Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-10-29
Sunday School Lesson and
Young Peoples Meetings
What the Church Folks Are Thinking About
and Doing Religious News From Every
where

but no genuineness. He was a subtle,
secret crafty, devious character. He
did not hesitate to use any means to
cloak his own hidden purposes. Be-
meath his good looks and carefully bar
bered hair was mind bent only on
his own ends. That sort Of man is a
menace wherever you find him. For
friend or foe, choose sincere, ingen-
uous and direct person, whose hate
or whose love wears no mask Absa-
lom waited two years to square &C
counts with his step-brother, Amnon,
for the crime against his sister and
then slew him while he was a guest
Ugh!
This was worse conduct than Am
mons, if such a thing could be pos
sible: Amnon had behaved like a
swine, but Absalom behaved as a
snake. This unroyal shrewdness and
disingenuousness sat i'll upon one
who descended from two lines OF
kings. After he had killed the unsus-
pecting Amnon, he, fled for two years
to his mothers family at Geshur
Then he dwelt two years in Jerusalem
without seeing his fathers face. He
was restored by the connivance of an
other crafty character, old General
Joab, who, in the end. was the slayer
of Absalom. Despite the base conduct
of the boy, David loved him. The
heart is an unruly member David
mourned for the absent Absalom even
as he had not mourned for the dead
Amnon. Perhaps David's sorrow was
made more poignant by the remem-
brance of his own sin
Sharper Than Serpent's Tooth"
How sharper than serpent's
tooth it is to have a thankless child!"
cried King Lear: Old King David, mel
lowed by penitence and sorrow, was to
drink deep this cup Of sorrow. He was
to go down into a dark valley yet
there he sang songs in the night
which have beer the heart cry, and
comfort of myriads since. For while
his fond father. all unsuspecting, sat
on the throne. the good looking prince
set about shrewdly to steal the hearts
of the men of Israel This was no hard
matter. The masses are easily de-
ceived in affairs of politics. They take
the ante-election utterances Of can
didates as gospel truth So, quite like
the modern baby-kissing, hand-shak-
ing candidate, Absalom went about
among the people, sowing discomfort
with the present situation, and win
ming their allegiance to himself Early
at the city gate, he would profess false
sympathy with seekers after Justice,
undermining his fathers reputation
and administration. There was no
blemish upon Absalom's person from
the sole of his foot to the crown OF
his head; but in character, which is
the real measure Of man, he was
black migrate.
The plotting and conspiring which
followed read like the present news
dispatches from the Balkan states. or
from Turkey, or from Russia. There
were secret conferences on all hands.
Spies were as numerous as schemes.
Plotting and undermining and trading
in favors to come, reached in every di-
rection. When he thought the country
was ripe for his sedition, Prince Alb
SALON. approached his father affec-
tionatelv and said he wanted to go to
Hebron to pay vow unto Jehovah.
1t was no new trick, this cloaking of
politics under the guise of religion.
but it was as odious then as 1t is now.
Absalom had the name of God on his
lips, but he had vile schemes of In
gratitude and selfishness in his heart.