Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1889 — THE MOONLIGHT RIDE. [ARTICLE]

THE MOONLIGHT RIDE.

The decision of Harvard College not *to diafavor athletic* is backed op by a recent report to the effect that the faculty botieves dyspepsia leas tolerable than a stiffened knee or broken finger, and that effeminacv and luxury are worse evils than even brutality. The games, if acoomnanied/by some evils, are lees to be reprehended than the degeneracy of body and character that accompany study when exercise and vigor are neglected. A sound mind must have a sound body. •ir© onck get the fever of office-seeking irione’sblood is to become forever and ever a prey to. its ravages. The secretaryships are no sooner out of the 'way than the disappjinted ones come humbly up soliciting assistant secretaryships and foreign posts. When these are gone plain, every-day „ clerkships will be in demand, and if in our official organism there Was any use for a groom of the back staim or chinyaey-sweep there would be % hundred feverish applicants contending for those jobs. It is a deal worse, fidm a moral standpoint, to be stricken with the craze for office than to have the small-pox and yellow jack and Asiatic cholera all at once. |.

Thk case of dynamite bombs exploded at one of the Eastern colleges by some of th^students in a row, or frolic, surpasses all instances of college misdeeds on record. It seems that one of the boys persuaded his father to send them the bombs, under what representation is not knowri. The boys used them to blow up and injure college buildings. One bomb exploded in a student’s hands, and the chap is now in a hospital, - with slight chances fdr life. A few years ago a cannon was exploded in a college building,' but even that did not parallel this bomb-throwing. If law is of any value anywhere it is in punishing all parties engaged in thiß infernal busineaßS. ,

Chacnciy M. Dspsw says the new Secretary of the Navy is addicted to getting seasick. Why didn’t he tell President Harrison of thi* before the appointment was made? How can we ever survive the disgraceful spectacle of our highest naval official hanging over the vessel’s side in earnest communion with the spirits of the deep? And when he turns for a moment, with blanched face, to order his men to reef the capstan and luff the hatches, will not the after guard and the for’ard mess and the labbard and stabbard watches give him the razzle dazzle? It will not do at all. We must have a .new naval commander, and he must be the saltiest sea dog afloat

It has long been recognized bv scientists that the one great discovery wanting was some method of utilizing solar heat—that is, to prevent the waste of the power that is all about us. Ericsson and others have worked at the problem and have succeeded in constructing machines on roofs for concentrating rays and driving engines. Prof. Morse, well known for his researches in archwology and paleontology in the West, has at last devised a simple stove for warming rooms by solar heat The device is, of course, good only on sunny days. The invention is, however, along a line on which we may expect great progress.

Th* effects of raising the Commissioner oi Agriculture to the position of a Cabinet officer will be inevitably to remove him farther from the farmers and people he is intended mainly to Nrepresent. No one supposes that hereafter the Secretary of Agriculture will, a rale be chosen from practical agriculturists, but from politicians for political purposes. That does not make it at all certain that in some cases the change may not be for the better, for there have been Commissioners of exceptionally poor ability and fitness. But the intention of the office primarily was to have a practical and educated agriculturist at Washington to supervise .the farming interests es the country. ~ Precisely why any one thought it would benefit agriculture to make the change in question & hard to understand. “Another asteroid” is getting to »e so common a telegram between men of science that it causes no longer a ripple of excitement. Very close on to 200 small planetary bodies are now known to exiM between Mars and Jupiter. Each one has its own orbit and time,and these have been determined .and charted with accuracy. Forty years ago there were but four of these known. The discovery of a fifth astonished the world of scientists—then came a sixth and seventh and before long a baker's dozen were strung on the lmg. A lull in discovery occurred, only to be followed by such a rash ot asteroid enterprise that it became a matter of sport—a sort oi appetite sharpener for Peters, or some Dutchman, to angle out a new one beJbre breakfast. The probability is that the full Hat is by no means yet made out. There are as likely to ha 500 as 200. What are they? Scraps 6f # blown up planet? or are they cosmical staff drawn into close orbital sympathy, bat not cemented into a plane;? Two new, onee have been recently by Farli*

