Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1892 — SOLOMON’S SONG. [ARTICLE]

SOLOMON’S SONG.

The Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth. “Fair M thoXoon, Clekr a« the Sun and. Terrible as an Army With Banners. ” This week, like others that have preceded it since the beginning of Rev. Dr. Talmage’s foreign preaching tour, has been a very busy one. Indeed, since July 24, when he preached in the English and American church in Berlin, while en route from Russia to Scotland, Dr. Talmage can scarcely be said to have had a/ moment’s leisure. Services have been held at Edinburgh, Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, Newcastle and Sunderland. The sermon for this week is entitled “ The Glorious March, ” the text being from Solomon’s Song vi, 10, “Fair as the moon, clear as the sun and terrible as an army with banners. ” The fragrance of spikenard, the flash of jewels, the fruitfulness of orchards, the luxuriance of gardens, then beauty of Heshbon fish pools, the dew of the night and the splendor of the morning—all contribute to the richness of Solomon’s style when he comes to speak of the glory of the church. In contrast with his eulogium of the church, look at the denunciatory things that are said in our day in regard to it If one stockholder becomes a cheat, does that destroy the whole company ? If one soldier be a coward, does that condemn the whole army ? AlSd yet there are many in this day so unphilosophic, so illogical, so dishonest and so unfair as to denounce the entire church of God because there are here and there bad men belonging to it. There are those who say that the church of God is not up to the spirit of the day in which we-live, but I have to tell you that notwithstanding all the swift wheels, and flying shuttles,,, and the lightning communications, the world has never yet been able to keep up with the church. As high as God is above man, so high is the church of God —higher than all human institutions. From her lamp the best discoveries of the world have been lighted. Tlie best of our inventors have believed in the Christian religion—the Fultons, the Morses, the Whitneys, the Perrys and the Livingstons. The world will not be up to the church of Christ until the day when all merchandise has become honest. merchandise, and all governments have become free governments, and all nations evangelized nations, and the last deaf ear of spiritual death shall be broken open by the mitlionvoiced shout of nations born in a day. The church that Nebuchadnezzar tried to burn in the furnace, and Darius to tear 1 to pieced with the lions, and Lord Claverhouse to cut with the sword,»has gone on wading the floods and enduring the fire until the deepest barberism apd the wickedest cruelties, and the blackest superstitions have been compelled to look to the east, crying: “Who is she that looketh forth” as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?” Yet there are people who are ashamed to belong to the chursh of Christ, and if you ask them whether they are in such associations they say” “yes, I sometimes attend the church, ” instead of realizing the fact that there is no honor compared with the honor of being a member of the church of God. I look back with joy to the most honored moment of my life, when in the old meeting house the minister of Christ announced my name as a follower of the Lord, Oh, men and women, by the tides of frivolity and worldliness swept this way and swept that way, seeking for associations and for satisfaction for the immortal soul, come into the church for Jesus Christ, Lash fast to her. She is the pillar and the ground of truth. I propose to speak of the threefold glory of the church, as it is described in the text: First —“Fair as the moon.” God, who has determined that everything shall be beautiful in its season, has not left the night without charm. The moon rules the night. The. stars are oqly set as gems in her tiara. Sometimes before the sun has gone down the moon mounts her throne, but it is after nightfall that she sways her undisputed scepter over island and continent, river and sea. Under her shining the plainest maple leaves become shivering silver, the lak<s from shore to shore look like shining mirrors, and the ocean under her glance with great tides comes up panting upon the beach, mingling as it were, foam and fire. Under the witchery of the moon the awful steeps lose their ruggedness and the chasms their terror.* The poor man blesses God for throwing so cheap a light through the broken window pane of his cabin, and, to the sick itjseems like alight from th% other shore that bounds this great-deep of human pain and woe. If the sun be like a song, full and loud and poured forth from brazen instruments that fill heaven and earth with harmony, the moon is plaintive and" sad, standing beneath the throne of God, sending up her soft, sweet voice of praise while the stars listen and the sea! No mother ever more lovingly watched a sick cradle than this pale watcher of the sky bends over the weary, heartsick, slumbering earth, singing to it sil- . .very music while it is rocked in the cradle of the spheres.

