Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-05-02
Talmage

BY Rev.
Frank De cChf
Tain age. d. d.

days of eager desire for great wealth
and social position, when multitudes
are absorbed in the struggle for world
IL successes, this sermon comes as a
wholesome and timely warning that 1t
is possible to pay too high a price for
fortunes favors and that fame may
be too dearly bought. The text Is
Judges ri, 80, Alas, my daughter!
An old trite saying declares, What
is worth getting is worth paying for"
But the payment demanded for what
we want is often more than mere sill
yer and gold. 1t may cost the pound
of flesh near the heart of an Antonio,
and it may mean silver or gold, GRIM
soned by having been dipped and
rusted and dyed in human blood.
Yes. ! will own that land. l will
yet be master of Daylesford manor
house" These were the words uttered
by a young pauper, then being edu-
Gated in the charity school of the little
hamlet of Churchill, in Oxfordshire,
England. That Daylesford manor house
had once been the property of Warren
Hastings great grandfather. Warren
Hastings, for that was the pauper's
name. was then a mOtherless lad, and
the son of good for nothing, shiftlesS
father. who had fed to England to
find his grave ultimately in the faroff
West Indies. Aye, Warren Hastings as
a man fulfilled the pledge he made as
a boy but he paid dearly for what
he was after. He paid for Daylesford
manor house with money purchased
by years of exile, years of toll. years
of persecution. What was worth hav-
ing was worth paying for, but the
price for the Hastings ancestral home
came very high.
Jephthah's Ambition.
Well. today we find General Jephthah
having a great ambition. He was not
only seeking a noble and a legitimate
goal, but he was rashiy and recklessly
ready to pay any price to reach that
goal. Jephthah had two objects in
reaching this goal of his ambition. The
first was to wipe out the stigma on the
record of his birth. Like Alexandra
Dumas, he could never mention the
name of his mother without bringing
q blush of shame to his cheek. Second
ly, Jephthah wanted to drive out the in
vading Ammonitish hosts who were
threatening to destroy his people. So
the night before the great battle open
ed General Jephthah in his military
tent made pledge something like this:
20 God, if tomorrow thou wilt only
give me success, if thou wilt allow me
to. atone for the awful record of my
birth by being a deliverer of my people
from these invading herds of cut
threats, promise thee that whatsoever
cometh forth of the doors of my house
TO meet me when | return in peace
from the children of AmmOn shall
surely be the Lords, and / will offer it
up for burnt Offering"
Hardly had the roar and din of battle
ceased when the messengers on swift
est of horses sped everywhere. They
rode as fast as Paul Revere galloped
toward Lexington and Concord to
arouse the min1temen to rise and
resist the invasion of the British sol
liers, as fast as Nathan Mayer Roths-
child rode to ,reach London the night
after WellinGton's triumph at Water
loo. Everywhere the hard riding cou-
riers shouted the news to an exulting
people is9The land is free! The land is
free. The land is free! Jephthah has
VOL Jephthah has won!'
A Foolish Pledge.
aNhen the Roman generals came
back from their conquests, they were
given a triumphant entry into the
capital of the seven hills" No more
enthusiastic ovation was ever awarded
10 the military chieftains of the Gaze
sars than that which now welcomed
the libTator of the Israelitish people.
The maRlens came forth to dance be-
fore him. and TO strew flowers in his
way. and to sing their sweetest songs,
as the school children welcomed Lafa-
yette on his last journey through our
Dwn land. Such music and songs and
lowers as afterward welcomed King
Saul after the destruction of the Phil
sunes were surging over General
Jephthah in great tidal waves of har-
monious sound or surrounding him
with huge floral rainbOws. dyed in the
richest of colors, with this one eXcep-
ion-Gefferal Jephthah had no taunt-
Inc naMeS6f a shepherd boy to imbit-
Ter him with jealousy. But as the
Israelitish liberatOr comes nearer to
MS heuse we see a great commotiOn.
Suddenly this mighty leader stops and
;taggers like a drunken man. for
there, coming out of his house, Jeph-
thaht sees his beautiful daughter, his
only child stepping forth to greet him,
and by the terms of his vow she must
be the sacrifice for his great conquest
This pledge which Jephthah made tc
God was a very foolish one. God die
not want General Jephthah to STAY his
daughter; neither does he want US t
make the foolish sacrifices some of Us
ere willing to make in order to wiz
femporaI success in life. Therefore
shall try in this sermon to catalogue
some of the foolish sacrifices some O.
rs make upon the altar of fortune