The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-03-29
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
''T,he Moonlight Ride'' of Nehemiah
Discoursed Upon.
Affection for the Church Among True
WorshlpPers Only Second to that for
Home-Ehe Satisfying IRAu-
snce OF Christian Labor.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in a recent
sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, took
for his subject 1.-THE Moonlight Ride" of
Nehemiah. His text was:
Then 1 went up in the night by the brook and
viewed the wall and turned back and entered
by the gate Of the valley, and so returned
Nehemiah, H., IS.
A dead city is more suggestive than q
living One-past Rome than living Rome
ruins rather than newly-frescoed ca
thedral. But the best time to visit ruin
is by moonlight. The Coliseum is far
more fascinating to the traveller after
shutdown than before. You may stand by
daylight amid the mOnastic ruins Of Mel
rose Abbey, and study shafted Oriel and
rosetted stone and mullion, but they
throw their strongest witchery by moon
light. Some of you remember what the
enchanter Of Scotland said in the LAY of
the Last MINSTREL"
Wouldst thou view fair Melrose Alright,
Go visit 1t by the pale moonlight.
Washington Irving describes the Anda-
lusian moonlight upon the Alhambra
ruins as amounting TO enchantment. My
text presents you Jerusalem in ruins.
The tower down. The gates down. The
walls down. Every thing down. Nehe-
miah on horseback, by moonlight looking
upon the ruins. While he rides, there
are some friends on fO0s going with him,
for they do not want the many horses to
disturb the suspicious Of the people.
These people do not know the secret Of
Nehemiah's heart, but they are going as a
sort OF body guard. 1 hear the click
ing hoOfs Of the horse on which
Nehemiah rides he guides 1t this
way and that, into this gate and out
OF that, winding through that gate
amid the debris of once great Je-
rusalem. Now the horse comes to q
dead halt at the tumbled masonry where
he can not pass. Now he SHES of at the
charred timbers. Now he comes along
where the water under the moonlight
flashes from the mouth Of the brazen
dragon after which the gate was named.
Heavy hearted Nehemiah riding in and
out, now by his old home desOlated, now
by the defaced temple, now amid the
scars of the city that had gone down
under battering ram and cOnfagrattOn.
The escOrting party knows not what
Nehemiah means. Is he getting crazyY
Have his ow~ personal sorrows, added to
the sorrOws v- the nation, unbalanced his
intellect?
Still the midnight exploration goes on.
Nehemiah on horseback rides through the
fish gate, by the tower of the furnaces,
by the Kings pool, by the dragon well, in
and out, in and out, until the midnight
ride is completed, and Nehemiah dis
mounts from his horse, and to the amazed
and COMPOUNDED and incredulous body
/ guard declares the dead secret Of his heart
| when he says: "Come, now, let US build
! Jerusalem" ''IVhat, Nehemiah, have you
/ any money!" "No." "Have you any
/ kingly authority" "No." "Have you
any eloauence?' "No." Yet that mid
night, moonlight ride of Nehemiah re-
suited in the glorious rebuilding OF the
\ City of Jerusalem. The people knew not
/ how the thing was to be done, but
| with great enthusiasm they cried out
LET us rise up now and build the CITY,"
Some people laughed and said it could not
be done. Some people were infuriate
and offered physical violence, saying the
thing should not be done. But the work.
| men went right on, standing on the wall
| trowel in one hand, sword in the other
/ until the work was glOriOusly completed
At that very time, in Greece, XenOphOI
was writing a history; and Plato wal
making philosophy, and Demosthenes wa
rafting his rhetorical thunder, but all o
them together did not do so much for tn,
world as this midnight, moonlight ride o
praying, courageous, hOmesick, close
mOuthed Nehemiah.
Ny subject first impresses me with tn,
idea what an intense thing is church af
lection. Seize the bride of that horse anC
stop Nehemiah. Why are you riskinl
your life here in the night? Your hOrs,
will stumble over these ruins and fall OF
you. Stop this useless exposure of you
life. No; Nehemiah will not stop. He a
last tells us the whole story. He let's u
know he was an exile in a far distant land
and he was a servant, a cup bearer in tn
palace of ArtaxerTes LOngimaRus, ant
one day, while he was handing the cul
OF wine to the King, the King said Il
him: "What is the matter witt
you? You are not sick. 1 know yO1
must have some great trouble. What Il
the matter with you" Then he told tn
King how that beloved Jerusalem wa
broken down; how that his fathers toni
had been desecrated; how that the tenn
pie had been dishOnOred and defaced
how that the walls were scattered and
broken. ''Well, +" says King Artaxerxes
''what do you wanty" ''Well," said tn,
cup bearer Nehemiah, II want to e
home. / want to fix up the grave of m!
father. l want to restore the beauty o
the temple. want to rebuild the masonry
of the city wall. Besides, 1 want pass
ports so that 1 shall not be hindereC
in my journey. And besides that,
as you will find in the context
81 want an order on the man whC
keeps your forest for just so much timbe
as may need for the rebuilding Of tn,
city" "How long shall you be gOneP
said the King. The time of absence is ar
ranged. In hot haste this seeming ad-
Venturer comes to Jerusalem, and in my
text we find him on horseback, in the
midnight, riding around the ruins. 1t il
through the spectaoles of this scene thai
we discover the ardent attachment o.
| Nehemiah for sacred Jerusalem, which IL
all ages has been the type Of the Churcl
OF God, our Jerusalem, which we love jus
as much as Nehemiah loved his Jerusa.
lem.
The fact is that you love the Church o
God so much that there is no spot on eartl
so sacred, unless 1t is your own Preside
The church has been to you so much com
fort and illumination that there is nothing
that makes you so irate as to have 1t talket
against If there have been times wheI
you h6ve been carried into captivity b.
sickness, you longed for the church, Oul
holy Jerusalem, just as much as Nehe
miah longed for his Jerusalem, and tn
6rst day you came out you came TO the
house Of the Lord. When the temple
was in ruins, as ours was years ago, Xix
Nehemiah, you walked around and looked
at it. and in the moonlight yol
the voice OF the dead organ, the
psalm of the expired sabbaths
What Jerusalem was to Nehemiah
the Church of God is to you. Skeptc
and infldels may scof at the Church as al
obsolete affair, as relic of the darl
| ages, as a convention of gOody- goodl
people, but all the impression they havt
ever made on your mind against tn,
| Church OF God is absolutely nothing
You would make more sacrifices for it to
day than for any other institution, and i
1t were needful you would die in its de
Tense. You can take the words OF tn,
kingly poet as he said: IF l forget thee
. Jerusalem, let my right hand forget he