Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1892 — RIZPAH ON THE ROCK. [ARTICLE]

RIZPAH ON THE ROCK.

Is the Subject of Dr. Taltnaga s Sunday’s Sermon. ■ jfhe Crtnifref . Es wyK it) as Well *• Himself—Agonies of ilere&ved Mothore. - - ... » ' ' Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at Brooklyn Sunday. Text 11. Samuel xxi. 10. He said: Tragedy that beats anything Shakespearean of Victor Hugoian. After returning from the Holy Laud I briefly touched upon it, butt must have a whole sermon for that scene. Tho explosion aud flash of gunpowder have driven nearly all the beasts and birds of prey from the regions, and pow the shriek of the locomotive whistle whiou is daily heard at Jeru> saleru wifi for many miles around -eiear Bales tine of cruel claw antTbtak. But iu the time of the text those regions were populous with multitudes of jackals ard lions. Seven sons of Saul Tad been crucified ou a hill. Rizpah was mother to two and rela-, live to fire of the boys. What had theso box s done that they should oe crucified ? Nothing except to have a bffd father and grandfather But, Bow that the boys were dead why not take them down from the gib-j bets/ No. They are sentenced to hang there. So Rizpah takes the sackcloth, ?, rough shawl with which in mourxiiig for her dead she had wra iped herself, and spreads that 6aciccloth upon the rocks near the gibbets, and acts the part of a sentinel, watchiug and defending the dead. Yet every other sentinel is relieved, and after being on guard for a few hours some one else takes his place. But Rizpah is on guard both daj r and night for ha'f years. One hundred and eighty days aud nights of obsequies. What nerves she must have had to stand that! Ah, do you not- know that a mother can stand anything. Oh, if she might be allowed to hollow a place in the side of the hill aud lay the bodies of her children to quiet rest! If in some cavern of the mountains she might find for them Christian sepulture! Oh, if she might t/clu e them from the gibbet of disgrace ar.d carry them still farther away from the. haunts es men, and then lie beside them iu the last long sleep! Exhausted nature ever and anon falls into slumber, but in a moment she breaks the snare, and chides herself although she had been cruel,and leaps up on the rock,shouting at wiid beastr glaring from the thickets and at vulturous brood wheeling in the sky. The thrilling Story of Rizpah reaches David, and he comes forth to hide the indecency. Tbe corpses had been chained to the trees. The chains aro unlocked with horrid clank, and the skeletons are let down. AU the seven are burled, and the story ends. But it hardly ends before you cry out, What .* hard thing that those seven boys should suffer for the crimes of a father and grandfather ! Yes. But i‘ is always so. Let every one who does wrong know that lie wars not only, as in this case.against two generations, children and gt'andchildreu, but against all the generations of coming time. That is wliat makes dissipation and uncleanuess so awful. It reverberates in other times. It may skir one generation, TmritTs'apf to colnA up lfl~TtnrtftTl‘d' generation, as is suggested in the Ten Commandments, which say, “ Visiting tin iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.” Mind you, it sax’s nothing about the second generation, but mentions the third aud the fourth, That accounts for what you sometimes see —very good parents with very bad children. Go far enough back m the ancestral line and you fold the source of all the turpitude. “Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. ” If whoa Saul died the consequences of his iniquity could have died with him it would not have been so bad. Alas, no ! Look on that hill, a few miles out from Jerusalem, and see the ghastly burdens of those seven gibbets and the wan and whsted Rizpah watching them. Go to-day through the wards and almshouses and the reformatory institutions where unfortunate children are kept ar.d you wiil find that nine out of ten bad drunken Or vicious parents. Yea, dnv by duy ou the streets of our cities you find men and women xricckcd of evil parentage. They are moral corpses. Like the seven sous of haul, though dead, unburied. Alas for Rizpah, who not for six months, but for years and years, has watched them i StTcToah not keep the vultures and the jackals off. Furthermore, this strange incident in Bible story shows that attractiveness of person and elevation of posfo tiou are no security against trouble" Who is this Rizpah sitting in de-s----olution? One of Saul's favorites. Her personal attractions had wo., his heart. She had be.m caressed of fortune. With u mother's pride she looked on her princely children. But the scene changes. Behold her in banishment and bereavementRi'.pah on the bock! Some of the worst distresses have come to scenes of royalty and wealth. wliaFporter qt the’ raansiotTs gate has not 1 let in champing and lathered steed bringing evil dispatch? On iwhat tessellatedjiall has there not stood the solemn bier? Under what exquisite fresco has there not been enacted a tragedy of disaster? What curtained couch hath heard no erv of pain? What harp hath never trilled with sorrow? What lordly nature hath 'never leaned against carved pillar sad made utterance es woe?

