daughter of
Pharaoh, looking out through the lat
tice of her bathing house, on the banks
OF the Nile, saw a curious boat on the
river. 1t had neither oar nor helm, and
they would have been useless anyhow.
There was only one passenger, and that
baby boy. But the Mayfower, that
brought the Pilgrim Fathers to Amer
lea, carried not so precious load. The
boat was made of broad leaves of papy-
rus, frightened together by bitumen.
Boats were sometimes made Of that
material, as we learn from Pliny and
Herodotus and Theophrastus. kill all
the Hebrew children born" had been
Pharaoh's order. To save her boy,
Jochebed, the mother of little Moses,
had put him in that queer boat and
launched him. His sister, Miriam,
stood on the bank watching that prec-
ious craft. She was far enough off not
to draw attention to the boat, but near
enough to offer protection. There she
stands on the bank - Miriam; the
poetess, Miriam the quick-witted, Mi
riam the faithful, though very human,
for in after time she demonstrated it.
Miriam was splendid sister, but had
her faults, like all the rest of us. How
carefully she watched the boat con-
tanning her brother! A strong wind
might upset it. The buffaloes often
found there might in sudden plunge
of thirst sink it. Some ravenous
water fowl might swoop and pick his
eyes out with iron beak. Some croco-
die or hippopotamus crawling through
the rushes might crunch the babe.
Miriam watched and watched until
Princess Thermutis, maiden on each
side of her holding palm leaves over
her head to shelter her from the sun,
came down and entered her bathing
house. When from the lattice she saw
that boat she ordered it brought, and
when the leaves were pulled back
from the face of the child and the
boy looked up he cried aloud,
for he was hungry and frightened,
and would not even let the princess
take him. The infant would rather
stay hungry than acknowledge any
one of the court as mother. Now,
Miriam, the sister, incognito, no one
suspecting her relation to the child,
leaps from the bank and rushes down
and offers to get nurse to pacify the
child. Consent is given, and she brings
Jochebed, the babys mother, incognito,
none of the court knowing that she was
the mother; and when Jochebed ar
rived the child stopped crying, for its
fright was calmed and its hunger ap-
peased. You may admire Jochebed,
the mother, and all the ages may adj
mire Moses, but clap my hands in
applause at the behavior of Miriam,
the faithful, brilliant and strategic
sister.
''Go home" some one might have said
to Miriam; 'why risk yourself out there
alone on the banks of the Nile, breath
ing the miasma, and in danger of being
attacked of wild beast or ruffian; go
homew No; Miriam, the sister, more
lovingly watched and bravely defended
Moses, the brother. Is he worthy her
care and courage? Oh, yes; the so
centuries of the worlds history have
never had SO much involved in the ar
rival of any ship at any port as in the
landing of that papyrus boat caulked
with bitumen! Its one passenger was
to be nonsuch in history-lawyer,
statesman, politician, legislator, Or
ganizer, conqueror, deliverer.
His life was SO unutterably grand,
his burial must be on the same SCALE
God would let neither man nor saint
nor archangel have anything to do
with weaving for him shroud or dig
ging for him grave. The omnipotent
God left his throne in Heaven one day,
and if thequestion was asked, Whittier
is the King of the Universe going?"
the answer was, II am going down to
bury Moses" And the Lord took this
mightiest of men to the top of hill,
and the day was clear, and Moses ran
his eye over the magnificent range of
country. Here, the valley of Esdraelon,
where the final battle of the nations
is to be fought; and yonder, the noun
tains Hermon, and Lebanon, and
Gerizim, and the hills of Judea; and the
village of Bethlehem there, and the city
of Jericho yonder, and the vast stretch
of landscape that almost took the old
lawgivers breath away as he looked at
it. And then without a pang-as learn
from the statement that the eye of
Moses was undimmed and his natural
force unabated-God touched the great
lawgivers's eyes, and they closed; and
his lungs, and they ceased; and his
heart, and it stopped; and commanded,
saying: ITO the skies, thou immortal
spiritp And then one divine hand was
put against the hack of Moses, and the
other hand against the pulseless breast,
and God laid him softly down on Mount
Nebo. and then the lawgiver, lifted in
the Almighty's arms, was carried to
the opening of cave and placed in a
crypt, and one stroke of the divine
hand smoothed the features into an
everlasting calm, and a rock was rolled
to the door, and the only obsequies, at
which God did all the offices of priest,
and undertaken, and gravedigger, and
mourner, were ended.
Oh, was not Miriam, the sister of
Moses, doing good thing, an import
ant thing, glorious things, when she
watched the boat woven of river plants
gand made watertight with asphaltum,
carrying its one passenger? Did she
not prt all the ages of time and of