St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-03-12
4 SISTERS INFLUENCE.
rev. DR.. Talmage Discourses on an
Interesting Topic.
s"iriams Are Numerous in the world-Men
who Owe Their Success to Sisterly
Carc-Family Faults Which
Should be Corrected.

ilIams Are Numerous in the World Men
VINO Owe Their Success to Sisterly
Care-Famiiy Faults Which
Should be Corrected.
Rev. DIR. Talmage, in the following
sermon takes the self-denying sister as
nus subject and presents her in a man.
her to set men thinking. The text is:
And his sister stood afar of, to wit what
would be done to him.
Princess Thermutis. daughter of
Pharaoh, looking out through the lat
tlce 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 any
how. There was only one passenger,
ana that a baby boy. But the May
Hover, that brought the Pilgrim Fa-
Tiers to America, carried not SO precious
q load. The boat was made of the
broad leaves of papyrus, tightened to-
gether by bitumen. Boats were some-
times made of that material, as we
learn from Pliny and 1ierodotus and
Theophrastus, kill all the Hebrew
children born" had been Pharaohs or
der. 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 precious craft. She was
TAR enough off not to draw attention to
the boat, but near enough To offer pro-
lection. There she stands on the bank
the poetess, Miriam the
quick-witted, Miriam 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 a sudden plunge
of thirst sink in it. Some ravenous
waterfowl might swoop and pick his
eyes out with iron beak. Some croco-
ollie or hippopotamus crawling through
the rushes might crush the babe. Mi
riam watched and watched until the
Princess Thermutis, a 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
whea 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
anyone of the court as mother. Now,
Miriam, the sister, incognito, no one
susps,cting 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 baby's mother, incognito,
none of the court knowing that she was
the another: and when Jochebed ar
rived. the child stopped crying. for its
fright was calmed and its hunger APP
peased. You may admire Jochebed,
the mother, and all the ages may adj
nire Moses. but clap my hands in APP
plause at the behavior of Miriam. the
faithful, brilliant and strategic sister.
''Gt, 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
home.' No; Miriam. the sister, more
lovingly watched and bravely defended
Moses. the brother. Is he worthy her
care and courage? Oh, yes; the 60
centuries of the worlds history have
never had SO much involved in the ar
rival of any ship at any port as in the
landiag of that papyrus boat caulked
with Ditumen! Its one passenger was
to be a nonsuch in history-lawyer,
Statesman, politician. legislator, or
ganizsr, conquerer, deliverer. He had
such remarkable beauty in childhood
that ..osephus says, when he was car
ried along the road. people stopped to
gaze at him and workmen would leave
their work to admire him. When the
king playfully put his crown upon this
hoy, he threw it off in 1ignantly and
put his foot on it. The king. fearing
that this might be a sign that the
child might vet take down his crown,
applied another test According to the
Jewish legend. the king ordered two
bowls to be put before the child, one
containing rubics and the other burn
ing Goals; and if he took the Goals. he
was TO ise, and if took the rubies he
was 10 die. For some reason the
child cook one of the Goals. and put it
in his mouth. so that his life was
IL 81 = h,,r h.,
till he was indistinct of ntterance. ever
after. Having come to manhood, he
spread open the palms of his hands in
PRAYER. and the Red sea parted to let
2.5OO. 900 people escape. And he put
the palms of his hands together in
PRAYER. and the Red sea closed on a
strangulated host.
His life so unutterly grand. his burial
must he on the same scale. God would
let neither man nor saint nor arch
angel have anything to do with weav-
ing for him shrould or digging for
him !. grave. The omnipotent God.
left His throne in Heaven one day. and
If the. question was asked, whittier
is the King of the Universe going?"
the answer was. II am going down to
bury Moses And the Lord took the
mirhtiest of men to the top of a hill,
and the day was clear, and Moses ran
his eve over the magnificent range of
country. Here the valley of Esdraelon.
where the final battle of all nations is
70 be fought: and yonder. the noun
tains Hermon. and Lebanon, and
tserizim. and the hills of Judea; and
the village of Bethlehem there, and
and the city of Jericho yonder, and
the vast stretch of landscape that
almost took the old lawgiver's
breath away as he looked at
it. And then without pang-as
learn from the statement that the eye
of Moses was undimmed and his nat
ural force unabated-God touched the
c.eat lawgiyer's eyes, and they closed;
and his lungs. and they ceased; and his
heart. and it stopped; and commanded,
saving: sTo the skies. thou immortal
rn;ritIr And then one divine hand was
mt against the back of Moses, and the
other hand against the pulseless breast,
EA n