The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-10-23
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DlVTNE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: 'The Coming Worlds Fair;
Shall it be Made Blessing or
q Curse?"

TEXT: "They traded in thy fairs.
hel xvii. IL.
Fairs may be for the sale Of goods or for the
exhibition Of goods on small scale or large
scale, for county or city, for one nation or for
ancient Tyre, a 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 80
much of tho 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 to
tear up the city on the mainland and throw
it into the water and build a causeway two
hundred feet wide to the island. So they
took that part of the city which was on the
timber and brick and stone, on which his
army marched to the capture of that part OF
the city which was on the island, as though
q 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 Ale1ander,s army
built, is still there and by al;
the island to the mainland, so that it
is no longer an island but promontory.
The sand, the greatest Of all undertakers for
burying cities, having covered up for the
most part Baalbec and Palmyra and Thsbes
and Memphis and Carthage and Babylon and
Luxor and Jericho, the sand, so small and
ret SO mighty, is now gradually giving rites
of sepulture to what was left Of Tyre. But,
oh, what q magnificent city it once was!
Mistress Of the sea! Queen of international
commerce. All nations casting their crowns
at her feet! Where we have in our sailing
vessels benches of wood, she has benches OF
houa
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 a worlds fair at
Tyre. Ezekiel leads us through one depart
nent ard 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 snornng
and neighing, were brought down over the
plank Of the ships and led into the worlds
fair at Tyre until Ezekiel, who was min
ister 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
st Tyre, led on by Ezekiel the prophet, we
Snd 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 filled with all styles of fabric. But the
aromatics increase as we pass down this lane
ne enchantment and here are cassia and
irankincense and balm. Led on by
Ezekiel the prophet, we come to an.
agricultural fair with display
II wheat from Minnith amp
Pannag, rich as that Of our modern Da-
kota or Michigan. And here is mineral
.gicaI fair, with specimens of iron and silver
here is purple, Tyrian purple, all tints and
;hades deep almost unto the black and
Alright almost unto the blue; waiting for
kings and queens to order it made into robes
Tor coronation day; purple not like that
which is now made from the Orchllla weed,
5nt the extinct purple, the lost purple. which
he ancients knew how to make out Of the gas
ssropod mollusks of the Mediterranean. Oh,
noE at those casks of wine from Helbon!
See those snow banks of wool from the back
II sheep that once pastured in Gilead: Oh,
he bewildering riches and variety OF that
worlds fair at Tyre!
But the world has copied these Bible
mentioned fairs in all succeeding ages
md it has had its Louis the Sixth fair at
Dagobert, and Henry the First fair on
St. Bartholomew's Day, and Hungarian
airs at Pesth, and Easter fairs at
Ieipsic, and the Scotch fairs at Perth
bright was the day when 1 was at one
Il them), and afterward came the Lon
ION worlds fair, and the New York
yorld's fair, and the Vienna worlds
air, and the Partisan worlds fair, and
& has been decided that, in commemo-
ration of the discovery Of America In
i492. there shall be held in this coun-
Nv in 1892 worlds fair that shall eclipse
III preceding national e1positions. I say,
3od speed the movement! Surely the event
.ommemorated is worthy of all the architec-
a1re and music and pyrotechnics and elo-
,uent and stupendous planning and none
ary expenditure and congressional appro-
oriations which the most sanguine Christian
,atriot has ever dreamed Of. Was any voy-
Ige that the world ever heard OF crowned
sith such an arrival as that Of Columbus
md his men? After they had been encouraged
.or the last few days by flight of land birds and
ioatine branches of red berries, and while
Columbus was down in the cabin studying
he sea chart, Martin Pinzon, standing on
3eck and looking to the southwest, cried:
LAND! Land Land p And "Gloria in
s1celsisn was sung in raining tears on all the
hree ships Of expedition. Most appro-
riate and patriotic and Christian will
be q commemorative worlds fair In
1892. Leaving to others the discussion as
20 the site of such exposition-and won
Ter not that some five or six of our clues are
struggling to haveit, for it will give TO any
ity to which it is as signed an impulse or
rosperity for hundred years. say, leaV-
no to others the selection of the particular
ocality to be thus honored, l want to say
pme things from the point Of Christian
,atriotism which ought to be said, and the
.arlier the bettey, that We get thousands OF
people talking in the right direction, and
hat will make healthful public opinion. l
heg YOU to consider praTerfully what feel
.sIed upon of God as an American citizen
and as apreacher of Righteousness to utter.
My first suggestion is that it is not wise,
Is certainly it is not Christian, to continue
his wide and persistent attempt Of Ameri-
>an cities to belittle and deprecate other
titles. It has been going on for years, but
aow the spirit seems to culminate in thus dis
-ussion as to where the w orld's Fair shall be
held, astyle of discussion which has tenden-
y to injure the success Of the fair as great
moral and patriotic enterprise, after the 10
.ality has been decided upon. There
S such 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
ether 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 pro1imate cities.
All cities, like individuals, have their virtues
and their vices. All our American cit
YES should be our exultation. What
lhnrches! What public libraries! What
asylums 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
Fronrova,oapt ON all tha panera tionS of women