Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-10-18
TALMAGES SERMON.
Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
EubtccI "Ehe Coming Worlds
Fair; Shall IL he Made a.
EsieSsiuE Of q Cursc?''

scale, for county or city, for one nation or for
all nations My text brings us 20 the fairs ol
ancient Tyre, city that is now extinct
Part of the city was on an island, and part
on the mainland Alexander, the conquerer,
was much embarrassed when he found ~
much of the city was on an island, for
he had no ships But his military genius
was not TO be baked Having marched
his army to the beach, he ordered them &c
tear up the city on the mainland and throw
il into the water and build causeway two
hundred feet wide to the island. So they
took that part of the city which was on the
mainland and with it built a causeway of
timber and brick and stone, on which his
army marched to the capture of that part oi
the CITY which was on the island, as though
a hostile army should put Brooklyn into the
East River, and over it march to the capture
of New York That Tyrian causeway
of ruins which Alexander's army
built, is still there, and by al
luvial deposits has permanently united
the island to the mainland, so that it
is no longer an island but promontory.
The sand, the greatest of all undertakers for
buIying cities, having covered up for the
most part Baalbec and Palmyra and Thebes
and Memphis and Carthage and Babylon and
Luxor and Jericho, the sand, so small and
yet so mighty, is now gradually giving rites
of sepulture to what was left of Tyre. But,
oh. what a magnificent city it once was!
Mistress Of the sea! Queen of international
commerce.. All nations casting their crowns
at her feet! Where we have i'll our sailing
vessels benches of wood, she has benches of
ivory. Where we have for our masts of
ships sails of coarse canvas, she had sails of
richest embroidery.
The chapter from which my text is taken
after enumerating the richest countries in
all the world says of Tyre: "They traded in
thy fairs" Look in upon worlds fair at
Tyre Ezekiel leads us through one depart
ment and it is horse fair Under fed and
over driven for ages, the horses of to-day
give YOU no idea of the splendid animals
which, rearing and plunging and snorting
and neighing, were brought down over the
plank of the ships and led into the worlds
fair at Tyre until Ezekiel, who was a min
lister of religion and not supposed to
know much about horses cried out in
admiration: They of the house of Togar-
nah traded in thy fairs with horses" Here
in another department of that worlds fair
at Tyre led on by Ezekiel the prophet we
find everything all ablaze with precious
stones Like petrified snow are the corals;
like fragments of fallen sky are the sapphires;
and here is agate a-blush with all colors.
What is that aroma we inhale? 1t is from
chests of cedar which we open, and find
them filed with all styles of fabric But the
aromatics increase as we pass down this lane
Of enchantnent, and here are cassia and
frankincense and balm. Led on by
Ezekiel the prophet, we come to an
agricultural fair with display
of wheat from Minnith amp
Pannag, rich as that Of our modern Da-
kota or Michigan. And here is a mineral
ogical fair, with specimens of iron and silver
and tin and lead and gold. But halt, for
here is purple, Tyrian purple, all tints and
shades, deep almost unto the black and
bright almost unto the blue; waiting for
kings and queens to order it made into robes
for coronation day; purple not like that
which is now made from the Orchilla weed,
but the extinct purple, the lost purple, which
the ancients knew how to make out of the gas
teHoDod mOllusks of the Mediterranean. Oh,
lool; at those casks of wine from Helbonl
See those snow banks of wool from the back
Of sheep that once pastured in Gilead. Oh,
the bewildering riches and variety of that
worlds fair at Tyre!
But the world has copied these Bible
mentioned fairs in all succeeding ages
and it has had its Louis the Sixth fair at
Dagobert, and Henry the First fair on
st. Bar lholomew's Day, and Hungarian
fairs at Pesth, aud Easter fairs at
Leipsic, and tho Scotch fairs at Perth
bright was the day when l was at one
Of them) and afterward came the Lon
don worlds fair, and the New York
worlds fair, and the Vienna worlds
fair, and the Partisan worlds fair, and
1t has been decided that in commemo-
ration of the discovery of America in
1892, there shall be held in this coun-
try in 1899 a worlds fair that shall eclipse
all preceding national expositions. | say,
God speed the movement Surely the event
commemorated is worthy of all the architec-
ture and music and pyrotechnics and elc-
quent and stupendous planning and none
tary expenditure and congressional appro-
patriot has ever dreamed Of Was any voy-
age that the world ever heard of crowned
with such an arrival as that Of Columbus
and his men? After they had been encouraged
for the last few days by fight of land birds and
floating branches Of red berries, and while
Columbus was down in the cabin studying
the sea chart Martin Pinzon, standing on
deck and looking to the southwest, cried:
Land Land Land ~ And "Gloria in
Exceisis'' was sung in raining tears on all the
three ships of expedition. Most appro-
pirate and patriotic and Christian will
be a commemorative worlds fair in
1892. Leaving to others the discussion as
to the site of such exposition-and l won.
der not that some five or six of our cities are
struggling to have it, for it will give to any
city to which il is as signed an impulse of
prosperity for a hundred years. say, leav-
Ing to Others the selection of the particular
locality to be thus honored, l want to say
some things from the point of Christian
patriotism which ought to be said, and the
earlier the better, that we set thousands of
people talking in the right direction, and
that viii make healthful public opinion |
beg you to consider praYerfully what | feel
called upon of God as an American citizen
and as preacher of righteousness to utter.
Ny first suggestion is that it is not WISE
as certainly it is not Christian, to continue
this wide and persistent attempt Of Ameti-
can cities to belittle and deprecate other
cities 1t has been going on for years, but
now the spirit seems to eliminate in this dis
cussion as to where the Worlds Fair shall be
held, style of discussion which has tenden-
cy to injure the success of the fair as great
moral and patriotic enterprise, after the To-
cality has been decided upon. There
is such a thing as healthful rivalry
between cities but you will bear me out in
saying that there can be no good to come
from the uncanny things said about each
other by New York and Chicago, by Chicago
and st. Louis by st, Paul and Minneapolis, by
Tacoma and Seattle, and all through the
States by almost every two proximate cities.
All cities, like individuals, have their virtues
and their vices. All our American cit
les should be our exultation. What
churches! What public libraries! What
asyluns of mercy! What academies
of music What mighty men in
law and medicine and art and scholarship
What schools and colleges and universities
What women radiant and gracious and an
improvement on all the generations of women
since Eve! What philanthropists who dc
not feel satisfied with their own charities
until they get into the hundreds of thousands
and the millionsl What Goods acres' for
the dead, gardens of beauty and palaces OF
marble for those who sleep the last sleep
Now stop your SANDER of American cities.
DO you say they are the centres of crime
and political corruption? Please adj
init the fact that they are centers Of intelli.
gence and generosity and the mightiest pa
irons of architecture and sculpture and paint
ing and music and reservoirs of religious in.
fiuenco for all the continent 1t will be well
for the country districts to cease talking