IN THE MOONI.M* HT AftOl’ND THE WALLS.OP JUfCUSALtSM. Explore the Heart'* Ruin* and Begin (he Work of Recount met tnn; and Cease Not Until the Temple Has Been Made Whole Again., Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at the Brooklyn tabernacle last .Sunday. Subject “The Moonlight Ride.” Text Nehemiah iL, 15. , He said: My subject first impresses me with the idea what an intense thing is church affection. Nehemiah was a servant, a cup-bearer in the palace of Artaxerxes Longimanus, and oue day, while he was handing’the cup of wine to the King, the King saj,d to him: ‘‘What is matter with you? You are pntatek. I know yon must have, some great trouble. What is the matter with you?” Then be told the King how that beloved Jerusalem was broken down; how that his father's tomb had been desecrated; how that the Temple had been dishn'noredvgr.d defaced, how that the walls were scattered and broken. “Well,” says King Artaxerxes, “what do you want?” “Well,” said the cup-bearer Nehemiah, “I want to go home. 1 want to fix up 'the grave of my father. I want to restore the Deauty of the temple. I want to rebuild the masonry of the city wall. Besides, I want passports so that I shall not be hindered in my journey. And besides that,” as you will find in the context, “I want an order on the man who keeps your forest .or just so much timber as I may need for the rebuilding <4 the city.” How long shall you be gone?” said the King. The time of absence is arranged. In hot haste this seeming adventurer comes to Jerusalem, and in my text we find him >n horseback in the midnight riding around the ruins. *lt is through the spec acleof this scene that we discover the ardent attachment of Nehemiah for thS sacred Jerusalem, which in ali ageA has been the type ,of the Church of God, our Jerusalem, which we love just as much as Nehemiah ioved his Jerusalem. I'he fact itjthat you love the Church of God so much that there is no spot on earth so sacred, unless it is your own ? fireside. The Church has been to you so much comfort and illumination that there is nothing that makes you so 'rateastohavA .it talked against. If there have be# times when you have been carried into captivity by sickness. you longed for the Chureli, our hoHr Jerusalem, just as much as longed for his Jerusalem, and the frft day you came out you came to the hoyse •A the Lord. ' AVhen the Temple was in ruins, as ours wa§ years ago, like Nerntmiah, you walked around and looked at it, and in the moonlight you Btood listening if you could not hear the voice of the dead organ, the psalm of the expired Sabbiths. \\ hat Jerusalem was to Nehemiah the Church of God is to you. Skeptics and inlidels may scoff at the Church as an obsolete affair, as a relic of the dark ages, as a convention of goody-goody people, but all the impression they have ever made on your mind against the Church of God is absolutely riodiing. You would make more sacrifices lor it to-day than for any other institution, and if it were needful you would die - im ita defense. You can take the words of the kingly poet as he said: “If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her canning.'’ You understand in your own experience the pathos, the homesickness, the courage, the holy enthusiasm of Nehemiah in lus midnight, moonlight rid,e around the ruins of his beloved Jerusalem.

Again, my text impresses me with the lact ‘ihat before reconstruction there must be an exploration of ruins. Why ivas not Nehemiah asleep under the lovers? Way was not his horse stabled a the midnight? Let the police of the \ty arrest this midnight rider out on ‘oir.e m if chief. No, Neoejiiuh is going to rebuild the ity, and he is making the preliminary xploration. In this gate, out ithat gate —east, west, north, south. All through the mins. The ruins must be explored before the work of reconstruction can begin. The reason that so m ny people ; n this day, appaienily converted, do not stay converted is lie aviso they did not first explore the ruins of their own heart. Tne. reason that there are so many professed Christians who iii this •ay i:e aa.; fy ge and steal, and commit v,a!' - ry, am! cn to the IV. imntiury, is

