Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-04-05

ND so ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IT,, Is
= dead city Is more suggestive than iv-
sg city-past Rome than present Rome
ruins rather than newly frescoei cathedral
But the best time to visit ruin is by moon
light The Coliseum is far more fascinating
to the traveller after suudown than before
You may stand by daylight amid tbs monas.
tic ruins Of Melrose Abbey, and study
shafted oriel and rosettcd stone AMI nullion,
but they throw their strongest witrheTy by
moonlight Some Of you remember what
the enchanter of Scotland said in the "Lay
Of tho Last MINSTREL
Wouldsi thou view fair Melrose Alright
Go visit It By the pale moonlight
Washington Irving describes the Anda-
lusian moonlight upon the ALEXANDRA ruins
as amounting to su onchantme mt. My text
presents you Jerusalem in ruins. The tower
rtown. The gates down. The walls down.
Everything down. Nehemiah on horseback,
by moonlight looking upon the ruins. While
Ne rides, there are some friends on foot going
sith him, for they DO not want tbs many
'>orses to disturb the suspicious OF
.he people These psopls do no know
the secret of Nehemial's heart but they are
going as a sort Of body guard. | hear the
hckiDg hoof of the horse on which Neho-
hiah rides, as he guides it this way and that
INTO this gats and out of that, winding
through that gate amid tie debris OF once
gSeat Jerusalem Now the horse comes 10
cannot pass. Now he SHES Off at tho charred
timbers Now he comes along where the wa
ter under the moonlight flashes from tue
Lsouth of tho brazen dragon after which the
gate was named. Heavy hearted Nehemiah!
siiding in and cut, now by his old home
desolated, now by the defacel temple, nov
amid the scars Of the city that had gone
down under battering ram and confagra-
ton. The escorting party knows not what
nehemiah means. Is he getting crazyl Have
bis own personal sorrows, added to the sor
rows OF the nftion, unbalanced his intellectl
Still the midnight exploration goes on.
Nehemiah OH horseback rides through the
fish gate, by she tower Of the furnaces, by
the Kings pool, by the dragon well, in and
out, in and ont, until the midnight ride is
completed, and Nehemiah dismounts 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"
fsWhat, NeheLIiah, have you any moneys"
NO" Have you any kingly Gu
quencsf MOI Yet that nidnic ht, moon.
Sight ride of nehemiah resulted in the glori.
GUS rebuilding OF the city of Jerusalem, The
people knew MOI how the thing was TO be
done, but with great enthusiasm they cried
,Slt: LET US rise up now and build the city,"
Some people laughed and said it could not be
zone Some people were nfuriate and Of
fered physical violence, saying the
thing should not be done. But the
en- the wall, trowe in one hand
sword in the other, until the work was
gloriously completed At that very time, in
Greece. Xenophon was writing a history,
and Plato was making philosophy, and
Dcmosthenes was rafting his rhetorical
thunder, but all of them together did not Go
SO much for the world as this midnight
moonlight ride Of praying, courageous, home
sick, close.mouthed Nehemiah.
My subject first impresses me with the idea
what an intense thing is church affection
Seize the bride of that horse and stop Nehe.
miah. Why are you risking your life here
In tho ightl Your horse will stumble over
these ruins and fall on you Stop this use
will not stop. He at last tells us the whole
story, Tic let's us know he was an exile in
far distant land, and he was servant, a cup
bearer in the palace Of Artaxerxes Longi.
manus, and one day, while he was handing
the cup Of wine to the King, the King said
70 him: What is the matter with you9 You
are not sick. know you must have some
great trouble. What is the matter with
your Then he told the King how that be-
loved Jerusalem was broken down.
how that his fathers tomb had
been desecrated; how that the Temple had
been dishonored and defaced; how that the
walls were scattered and broken. "Well,n
Jays King Artaxerxes, "what do you wants"
.Well," said the cup-bearor Nehemiah,
" want to go hone. l want to fix up
the grave of my father. I want to re-
store tho beauty Of the Temple l want
to rebuild the masonry Of the city wall.
Besides, | want passports so that l shall
not be hindered in my journey. And be-
sides that as you will find in the context,
~ want an order on the man who keeps your
forest for just so much timber as l may need
for the rebuilding of the city" How long
ebo1 ha tLo
time Of absence is arranged In hot
haste this seeming .adrenturer comes
to Jerusalem, and in my text we
find him on horseback, in the midnight,
riding around the ruins 1t is through the
spectaces of this scene that We discover the
ardent attachment OF Nehemiah for sacred
Jerusalem, which in ell ages has been
the type OF the church of God, our
Jerusalem, which we love Just as much
as Nehemiah loved his Jerusalem.
The fact is that you love the church of God
80 much that there is no spot on earth so
sacred, unless il is your own fireside. The
church has been to you 81 much comfort and
illumination that there is nothing that
makes you SO lf2te as to have IL Ia Ikea
against; If there have been times when you
have been carried into captivity by
sickness, you longed for tie church,
our holy jerusalem just as much as
Nehemiah longed for his jerusalem, aud the
first day you came out you came to ths
house of the Lord. When the Temple was
In ruins as ours was years ago, Iike Eehe-
miah, you walked around aud looked ct it
and in the moonlight you stood listening II
you could not hsar the voice OF the dead
organ, the psalm Of the expired Sab.
baths. What Jerusalem was to Nehe
miah the church of God is to you.
Sksptics and infllels may scolf at the church
as an obsolete affair, as a relic Of the dark
ages, as convention OF goody goody people,
but all the impression they have ever made
on your mind against tho church Of God IL
absolutely nothing. You would mako more
sacrifices saec for it to-day, than for any
full you would die in its defence
You can take the words of the kingly poet
as he said: 'lf forget thee, 0 Jer1satsm
let my right hand forgot her cunning" You
understand in your own experiences the
psthos, the homesiclIness, the courage, the
holy enthusiasm OF Nehemiah in his mid
night, moonlight ride around the ruins Of
his beloved jerusalem.
again, my text impressss ma with the fact
tnat before reconstruction there must ba an
exploration OF ruins. Why was not Nehe.
man asleep under the coversl Why vas not
Dis horse stabbed in tho mlngbtl Let the
police of tho city arrest this midnight rider
out on some mischief No Nehemiah
IS going to rebuild the city, and
no is makin- the preliminary aY.
ploration. In this gate, on: that gate,
C0SV WSov, SOAVu All
the ruins. The ruins must be explored be.
fore tho work OF reconjtruction can begin.
The reason that SO many people in this
day, apparently converted, do not stay
converted is becaus, thay did not first
explore the ruins of their own heart The
reason that there are so many profesjsi
Christisns who in this day lie and forge
and steal, and commit adultery, and go to
the penitentiary. Is because they first do not
learn the ruin oftheir own heart. They have
not found out that "ths heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked"
They had an idea that they were almost right,
and they built religion as sort OF extension
tnI