Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1890 — HOMEWARD BOUND. [ARTICLE]

HOMEWARD BOUND.

hr. Talmage Greatly Impressed With What He Saw in the Holy Land. ie Believes the Day is Coming When Princes and Potentates will Bring Their AU to the Gates of Jerusalem for God’s Glory. - —u——__.... Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, on his return ■Om his tour in the Holy Land preached i Vienna, Austria, last Sunday, on “The Surprises of Religion.” His text was I lings x, 7: “Behold, the half was not told le.” The sermon was as follows: Appearing before you to-day, my mind et agitated witn the scenery of the Holy .and, from which' we have just arrived, ou will expect me to revert to some of the cenes once enacted there. Mark tr circle round Lake Galilee, and another circle round Jerusalem, and you describe the two 9 egions in which cluster memories of more vents than in any other two circles. Jerualem was a spell of facination that will old me the rest of my life. Solomon had esolved- that That city should be the center fall sacred, regal and commercial magnlcence. He set himself to work, and ino opolized the surrounding desert as a highray for his caravans. He built the city of •almyra around one of the principal wells f the east, so that all the long trains f merchendise from the east were bliged to stop there, pay toll and leave art of tbpiv wealth in Ihp "barirts hrySfitmoil’s merchants. He manned the forress Thhpsacus at the chief ford of the Euphrates, and put under guard every thirg hat passed there. The three great proucts of Palestine—wine pressed from the ichest clusters and celebrated all the vprld over; oil, which in that hOVequntry »the entire substitute for butter andXard, nd was pressed from the olive branches ntal every tree in the country became an il well: and honey, which was the entire ufcstitute for sugar—these three great iro..ucts of the ebuntry Solomon exported, nd received in return fruits and precious roods and the animals of every clime. He went down to Ezion-geber and orderd a fleet of ships to be constructed, overaw the workmen, and watched the launch ng of the flotilla which was to go out on nore than a .year’s voyage, to bring home be wealth oi the then known world. He leard that the Egyptian horses were large nd swift, and long maned and round imbed, and he resolved to purchase them, •iving eighty-five dollars apiece for them, mtting the best of these horses in his own itall and selling the surplus to foreign peculates at great profit. I He heard that there was the best of imber on Mount Lebanon, and he sent out me hundred and eighty thousand men to lew down the forest and drag the timber .hrough the mountain gorges, to construct t into rafts to be floated to Joppa.- and rom thence to bo drawn by ox teams wentv-ilve miles across the land to Jerusaem. He heard that there were beautiful lowers in other lands. He sent for them, banted them in his own gardens, and to his very day there are Howers found in he ruins Of that city such as are to be 'ound in no other part of Palastine, the ineal descend.mis of the very flowers that Solomon planted. He heard that in oreign groves there were birds, of richest roice and most luxuriant wing. He sent mt people to c itch them, and bring them here, and he put them into his cages. Stand back now ami see this long train >f camels coming up to the king’s gate, and he ox trains from Egypt, gold and silver md precious stones, and beasts of every loof, and birds of every wing, and flesh of ivery scale 1 See the peacocks strut under the cedars, and the horsemen run, and the ■hariots wheel! Gaze upon the dance I Not stopping to look into the wonders of the temple, step right on to the causeway, and pass up to Solomon's palace! Here we find ourselves amid a collection

of buildings on which the king had lavished the wealth of many empires: —The genius of Hiram, the architect, and of the other artists is here scon in the long line of corridors and the suspended gallery and the approach to the throne. • Trace tied window opposite traceried window. Bronzed ornaments bursting into lotus and lily and pomegranate. Chapiters surrounded by network of leaves in which imitation fruit seemed suspended as in hanging baskets. Three branches—so Josephus tells us—three branches sculptured on the marble, so thin and subtle that even the leaves seemed to quiver. A. layer capab.e of holding five hundred barrels of water on six_hujidred.j3£azen ox heads, which., gushed with water and tilled the whole place with coolness and crystalline bright ness and musical plash.- Ten tables chased with chariot wheel and lion and cherubim. Solomon sat on a throne of ivory. At the seat ing place of the throne, on each end .of the steps, a brazen lion, h by, my friends, in that place they trimined their candles with snuffers of gold, and they cut their fruits with knives of gold, and they washed their faces in basins of gold, and they scooped out the ashes with shovels of gold, and they stirred the altar tires with tongs of gold. Gold reflected in the water I Gold flashing from the apparel! Gold blazing in the crown 1 Gold, gold, gold I Of course the news of the affluence of that place went out everywhere by every caravan and by wing of every ship, until soon the streets of Jerusalem are crowded with curiosity seekers. What is that long procession approaching Jerusalem! I think from the pomp of it there must be royalty in the train. I smell the breath of tne spices which are brought as presents, and I hear the shouts of the drivers, and 1 see the dust covered caravan showing that they come from far away. Cry the news up to the palace. The queen of Sheba advances. Let all the [>eople come out to see. Let the mighty men of the land come out on the palace corridors. Let Solomon come down the stairs of .the palace before the queen has alighted. Shake out the cinnamon, and saffron, and the calamus, and the frankincense and pass it into the treasure house. Ti ke up the diamonds until they glitter in the sun.

