St. Landry democrat., 1886-08-28
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Rural Sermon on the Babylon
ian Midnight Revel.
The Handwriting on the Wall Interpreted
Under Modern Light-Death an In
truder at the Feast +; Death
Also at Our Feasts.

Rev. T. De Witt Talmage addressed an
immense throng on recent Sabbath at
Monona, a rural suburb of Madison, Wis,
taking for his subject the Babylonian
midnight revel. The text was:
In that night was Belshazzar the King Of
che Chaldeans slain.-Daniel ", 3d.
DR.. Talmage said: Feasting has been
known in all ages. 1t was one of the most
exciting times in English history when
Queen Eliza beth visited Lord Leicester at
Kenilworth Castle. The moment of her
arrival was considered so important that
all the clocks of the castle were stopped,
80 that the hands might point to that one
moment as being the most significant Of
all. She was greeted at the gate with
floating islands, and torches, and the
thunder of cannon, and fireworks that set
the night ablaze, and a great burst of
music that lifted the whole scene into per-
feet enchantment. Then she was intro
duced into dining-hall the luxuries of
which astonished the world; four hundred
servants waiting upon the guests; the en-
terta inment cost 5000 each day. Lord
Leicester made that great supper in Ken
iiu orth Castle.
But my text takes us to more exciting
banquet. Night was about to come down
upon Babylon. The shadows of her 256
towers began to lengthen. The Euphrates
rolled on touched by the fiery splendors of
the setting sun, and gates of brass. burn
ished and glittering, opened and shut like
doors of fame. The hanging gardens of
Babylon, wet with heavy dew, began
to pour from starlit flowers and dripping
leaf fragrance for many miles around.
The streets and squares were lighted for
dance and frolic and promenade. The
theaters and. galleries of art invited the
wealth and pomp and grandeur of the city
to rare entertainments. Scenes of riot
and wassail were mingled in every street,
and goddess mirth and outrageous excess
and splendid wickedness came to the
Kings palace to do their mightiest deeds
of darkness. A royal feast tonight at
the Kings palacel Rushing up to
the gates are chariots upholstered
with precious cloths from Ocean and
drawn by fire-eyed horses from Togarmah
that rear and neigh in the grasp of tn g
charioteers; while thousand lords dis
mount, and women dressed in all the
splendor of Syrian emerald, and the color
blending of agate, and the chasteness of
coral, and the somber glory of Tyrian pur-
pie, and princely embroideries brought
from afar by camels across the desert and
by ships of Tarshish across the sea. Open
wide the gates and let the guests come in!
The chamberlains and the cup bearers are
all ready. Hark to the rustic of the silks
and to the carol of the music! See the
blaze of the jewelsi Lift the banners
Fill the cups! Clap the 'cymbals! Blow
the trumpets! Let the night 60 by with
song and dance and ovation; and let that
Babylonish tongue he palsied that will
not say: "Oh, King Belshazzar, live for
ever"
All, my friends! It was not any COM
mon banquet to which these great people
came. All parts of the earth had sent
their richest viands to that table. Brack-
cts and chandeliers flashed their light up
on tankards of burn ished gold. Fruits,
ripe and luscious, in baskets of silver en-
twined with leaves, pIucked from royal
Conservatives. Vases inlaid with emer-
aid and ridged with exquisite traceries,
forests of distant lands. Wine brought
from the royal watts, foaming in the decan-
tiers and bubbling in the chalices. Tufts
of cassia and frankincense waiting their
sweetness from wall and table. Gorgeous
banners unfolding in the breeze that came
through the opened windows, bewitched
with the perfume of hanging gardens.
Fountains rising up from Enclosures of
ivory In jets of crystal, to fall in clatter-
ing rain Of diamonds and pearls. Stat
ues of mighty men looking down from
inches in. the wall upon crowns and
shields brought from the subdued en-
pires. Idols of wonderful work standing
on pedestals Of precious stones. Embroid-
cries dropping about the windows and
wrapping pillars of cedar, and drifting on
floor inlaid with ivory and agate. Music,
the thrum of harps, and the
clash of cymba1s, and the blast of trum-
pets in one wave Of transport that went
ripping along the wall and breaking
among the garlands, and pouring down
the corridors and thrilling the souls of a
thousand banqueters. The signal is given,
and the lords and ladies, the mighty men
and women of the land, come around the
table. Pour out the winel Let foam and
bubble kiss the rim! Hoist every one his
cup and drink to the sentiment: 80, King
Belshazzar. live foreverw Bestarred
headband and carcanet of royal beauty
CLEAN to the uplifted chalices, as again
and again and again they are emp
tied. Away with care from
the palace. Tear royal dignity
to tatters. Pour out more winel Give us
more light, wilder music, sweeter per-
fume! Lord shouts to lord, captain ogles
to captain. Goblets clash, decanters rat
tie. There come in the obscene song and
the drunken hiccough.an the slavering lip
and the guffaw Of idiotic laughter, burst