•in>e ih,*v fi ft do not learn the ruin 'A thiii o'aij heart. 1 hey have not hq'v.d Out .tnat. “the heart is deceithil hoc;- ,afl thing?, and desperately , icVe»j.” They had an idea that they ■••* id. 0.-f rudit, itmi they buiit reiign. ;:s a mi.mot extension,-as an ornamental cupola. I'nere was asnperstruc-' me of religion /built on a substratum, il an repented sins. I'he t otioie with a good.deal of nodrii u,« tfog/is that in-tead of huhoing ni'the right foundation it builds ou lire 1 loi.s nt an unri-u neraied noire, d hev attempt to rebuild Jetusaitm beWe. in tne midnight of conviction, they ia\‘e seen the ghastliness of The rain. They have such a poor {foundation for heir ri ligion that the first northeast "torm of temptation blown them down, t have no faith in a loan's conversion if he is not converted in the old-fashioned

A man comes to talk about religion. The first question i ask him is, ' Do you feel yourself to he a sinner?” If lie says, V Well. I—yes,” the hesitancy, makes me feel that that man wants K ride on Nehemiah’s horse by midnight throurirthe rains—in by thjegate of his ft lec tions, out by the gate "of his will—and before he through with that midnight ride be will drop the reins on the horse’aneck, and will take his right hand smite on.Mb heart and say, “God be merciful to me a sinner;’’ and before he hss stabled his horse he will tfke his feet but of the stirrups, and he w ill slide down on the ground, apd he will kneel, crying, ‘‘Have mercy on me, O God, accordTrfg t'o thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies; blot out my transgressions, for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sins are ever before Usee.” Ab, my friends, von this is not a complimentary gospel. This is what makes the people so mad, ; t ames to a man of a miiiioa dollars jwul impenitent in his sins and savs, “You’re a pkuper.” It copies to a worn an of fairest cheek, who has never repented, and ..says, “You’re a sihtn-r.” it comes to a man priding him If on his independence and says, “You’re bound hand and foot by the devil.” It comes to our entire race and says,