The queen of Sheba alights. She enters the palace. She washes at the bath. She sts down at the banquet. The cup bearers bow. The meat smokos. The music trembles in the dash of the waters from the molten sea. Thea she rises from the Uan,quet. and walks through the conservatories, and gazes on the architecture, and she asks Soloifaoii tnimy strange questions, and i she learns about the religion of the Hebrews, und she then and there becomes a servant of the Lx>rd God. She is overwhelmed. She begins to think that all the spices sho brought, and all the precious woods which are intended to be turned into burp, and ps tileries and into railings for 'the causeway between the temple and the palace, and the one hundred and eighty thousand dollars in money—she lieg ns to th nk that all these presents amouut to nothing in such a place, and she is 1.1 most ashamed that she has brought Ihetn, and says within herself: “1 heard a great deal about this place, and about this wonderful religion of the Hebrews, but L find it fur beyond my highest anticipations I must add more than fifty per cent, to what »s been related. It exceeds everything iha* I could have expected. The half- the ball was not told ma.”

I .earn from this subject what a beautiful ! thing it is When social position and wealth surrender themselves to God. When religion comes to a neighborhood, the first to receive it are the women. Some men say it is because they are weak minded. 1 say it is because they have quicker perception of what is right, more ardent affection and ' capacity for sublimer emotion. After the women have received the GOspel then all! the distressed and the poor of both sexes, those who have no friends, accept Jesus. Last of all cometbe greatly prospered. Alas, that is so! If there are those who have been favored ' of fortune, or, as I might better put it, I f avored of God, surrender all you have and ■ all you expect to be to the Lord who blessed I this queen of Sheba. Certainly you are : not ashamed to be found in this queen’s company, fam glad that Christ has had i his imperial friends in all ages Elizabeth I Christina, queen of Prussia; Mana i Feodorovna, queen of Russia; Marie, em- ' press of France; Helena, the imperial ' mother of Constantine; Arcadia, from her I great fortunes budding public baths in I Constantinople and toiling for the alleviaI tion of the masses; Queen Clotilda, leading J her husband and three thousand of his I armed warriors to Christian baptism; ; Elizabeth of Burgundy, giving her jeweled I glove to a beggar, and scattering great fortunes among the distressed; Prince Albert, singing “Rock of Ages” in \\ indsor - Castle, and Queen Victoria, incognita, j readingthe Scriptures to a dying pauper. I 1 bless God that the day is coming when ' ' royalty will bring all its thrones, and music tures, and sculpture all its statuary, and architecture all its pillars, and conquest all its scepters, and the queens of the earth in long line of advance, frankincense filling the air and the camels laden with gold, shall approach Jerualem, and the gates shall be hoisted, and the great burden of splendor shall be lifted into the palace of this greater than Solomon. Again, my subject teaches me what is earnestness in the search of truth. Do you know where Sheba was? It was in Abyssinia, or some say in the southern part of Arabia Felix.-In either case it was a great way off from Jerusalem. To get from there to Jerusalem she had to cross a country infested with bandits, and go across blistering deserts. Why did not the, quten of Sheba stay at home and send a committee to inquire about this new religion, and have the delegates report in regard to that religion and wealth of King Solomon! She wanted to see for herrself, and hear for herself. She could not do this work by committee. She felt she had a soul worth ten thousand kingdoms like Sheba, and she wanted a robe richer than any woven by Oriental Shuttles, and she wanted a crown set with the jewels of eternity. Bring out the camels. Put on the spires. Gather u n the jewels of the throne and put them on the .caravan. Start now; no time to be lost. Goad on the camels. When 1 see that caravan, dust covered., weary and exhausted, trudging on acrossr The desert and among the bandits until it reaches Jerusalem, I say; “There is an earnest seeker after the truth.” But there are a great many who do not act in that way. They ail want to get the truth, but they want the truth to come to them; they do not want to go to it. There are people who fold their arms and say: “I am ready to become a Christian at any. : time; and if I am to be saved 1 shall be saved, ana if I am to be lost I shall be lost” i But Jerusalem will never come to you; you ; must go to Jerusalem. The religion of the Lord Jesus Christ will not come to you; you must go and get religion. Bring out the camels; put On all the sweetyspices, all the treasures of the heart’s affection. Start for the throne. Go in and heat, the waters of salvation dancing in fountains all around about the throne. Sit down at the banquet—thb wine pressed from the grapes of the heavenly Eshcol, the angels of God the cup bearers. Goad on the camels. The Bible declares it: “The queen of the south”—that is, this very woman I am speaking of—“the queen of the south shall rise up'ih judgfnent'against this" generation and condemn it; for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold! a greater than Solomon is here.” What infatuation the sitting down in idleness expecting to be saved. “Strive to enter in at the strait gate. Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.” Take the kingdom of heaven by violence. Urge ou the camels! ;■ Again my subject impresses me with the" fact that religion is a surprise to any one that gets it. This story of the new religion in Jerusalem, and of the glory of King Solomon, who was a type of Christ—that story rolled on and on, and was told by every . traveler coming back from Jerusalem. The. news goes ou the wing of every ship and with every caravan, and you know a story enlarges as it is retold, and by' the time that story gets down into the southern part of Arabia Felix, and the queen of Sheba hears it, it must be a tremendous story. And yet this queen declares in regard to it, although I she had heard so much and had her anticipations raised so high the half—the half was not told her. So religion is always a surprise to any one that gets it. The story of grace—an old story. Apostles preached it with rattle of chain; martyrs declared it with arm of fire; deathbeds have affirmed it with visions of glory, and ministers -of religion have sounded it through the lanes, and the highways, and the chapels, and the cathedrals. It has been cut into stone with chisel ; and spread on the canvas with pencil; and it has been recited in the doxology of great congregations. And yet when a man first comes to look on the palace of God’s