fair as the morn?” Our answer is the church. Like the moon, she is a < borrowed light. She gathers up the * glory of a Savior’s sufferings, a Savior’s death, a savior’s death, a Savibr’s resurrection, a Savior’s ascension, and pours that .light on palace dungeon, on squalid heathenism and elaborate skepticism, on widow’s tears and martyr’s robe of flame, on weeping penitence and loud-mouthed scorn. I take a step further in my subject —“clear as the sun.” After a season of storm or fog how you are thrived when the sun comes out at noonday! The mists travel up hill above hill, mountain above mountain, until they are sky lost. The forests are full of chirp and buzz and song, honeymakers on the log, bird’s beak pounding the bark, the chatter of the squirrel on the rail, the ball of a hawk out of a clear sky, make you thankful for the sunshine which all the world so busy and so glad. The same sun which in the morning kindled conflagrations amid the castles of cloud, stoops down to paint the lily white and,the buttercup yellow and the forget-me-not blue. / It is the great mission of the church of Jesus Christ to come forth “clear as the sun,” to dllumine all earthly darkness, to explain as far as possible all mystery, and to make the word radiant in its brightness, and that which you. thought was an aroused lion is found out to be a slumbering lamb, and the sepulchral gates of your dead turn out to be the opening gates of heaven, and that which you supposed to be a flaming sword to keep you out of paradise is an angel of light to beckon you toThe lamps on her altars will cast their glow on your darkest pathway and cheer you, until, far beyond; theneed of lantern or you are safely anchored within the' vaiL Oh, sun of the church, shine on uritil there is no sorrow to soothe, no tears to wipe away, no shackles to break, no more souls to be redeemed 1 Ten thousand hands of sin have attempted to extinguish the lamps on her altars, but they are quenchless, and to silence her pulpits, but the thunder would leap and the lightning would flame, -r % Further, “(’Terrible as ah army with I take one more step in this subject and say that if you were plaeedLjor the defense of a feeble town ahd 4 great army was coming over the hills with flying ensigns, then you wil| be able to get some idea of the terror that will strike the hearts of the; enemies of God when the church at last marches on like* “ an army with You know there is hothing that excites a soldier's enthusiasm so much as an old flag. Manv a man almost dead, catching■ a glimpse of the national ensign, has sprung to his feet and started again into the battle. Now, my friends, I don’t want you to think of the church of -Jesus Christ as a defeated institution, as the victim of infidel sarcasm —something to be kickea and cuffed and trampled on through all the ages of the world. It is “an army with banners. ” It has an inscription and colors such as never stirred the hearts of any earthly soldiery. ? We have otir .banner of recruit, and on it is inscribed' ‘‘Who is on the Lord’s side?” Our banner of defiance, and dn it\ is inscribed, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against us.” Our banner of triumphs and on it is inscribed, “Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” and we mean, to plant that banner on every hilltop and wave it at the gate of heaven. With Christ-to lead us we need not tear. I will not underrate the enemy. They are a tremendous host They come on with acutest strategy. Their weapons by all the inhabitants of darkness have been forged in furnaces of everlasting fire. We contend not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places: but if God be for us, who can be against us? History tells us that one day the armies of Xerxes shouted all at once, and the vociferation was so mighty that the birds flying through the air dropped as though they were dead. Oh, what a shout of triumph when all the armies of heaven shall celebrate the victory of our king—all at once and all together. “Halleluiah! for the Lord God omnipotent reignqth. Halleluiah! for the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ” When the Prussian army came back from their war they were re--ceiyed in 1866 at the gates of Berlin, and a choir stood above thdSgates, and as the first regiment advanced and came to the gates the choir, in music, asked them what right they had to enter there. And then the first regiment, in song, replied, telling over the stories of their conflicts and their victories. Then they entered through the gates, and all the city was full of gladness and triumph. But, oh, the greater joy when the army with‘banners shall come up to the gate of our king! the walls of that celestial mansion will be aglitter with shields won in battle, and adorned with the banners of God that were carried in front of the host, harp shall tell to harp the heroism in which the conquerors won their palm, and the church that day shall sit queen at the banquet. Her wanderings over, hex. victories gained, Christ shall rise up to introduce her to all the nationsPf heaven, and as she pulla aside her veil and looks up into the face of her Lord the King, Christ shall exclaim, “This is.ghe that looketh forth as the morping, fair as