The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-03-27
A RIDE BY MOONLIGHT.
SOME TIMELY LESSONS BY TALMAes.
The Preacher Describes Nehemiah's Mid
night Ride Around About Destroyed
Jerusalem-A Sermon of Suggestion
and Helpfulness, Etc.

morning had no effect upon the attend
ance at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. The
edifice was crowded before the services
were begun. The organ solo OF the morn
ing was P. s. Gilmore's new ballad, en-
titled ireland to England" which Prof.
Henry Eyre Browne played with varia-
tons. The Rev. DR.. Talmage preached
from the story of Nehemiah and the re-
building of Jerusalem, and here are some
of the lessons which he drew from it:
My subject, in the first place, impresses
me with the intensity of church affection.
Take hold of the bride of that horse and
stop il, and make Nehemiah dismount.
Do not let him be riding here amid the
miasma of the night, and when the
providers of the night may take his life.
Beside that, his horse may stumble and
fall upon him. Why not stop him in this
ride, this midnight ride? Because you
can not stop him. He started to explore
the city before rebuilding it, and he is
going on with the exploration, and he is
going on with the rebuilding, and no
power on earth or in hell can stop him.
And then he tells the story himself, how
that he was an exile, and he was a
cup-bearer, and one day while he was
Offering a cup of wine to Artaxerxes Long
imanus, the king said to him: what Is
the matter with you? You haven't
been sick, have you? You must have
some great trouble on your mind. What
is the matter with you" Then Nehemiah
told him how that his native Jerusalem
had been torn down. and the temple was
IN the dust, and his fathers grave had
been sacrileged and ali that lovely place
had been DESTROYED "Well, said the
king, what do you want?" Nehemiah
replied: II want to 90 home. / want to
rebuild that temple. / want to lift up
those affairs l want to make right my
fathers dishonored grave; and, more than
that, | want you to give me passports so |
shall not be hindered in my journey and,
more than that, | want you TO give me an
order on the man who owns your forests
10 let me have enough timber to recon-
struct the city" The king said to him:
How long do you want to be absent"
And the time of absence was arranged.
And then this seeming adventurer,
Nehemiah, started for Jerusalem. He
came to the city, got on horse and
rode amid the ruins, and he carried
on that exploration and he rebuilded the
city. Right through that spectacle see
his love for ancient Jerusalem, which In
all following ages has been glorious type
OF the church of God, which is just as
dear to us as Jerusalem was to Nehemiah.
There are many here to-day to whom the
church of God has done so much good
that they are more attached to it than to
any place on earth except their own fire.
side, 1t has been to you such reinforce
ment and such illumination and such COM
fort that If need be you would fight for it
aye, If the time came, you would die for
it. If at any time from sickness you have
been carried into captivity from the house
OF God, you have lOnged for it as Nehe-
miah longed for Jerusalem. Skeptics and
Infidels may scof at the church and
call it an obsolete affair and relic OF the
dark ages, and a convention OF gOOdy-
goody people; it is to you a place so sacred
that nothing could be more sacred. You
could this day take the words of the
kingly poet and say: off forget thee, oh
Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her
cunning" You understand in your own
experience the pathos. the homesickneSs,
the holy enthusiasm OF Nehemiah riding
around about the ruins of his beloved
Jerusalem. l know people say the church
Is collection of hypOcrites, but the peO-
pie who say that, when diphtheria sweeps
through their household for whom do
they send? When the children are dead
whom do they send Tor? The officers of
the law? The police? The judges of the
courts? No; they send for church of
ficers. And If they want place In which
to hold the last service over the departed
and have prayer said before they move
on to the tomb, where do they seek to get
the room? In the academy of music
In the theater? In the pOstotfice? In
some hotel? No; in the church. And il
they want to sing a song on the sad occa-
sion, what song shall it be2 "Marseilles
Hymn ?" "God Save the Queen?" Or orr
own national air? No They say: "Give
us one of the church songs with which we
sang our good old mother into the last
Sleep" Or, they say, "Give us one OF the
Sunday-school songs, the one that was
sung the last Sunday afternoon the little
darling was out before our hearts broke"
The church of God to-day, dear to us-it
is the dearest institution on earth 1t
proposes more than any other institution
and is accomplishing more. But my sub
lect also demonstrates the fact that there
must be an exploration of ruins before
there can be any upbuilding Why is not
Nehemiah asleep under the covers? Why
is not that horse stabbed in the darkness?
Why did not the police come out and ar
rest this man, this midnight rider who
may be out on some mischief? No, he is
going to rebuild the city-Nehemiah
Island be is going through the
preliminary exploration. And be-
fore the exploration goes on in
our own hearts, there can be no
rebuilding, there can be no putting up of
the temple of divine grace. Why is it in
our time that people who profess to be
converted after awhile sonnet; mes turn out
not to have been converted at all2 1t is
because they tried to build a religion on
the debris of an unregenerate nature.
They never explored the ruin Of their own
heart. The reason that so many probes
sOrs OF religion lie and steal and forge and
commit adultery and 90 to the peniten-
tiary is because they never at the start, in
the midnight of conviction, explored the
ruin of their own heart You tell me that
someone is a member of the church. 1t
does not impress me at all. simply want
10 know whether he was converted in the
old-fashioned way, OF in the new-fashioned
way. LII he was converted in the old
fashioned way, he will stand. If he was
converted in the new-fash ioned way, he
viii 90 down under the first northeast
storm OF temptation. A man must
be converted in the old-iash-
toned way. That is, in John
Bunyan's way, John Wesley's way, John
Calvin's way, PauPs way, Christ's way,
Gods way. Exploration of the ruins be-
fore there can be the putting up OF the
temple. A dentist said TO me: "Does that
hurt?" said: "Of course it hurts. 1t is