mercy, and to see the royalty of Christ, and the wealth of this banquet, and the luxuriance of his attendants, and the loveliness of his face, and the joy of his service, he exclaims with prayers, with tears, with sighs, with triumphs: “The half—the half was not told me !” I appeal to those who are Christians. Compare the idea you had of the joy of the Christian life before you became a Christian with the appreciation of that joy you have now since you have become a Christian, and you are willing to attest before angels and men that you never, in the days?* of your spiritual bondage, had any appreciation of What was to come. You are ready to-day to answer and say in regard to the discoveries you have made of the mercy and the grace and the goodness of God: “The half—the half was never told mel” W ell, we hear a great deal about the good time that is coming to this world when It is to be girded with salvation. Holiness on the bells of the horses. The lion's mane patted by the hand of a babe. Ships of Tarshish bringing cargoes for Jesus, aad the hard, dry, barren, winter bleached, storm scarred, thunder split rock breaking in a flood’s bright water. Deserts into which dromedaries thrust their nostrils, because they were afraid of the simoon— eserts blooming into carnation roses and silver tipped lilies. It is the old story. Everybody tells it Isaiah told it John told it Panl told it, Ezekiel told it, Luther told it, Calvin told it, John Milton told it—Everybody tells it; und yet—and yet when the midnight shall fly the hills, and Christ shall marshal his great army, and China, dashing her idols into the dust, shall bear the voice of | Gad and wheel into lino; and India,

1 destroying her Juggernaut and snatching up her little children from the Ganges, shall hear the voice of God and wheel into line; and vine covered Italy, and wheat crowned Russia, and all the nations of the earth shall hear the voice of God and fall into line; theu the church, which has been toiling and struggling through the centuries, robed and garlanded ! like a bride adorned for her husband, shall put aside her veil and look up into the face of her Lord the Rinz and say: “The half —the half was mot Well, there is coming a greater surprise to every Christian—a greater surprise than • anything I have depicted, Heav n is an old story. Everybody talks about it: -There is hardly a hymn in the hymn book that does not refer to it. Children read it in Sabbath school books. Aged men put on their spectacles to study it. We say it is a harbor from the storm. We call it home. Wc say it is the house of many —mansions; We weave together all sweet, beautiful, delicate, exhilarant words; we weave them into letters, and then we spell it out in rose and lily and amaranth. And yet that place is going to be a surprise to the most intelligent Christian. Like the queen of Sheba, the report has come to us from the far country, and many of us have started. It is a desert march, but we urge on the camels. What though our feet be blistered • with the way! v> e are hastening to the palace. We take all our loves I and hopes and Christian ambitious, . as frankincense and myrrh and cassia, to i the great King. We must not rest. IVe must not halt, The pjght is ceming on, and it is not safe out here in the (desert. Urge on the camels. I see the domes against the sky, and the houses of Lebanon and the temples and the gardens. See the fountains dance in the sun and the gates flash as they open to let in the poor pilgrims. Send the word up to the palace that we are coming, and that we are weary of the march of the desert. The King will come out and say: “Welcome to the palace; bathe in these waters; recline on these : banks. Take this cinnamon and frankincense and myrrh and put it upon a censur and swing it before the altar.” And yet, my friends, when heaven burst upon us it will be a greater surprise than that—Jesus on the throne, and we made like him! All our Christian friends surround us in glory! All our sorrows and sins gone by forever 1 The thousands of thousands, the one hundred and forty and four thousand, the great multitudes that no man can number, will cry, world without end: “The half—the half was not told me I”