“Yon’iea ruin, a ghastly refin,an Illimitable rdm."'‘ ' . 4 The redemption of the gospel is a perfect farce if ihere is no, min. “The whole peed net a physician, but limy that are sick.” “If any one, though Lq be an angel from heaven, pnach any other gospel than this,” says the apoatie “let him be amused..” There most be the midnight ride-over the ruins I efore Jerusalem can There must be the clicking of the hoofs before there can be the ringing of the trowels. Again. My subject gi es me a specimen of busy and "-triumphant sadness. If there was any man in the world who had a right to mope and give up every thing as lost it was Nehemiah. Yot Nehemiah did not give up. Then wlieri you see him going among those dfsblated streets, and by .those dismantled towers and by the torn up grave of his father, you would, suppose» that he would have been r disheartened, arid that he would have dismounted from his horse and* gone to his room and said: “Woe is me! My father's grave is tom up. The .Temple is dishonored. The walls are broken down. I have no money wit h which to rebuild. I wish I had never been born. I wish I were death” Not so says Nehemiah. Although he had k grief'so intense that excited the commentary of his King, yet that penniless, expatriated Nehemiah rouses himself up to rebuild the city. He gets his permission of absence. He gets his passports. "He hastens away to Jerusalem. By night on horseback he rides tnrough the ruins. He overcomes the most ferocious opposition. He arouses the piety and patriotism of the people, and in less teaii two months, namely, in fifty-two d, ys, Jerusalem was rebuilt. That’s what I call bjtsy and triumphant sadniES. ■My friends, the whole teuirtajjon is with you, when you have trouole, lo do just the oppos te to the behavior of Nehemiah, and that is to give up. You say. “I have lost my child and can rever smile again.” You say. “i have lest uy property, and I can never repair my fortunes.” You say, “I have fallen iuio sin, and I can never start again for a new life.” »If Satan can make you form that resolution, and make you keep it, he has ruined you. Trouble is not sent to crush you, but to arouse you, to animate you, "to propel you. The blacksmith does not thrust the iron into the forge and then blow away with the bellows, and then bring the hot iron ou on the anvil and beat with stroke afte stroke to ruin the iron, but to prepare it for a better use. Qh! that the Lord God of Nehemiah would rouse up all broken-hearted people to rebuild. Whipped, betrayed, shipwrecked, imprisoned Paul went right on. The Ital an martyr, Algerius, sits in his dunged writing a letter, and be dates it “Fron the delectable orchard of the Leonine prison.” That is what I call triumphant sadness. I know* a mother who buried her baby on Friday, and on Sabbath appeared in the house of God and said. “Give me a class; give me a Sabbath school class. I have no child now lei t me, and I would like to have a class of little children. Give me real poor < hil dren. Give me a class off the'bat [ street.” That, I say. is beautiful. That is triumphant sadness. At three o’clock this afternoon, in a beautiful parlor in Philadelphia—a parlor pictured ana statuetted —there will be from ten to twenty destitute children from th* street. It has been so every Sabbath afternoon at three o’clock for many years. These destitute children rectivt religious instruction, concluding wit cakes and sandwiches. How do I know that that has been going ou for many years? I knew it in this way: That was the first home in Philadelphia where I was called, to comfort > great sorrow. They had a splendid boy and he had been drowned at Long Branch. The father and mother alino-i idolized the boy, and the sob a; d sbrio - of that father and mother as they hum over the coffin resound in my tais to day. There seemed to be no use of praying, for when I knelt down to pray the outcry in the room drowned < ut all the prayer. But the Lord (o' f ed that sorrow. They did not forget th i trouble. If you should go on theeuow iest winter afternoon into Laurel Ed you would find a monument with th word “Walter” inscribed upon it, ami ; wreath of fresh flowers around the nam I think there lias not. been an ho all these years, winter or Bunam<*i>,wnn there was not a wreath o' fr.-, hHo ’- i around Walter’s'name. But the Corf tian mother who sends those l! «e* there, having no child left, Sabin.th as ternoons mothers ten or twenty of tic lost ones of the street. That is bt an tiful. That is what I call busy an triumphant sadness. Oh, I wish I couh: persuade all the people who have an kind of trouble never to give up ) wish they would look at the widmirit rider of the ’exr, arid that the four ho f of that beast ou which 'Nclremiah rod* might cut to pieces all your discourage ments and hardships and trials. sGivup! Who is going to give up when on the bosom of God he < an have <ll 1 •f----troubles hushed? Give up! Never ti.i l of giving up. Do not give up. One fi 1:» unto the Son of God comes to you iday, saying: “Go, and sin no 1m iv . while he crias out to ycur assaiiams “Let him that is without i-in c;m i|. 'first stone at Oh ! •here^is reason w r hy any one m tics bouse, by reason of any trouble or tin. sho i d-v-' o up. Are you a foreigner, tn TjAi strange land? Neheinb h mas > . '-Are you homesick? jv«-i end h u‘n- j t n, .. - sick. Are you brokm hearted? N, i* - "miah was brokem-heaited. But jj t -ve him ip Hie text, riding along the la-ri* legt?d grave hf hi* father,, and. by to dragon well, and through th« ti.-L gi to. and by the King s p lot, in t *,.:i. n* and out. the moonlight failing on ih»? broken masonry, which tbrowaJm+g shadow at which the horse shies, and t.t the same time that moonhghr kindling up the features of this man till you see -not only tile nark of sad reminiscence, but the courage, ti e hope, the emhuBiasm of a man who km ws that Jerusalem will be rebuilded. 1 pick you up to-dav out of your sins and, out of your Forro'w, and I put you avail st the warm heart of Christ. “The eternal God is thy refuge, ami underneath are “the everlasting arms.” ,