Gall is not less bitter when taken from .the pewter mug. Sorrow is often'attended by running footmen and lined lackeys mounted behind. Queen Anne Boleyn is desolate in the palace of Henry 111. Adolphus wept iu German castles ’ oveFtTie hypocrisy bTTiuelfds7'Pedt ; o' I. among Brazilian diamonds shivered with fear of massacre. Stephen of England sat on a rocking throne. And every mast of pride has bent in the storm, and the highest mountains of honor and fame are covered with perpetual snow. Sickness will frost the rosiest cheek, wrinkle the smoothest brow and -stiffen the | sprightliest step. Rizpah quits the courtly circle and sits on the rock. ! Perhaps you look back upon scenes different from those in which now from day to day you mingle. You have exchanged the plenty and luxuriance of your father’s house for privation and trials known to God I arul your own heart. The morning Troops of,calamites since then have made desperate charge upon you. Darkness has come. Sorrows have swooped like carrion birds from the thicket. You stand amid yOur slain anguished and woe struck. Rizpah , on the rock, i So it has been in all ages. Vashti must doff the spangled robes of the Persian court and go forth blasted from the palace gate. Hagar exchanges oriental comfort for the wilderness of Deersheba. Mary. Queen of Scots, must pass out from flattery aud pomp to suffer ignominious death in the castle of Frothingay. The wheel of fortune keeps turning and mansions aud lmts exchange, and he who rode the chariot pushes the barrow, and instead of the glare of fesI tal lights is the simmering of the | peat fire, End in the place of Saul’s j palace is the rock—the cold rock, the I desolate rock, I Again the ti aged vof the text dis plays the courage' of woman amid great emergencies, What mother or sister or daughter would dare to go out to fight thecormorantsnd jackul? Rizpah did it. And so would you if an emergency demanded. Woman is naturally timid and shrinks from exposure aud depends on stronger arms for the achievement of greatjenterprises. And she is often troubled lest there might be occasions demanding fortitude when she would ! fail. Not so. Some of those who are ; afraid to look out of doors after night fail, and wha quake in the darkness at the least uncertain sound, and who start at the slam of tfiedoor and : turn pale in a thunderstorm, it the day of trial came would be heroic and : invulnerable. ; God has arranged it so that woman | needs the trumpet of great contest of ! principle or affection to rouse up her ! slumbering courage. Then she will 1 stand under the cross fire of opposing hosts at Chalons and give wine to the wounded. Then she will carry into prison and dark lane the mesj sage of salvation. Then she - will ■ brave the pestilence. Deborah goes i out to sound terror into the hearts of j i Godjs enemies. Abigail throws hersel between a raiding party of ini fm iated men and her husband's vineyards. Rizpah fights back the vulj tures from .{he rock. Again, the scene of the text un- ; presses upon us the strength of maternal attachment. Not many men I would have had c.aura-ge-or--errd'nr-' i ance-fortfie awful mission of Rizoah. To dare the rage of wild beasts, and sit from May to October unsheltered, I and to watch the corpses of unburied I children, was a work that nothing j but the maternal heart could have j accomplished. It needed more courrage than -to stand before opened batj teries or to walk in calmness thedeck . of a foundering steamer. There is no emotion so completely | lip‘i? 1 fish as maternal affection. C'on- | jugal love expects the return of many kindnesses and attentions. ! Filial love expects parental care or is helped by the memory of past j watchfulness. But the strength of ! a mother's love is entirely independent of the past and the future, and is, of all emotions, the purest. The child has done nothing in the past to earn kindness, and in the future it may grow up to maltreat its parent; but still from the mother's heart there goes forth inconsumable affection. Abuse cannot offend it; neglect . cannot chill it, time cannot efface it; death cannot destroy it. For harsh xvords it has gentle chiding; for the i blow it has beneficent ministry; for neglect it has increasing watchfulness. U weeps at the prison door over the incarcerated prodigal, and pleads for pardon at the Governor's feet, nnd is forced away bv compassionate friends from witnessing,the struggles of tire gallows. Other •lights go out, but this burns on I without extinguishment, as in a J gloom-struck night you may see a ! single star-one of God's pickets—- ! with gleaming bayonet of light keep- | ing guard over the outposts of ! heaven. • Oh. despise not a mothers love! If | heretofore you have been negligent j of such an one and you still have op^ ! portunity for reparation, make haste. If you could only just look in for an hour’s visit to her, you would rouse up in the aged one a whole world of blissful memories. What if she does sit without talking much? She watch esj’ou for months when you knew not how to talk at all. What if she has many ailments to tell about? During iifteen years you ran to her with every little scratch or bruise, aud 6he doctored your little as carefully as a surgeon would bind the worst fracture. You say she is childish now. 1 wonder if she ever saw you when you were childish. You have no patience to walk with her on tho street, she moves so slowly. You eomploin at

the expense of providing for her now. I wonder what your financial income was from one year to ten years of age. Do not begrudge what- you do for the old folks. £ care not how much you did for them; they havedone more for you. BuTTrom~tMy weird teNt of-tho morning comes rushing in upon my soul a thought that overpowers me. This watching: by Rizpah was an after death watching. I wonder if now there is an after death watching. 1 think there is. There are Rizpahs who have passed death, aud who are .still watching. They look down from their supernal aud glorified state upon us, and is not that an after death watching? I cannot believe that those who before their death were interested in us have since their death become indifferent as tohappines to us. Young man, better look out what you do and where you go, for ycur glorified mother, is looking at you. “ What would mother sav if she knew this ?” She docs know. You might cheat her once, but you can not cheat her now. Does it’ embarrass us to think she knows all about us now ? If she had to put up with so much when she was here, surely she will not be the less patient and excusatory now. ~_ Oh, this tremendous thought of my text—this after death watching! What an uplhting consideration! Aud what a comforting Thought! Younsr mother, you who have just lost your babe, and who feels the need of a nearer solace than that which comes from ordinary sympathy your mother knows all about it. You cannot run in and talk it all over with her as you would if she were still a terrestrial resident, but it will comfort you I think—yea it will comfort you a good deal---to know that she understands it all. You see that the velocities of the heavenly conditions are sb great that it would take her a half second to come to your bereft heart. Oil, these mothers in heaven! Theycan do more for us how than before they went away. The bridge between this world and the next is not broken down. They approach the bridge from both ways, departing spirits and coming spirits, (iisimprisoued spirits and sympathizing spirits. And so let us walk as to be worthy of the supernal companionships. and if to any of us life on eart.fi is a hard grind, let us understand that if we watcli faithfully and trust fully our blessed Lord there will be a corresponding reward in the land of peace, and that Rizpah, who once wept .on a rock, how reigns on a throne.