The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1888-12-14
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
An Eloquent Discourse on IS The
Fragrance of the Gospel"
The Robes of Christ RedoIent of Sweet
and Lasting Perfumes that Pene-
trate the Innermost Recesses
of tho Christian Life.

In a recent sermon at the Brooklyn
Tabernacle Rev. T. De Witt Talmage took
for his subject ''The Fragrance Of the
Gospel" His text was:
All Thy garments smell of myrrh, and aIoes,
and cassia out of the ivory palaces.-Psalms
XIV. g.
Among the grand adornments of the
City of Paris is the Church of Notre Dame,
with its great towers, and elaborated rose
windows, and sculpturing of the last judg-
ment; with it's trumpeting angels and ris-
ing dead; its battlements of quarter foil;
its sacristy, with ribbed ceiling and stat
ues of saints. But there was nothing in
all that building which more vividly ap-
pealed to my plain republican tastes than
the costly vestments which laid in oaken
presses-robes that had been embroidered
with gold and been worn by POpes and
ArchbishOps on great occasions. There
was a robe that had been worn by Plus
VII. at the crOwning of the first NapO-
leon. There was also a vestment thathad
been worn at the baptism Of Napoleon II.
AS our guide opened the Oakep presses
and brought out these vestments of fabu-
lOus cost and lifted them up, the fra
GRANGE of the pungent arOmatics in which
they had been preserved filed the place
with a sweetness that was almost Op-
pressive. Nothing that had been done
IN stone more N1N1O1y pT0SSOu Inc
than these things that had been done in
cloth, and embroidery, and perfume.
But to-day l open the drawer of this text,
and look upon the kingly robes of Christ,
and as l lift them, flashing with eternal
jewels, the whole house is filed with the
aroma of these garments, which ''smen of
myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the
ivory palaces"
In my text the King steps forth. His
10 ha a6v
His pomp, and power, and glory Overmas-
| ter the spectator. More brilliant is He
than Queen Vashti, moving amid the Per-
sian Princes; than Marie AntOinette on
the day when Louis XVI. put upon her the
| necklace of eight hundred diamonds; than
Anne Boleyn the day when Henry VIII.
welcomed her to his palace; all beauty
and all pomp forgotten, while we stand in
the presence of this imperial glory.
King of Zion, King of earth, King Of
Heaven, King forever! His garments not
worn out, not st-bedraggled; but ra-
diant, and jeweled, and redOIent. 1t
seems as if they must have been pressed q
hundred years amid the flowers Of Heav-
en-. The wardrobes from which they have
been taken must have been sweet with
clusters of campfire, and frankincense,
and all manner of precious wood. Do you
not inhaIe the Odors? Ay, ay. They
smell of myrrh, and aIOes, and cassia, out
of the ivory palaces.
Your first curiosity is to know why the
robes of Christ are odorous with myrrh.
This was a bright-leafed Abyssinian
plant. 1t was trifOliated. The Greeks,
Egyptians, Romans and Jews bought and
sold it at high price. The first present
that was ever given to Christ was a spr1g
! of myrrh, thrown on His infant bed in
| Bethlehem, and the last gift that Christ
/ ever had was myrrh pressed into the cup
! of His crucifxiOn. The natives would
take stone and bruise the tree, and then
| ct would exude a gum that would saturate
all the ground beneath. This gum was
! ased for purposes of merchandise. One
/ piece of it, no larger than a chestnut,
/ would whelm a whole room with OdOrs.
/ 1t was put in closets, in chests, in drawers,
! in rooms, and its perfume adhered almost
! interminably to any thing that was any
! where near it. So when in my text read
/ that Christ's garments smell of myrrh, 1
/ Immediately conclude the exquisite sweet
/ ness of Jesus. know that to many He is
! only like any historical person, another
| John Howard, another philanthropic
/ Oberlin, another Confucius, a grand
! subject for painting, heroic
! theme for a poem, beautiful form
| for statue, but to those who have heard
| His voice, and felt His pardon, and
received His benediction, He is music, and
! light, and warmth, and thrill, and eternal
! fragrance. Sweet as a friend sticking to
! you when all else betray. Lifting you up
! while others try to push you down. Not
SO much like morning glories, that bloom
! only when the sun is coming up, nor like
''fOur o'clOck's," that bloom only when
| the sun is going down, hut like myrrh,
! perpetually arOmatic-the same morning,
noon and night-yesterday, to-day, for
ever. 1t seems as if we can not wear Him
! out We put on Him all our burdens, and
aflict Him with our griefs, and set Him
! foremost in all our battles, and yet He is
ready to lift, and to sympathize and to
help. We have so imposed upon Him that
one would think in eternal afrOnt He
would quit our soul; and yet to-day He ad-
dresses us with the same tenderness,
dawns upon US with the same smile, pities
us with the same compassion.
There is no name like His for US. 1t is
more Imperial than C8esar's, more musical
than Beethoven's, more conquering than
/ CharIemagne's, more eloquent than
CicerO's. 1t throbs with all life. 1t weeps
with all pathos. 1t groans with all pain.
It stoOps with all cOndescension. 1t
breathes with all perfume. Who like
| Jesus to set a broken bone, to pity home
less orphan, to nurse a sick man, to take a
prOdigal back without any sco1ding, to
| illumine a cemetery all plowed with
! graves, to make a queen unto God out OF
/
tears of human sorrow in a IachrymatOry
| that shall never be broken? Who has such
| an eve to see our need, such a lip to kiss
/ away our nOrrOw, such a hand TO snatch
US out Of tie fire, such a foot to trample
our enemies, such heart to embrace all
our necessities 1 struggle for some
1 metaphor with which to express Him.
! He is not Iike the bursting forth Of full
| orchestra; that is too loud. He Is not
| like the sea when Iashed to rage
! by the tempest; that Is too boisterous.
| He is not like the mountain, its brow
wreathed with the lightnings; that Is too
solitary. Give Us a softer type, gentler
comparison. we have seemed to see Him
with our eyes, and to hear Him with our
ears, and to touch Him with our hand.
| Oh, that to-day He might appear to some
one Of our FIVE senses! Ay, the nOstril
shall discover His presence. He comes
/ upon us like spice gales from Heaven.
| Yea, His garments smell Of pungent, last
ing and all-pervasive myrrh.
Oh, that you all knew His sweetness.
How soon you would turn from your
novels. If the philosopher leaped out of
his bath in a frenzy Of joy, and clapped
his hands, and rushed through the streets,
because he had found the solution Of q
mathematical problem, how viii you feel
leaping from the fountain Of a Saviour's
mercy and pardon, washed clean, and
made white as snow, when the question
has been solved 'tHow can my soul be
savedg" Naked, bitten, storm
lashed soul, let Jesus this hour throw
around thee the garments that smell OF
myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out Of the
ivory places"
Your second curiosity is 10 know why
the robes Of Jesus are odOFous with aloes
There is some difference Of opinion about
where these aloes grow, what is the colon